Love of cars translates into fashion

A model presents a creation from Ralph Lauren Fall 2017 Collection. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Born in the Bronx, New York, the 77-year-old Lauren (who changed his last name from Lifshitz) says he always had his own style as a young boy.

"When I was growing up, most of my friends were wearing motorcycle jackets, rock 'n' roll was very popular, but I was always very classic, preppy and that was unusual for the time," he recalls.

In his youth, he was good at basketball and baseball and was inspired by sports.

"And I think I was always watching movies. You know, when you are a young person, you don't have the money to travel and go out. When you are growing up, movies, books and magazines are very inspiring and a very important time for that," he says.

"So you've got a picture of the world, a picture of things that you never saw. I never saw these cars. I never saw some of the clothes. I was inspired by what I saw, inspired by John F. Kennedy, some of the American political figures, but he (Kennedy) was always very important to us in many ways."

Lauren's first car was a Morgan, an English sports car. It's a 1960s car, but looks like a 1930s car, and "has no age". It's a rustic, rugged car. And he still drives it with his family.

He says he drives his cars made in the 1930s as well as now and enjoys both.

As a designer who has had many firsts－among them, the first American designer to win Coty Awards for both menswear and womenswear in the same year and the first designer to have an in-store boutique in Bloomingdale's department store－Lauren knows what he wants.

"I have a public company. I have a company that I think 50 years in fashion industry in America is a major thing, and I think it's constantly renewing myself, constantly being tuned, but knowing who we are, knowing what the direction is, knowing what our country is about, what the world is about," he says.

"And the world is very small, so whether it's China, America or England, very strong similarity in taste and ideas."