I Knew Ralph Lauren When
I knew Ralph Lauren when he worked for Rivitz. We had a brief parallel period. At the same time Ralph started his tie company I started my tie company, Chipp2. We both found, independently of each other, an interesting embroidered Irish linen cloth that we purchased from a company named Hamilton Adams. We were both having our ties made by the same contracter named Greenburg. Ralph’s signature was he made his ties wider than was the standard width at the time. Because of the size of the embroidered figures I had Mr. Greenburg cut my linen ties wider than our other ties. So we both had the same product- Wheel and Anchors embroidered on linen cut wider by Greenburg. We sold our ties retail for $7.50. Ralph sold his ties to Bloomingdales for $7.50 and Bloomingdales sold them for $15.00. Bloomingdales was at their pinnacale of being the “in” store. I lived on 57th Street 2 blocks from Bloomingdales. One Thursday evening Ralph and I met and walked to Bloomingdales to visit the men’s department and see what was hapening. In the brief time we were there they sold more of his ties at $15 than we would sell in a month or two at $7.50- a lesson in the importance of traffic and of the part women play in menswear sales. Ralph Lauren and I started even. If the measure of success is one’s bank account, we are now light years apart.
May 8th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
At least your name isn’t Lifschitz. Also, your suits and jackets are far better. Ralph copied the look created by Chipp et al.