Design Icon Ralph Lauren Takes Us Inside His Stylish Homes

By Ralph Lauren

Reprinted with permission © Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living, Rizzoli New York, 2023

What I do is about living. It’s about living the best life you can and enjoying the fullness of the life around you — from what you wear to the way you live to the way you love.

Our homes are a canvas for living. Whether we live in the city, the country, on a farm, at the beach, in a penthouse or cabin, each is home and tells our story. And just as we dress differently in each of these places, we want to live differently as well.

My homes have always offered refuge, warmth and comfort for my family and me. My recent book celebrates those homes and the collections they’ve inspired since the first Ralph Lauren Home Collection in 1983. Just like my collections for men and women, my home collections have traveled far beyond the lifestyles and borders of America. They are inspired by the way people live out their dreams all over the world.

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New York City

I remember the first time I visited the Guggenheim. Walking into that white, soaring space away from the noise of the city had a powerful effect on me. When Ricky and I found our apartment on Fifth Avenue, not far from the museum, I had that feeling in mind. We wanted it to feel more like a loft, totally open and clean, and with a focus on city views. I wanted a downtown loft, but uptown on Fifth Avenue.

This was in some ways our real first home. I wasn’t looking for glamour or making an impression. It was just the simple, almost primitive desire to have a kind of freedom — room for our three children to race around and room to take stock of ourselves and to discover who we really were and what we wanted.

Personally, I needed that open space and serenity. That’s why we had the apartment done all in white — white lacquer tables, white canvas sofas — with natural bamboo armchairs, polished-wood floors and lots of plants. It was such a relief to come back to after a long day of looking at endless swatches, patterns and colors. Part of that peacefulness came from the views of the sky and the Central Park Reservoir and watching the lights coming on all over Manhattan at the end of the day.

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Montauk

I think I was 25 when I first came out to the Hamptons. Even when I didn’t have a house, I’d drive out. It was so beautiful. I wanted to be able to feel the fresh air and wind. I wanted a home where I could feel simplicity and peace.

After Ricky and I were married and had our first child, Andrew, we rented a house in Southampton — a faded red barn that sat in a big meadow. It was the perfect place for a young family. A couple summers later, we moved to Amagansett. By then, Andrew had a younger brother, David, and the two of them loved chasing each other down to the beach. When Dylan was born, we found a charming shingled saltbox house in East Hampton, right on the ocean. It was in a compound of six other cottages set off from the main roads with lots of little private paths for running and biking with the children. Those summers when the children were so little are the ones I’ll always remember. Life was so simple and easy.

Then we discovered the house in Montauk. It was built in 1940 by an architect who had worked with Frank Lloyd Wright. It had such integrity, constructed to follow the contours of the land. The low ceilings and warm wood gave it a modern kind of coziness.

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Colorado

When I first came to Colorado, I didn’t want to build a new house; I wanted to find an old one. Someone told me about a 100-year-old barn on a large piece of property looking out at the San Juan Mountains. I remember so well the morning Ricky and I went to look at it: the light on the meadows and striking the barn. We immediately knew this was where we wanted to live.

I love land for itself — the look and beauty of undisturbed land. I felt pained to have to build here at all, so I chose low, inconspicuous sites where the houses would be half-hidden by the trees. Driving by on the road, you could miss the Lodge, our family house. It looks like a little log cabin from the outside, but when you go inside, it seems spacious. Our pole-rail fences handcrafted of locally sourced pine border our land along the highway for more than seven miles. We constructed them so that the rails face outward for a smooth appearance. The fences are part of the journey to our home.

I love the character of old things. I built the house out of old barn wood. I wanted a screen door with a squeak. If something’s really old, let it feel that way. Over time, the Lodge has become a home to things we felt belonged here — Native Americanpaintings, pottery, woven baskets, serapes, weavings and trade blankets. Their bold color and handcrafted textures bring a special beauty and brightness against the dark wood of the cabin walls.

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Bedford

Though we had our houses in the mountains and by the beach, we realized that we wanted a getaway closer to home — a place we could get in the car and drive to on the spur of the moment. We started taking drives north of the city and eventually discovered a house and property nestled in what we felt to be one of the most beautiful parts of America. There were little dirt roads that wandered through woods and fields, passing paddocks of horses, stables and weathered red barns set off by miles of rustic stone walls. It was rural yet sophisticated, which was perfect. I like faded and old — a certain kind of genteel shabbiness. It’s a reverence for integrity. This property had that; it was sort of a combination of a hunting lodge and a stately home.

The mood was right, but we wanted to give it a warmth and individuality, and at the same time, a glamour. It was the kind of house where we could express our love of antiques and timeless elegance, yet at the same time be young and eclectic.

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Jamaica

When I was a kid, I always looked forward to summer because I could go out and play ball and go swimming. Then, years later, I discovered Jamaica. In the middle of winter, I could step out of time.

We went there on holiday as a young family more than four decades ago. It wasn’t long before we moved into a romantic old villa on the highest point of Round Hill, a resort overlooking the Caribbean. We called it High Rock. It had a spirit and a glamour that harkened back to the days when Grace Kelly, Noël Coward, the Astaires, Errol Flynn and Ian Fleming wintered there — there was a timelessness that we loved. Surrounded by a jungle of trees and flowers, it was our own Garden of Eden.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the iconic tastemaker’s home collection, Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living celebrates the timeless lifestyles and product innovations that have emerged throughout his legendary career. Reprinted with permission © Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living, Rizzoli New York, 2023.

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Ralph Lauren Bio

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Ralph Lauren (/ˈlɔːrən/; LOR-ən; né Lifshitz; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his collection of rare automobiles, some of which have been displayed in museum exhibits. He stepped down as CEO of the company in September 2015 but remains executive chairman and chief creative officer. As of April 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$6.9 billion.^[2]

Ralph Lifshitz
October 14, 1939 (age 84)

New York City, U.S.Alma matter Baruch College occupation(sExecutives chairman, Ralph Lauren Corporation board member of Ralph Lauren Corporation
Club Monaco Spouse

Ricky Lauren

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Early life

Career

Personal life

Family

On December 20, 1964, Lauren married Ricky Ann Loew-Beer in New York City. She is the daughter of Margaret Vytouch and Rudolph Loew-Beer. The two had met six months earlier, in a doctor’s office where she was working as a receptionist; on alternate days she was teaching dance. She is the author of The Hamptons: Food, Family and History.^[35] The Laurens are members of the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, leading the synagogue’s capital campaign that ended in 2019.

They have three children: Andrew Lauren (b. 1969), a film producer and actor; David Lauren (b. 1971), an executive vice president at Ralph Lauren Corporation; and Dylan Lauren (b. 1974) In September 2011, David married Lauren Bush, granddaughter of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush. Lauren and David have three children and live in Manhattan. Dylan Lauren, owner of Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City, was married in June 2011 to hedge fund manager Paul Arrouet. Dylan and Paul had twins on April 13, 2015, via surrogate in New York City.

In April 1987, Ralph Lauren underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor and made a full recovery.

Lauren owns a 17,000-acre cattle ranch in Ridgway, Colorado, and a 17,000 sq foot manor built in 1919 in Bedford, New York.

Automobile collection

Ralph Lauren is well known as a collector of automobiles, with about 100 automobiles, some being extremely rare. He owns a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, two Ferrari TRs, three 1996 McLaren F1s (one of them an ultra-rare McLaren F1 LM), a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLGullwing, a 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre(“Blower Bentley”), one Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Gangloff, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a Bugatti Veyron, a 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK “Count Trossi” (aka “The Black Prince”), a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia.^[49] and a rare Lamborghini Reventón Roadster.

His cars have won “Best of Show” at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance twice, his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic won in 1990 and his 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK “Count Trossi” roadster won in 1993. In 2005 his collection was displayed at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Seventeen cars from his collection were exhibited at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in 2011.^[51] In 2017, Lauren’s now $600 million dollar car collection took center stage during New York Fashion Week.

Philanthropy

Lauren has focused a substantial amount of his philanthropy to address cancer. In 1989, he co-founded the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C. in memory of the late Post fashion correspondent. He served as chairman and created the name and symbol for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, a charitable initiative of the CFDA that founded in 1994 that marshals the goodwill and services of the fashion industry to raise public awareness and funds for breast cancer internationally. In 2003, Lauren supported the establishment the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The Center is a collaboration between Ralph Lauren, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, and North General Hospital in Harlem.

In 2014, the Ralph Lauren Corporation partnered with the Royal Marsden, the largest and most comprehensive cancer center in Europe, to develop a world-class breast cancer research facility. They opened the Royal Marsden Ralph Lauren Center for Breast Cancer Research in 2016.^[56] In 2023, the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention was opened at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center of Georgetown University.

In 2000, the Ralph Lauren Corporation launched its Volunteer Program, which energizes employees and creates meaningful connections with the communities in which they work. On Friday, September 15, Ralph Lauren Corporation launched the Pink Pony Campaign, a national initiative to reduce disparities in cancer care by raising awareness as well as enhancing prevention, screening, and treatment in poor and underserved communities. Similarly, in 2006, the Polo Jeans G.I.V.E. (Get Involved, Volunteer, Exceed) campaign was created to inspire and encourage community service through volunteerism by supporting the efforts of dedicated volunteers and their causes, including Habitat for Humanity.

The Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation established the American Heroes Fund following the September 11th attacks to allow Polo’s 10,000 employees worldwide, as well as their customers, the opportunity to participate in the relief effort.

The Polo Fashion School was established in 2004, in which company executives work with inner-city youth to offer insights into the fashion business.

The Star-Spangled Banner, the original 1813 flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the United States National Anthem, was preserved by a $10 million contribution to Save America’s Treasures from Polo Ralph Lauren in 1998. The flag was then unveiled on Wednesday, November 19, 2008, in a new gallery at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C. Ralph Lauren Corporation announced in July 2013 its commitment to restore the elite École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, one of the most influential art schools in France.

Politics

As recently as 2012, with a $35,800 donation to the Obama Victory Fund, Lauren made regular small donations to U.S. Democratic candidates. In 2022 the Ralph Lauren Corp, through individuals, donated $63,000 to democratic organizations and individuals