Ralph Liftshitz : Building A Fashion Empire With Ralph Lauren

“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will.” This is a quote from Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre. The character Jane reminds me of a famous immigrant in American history who led women to break out of traditional roles. Her name was Liz Claiborne, an innovative designer who was the first to realize that every working woman wasn’t ending up in the boardroom or aspiring to [corporate life] (Bernstein 1). It is unquestionably hard for immigrants to prove themselves in a foreign country, but Liz Claiborne did it. Liz Claiborne was a Belgian who immigrated to America and changed fashion and business industries in U.S. due to her innovations.

In “The Fashion Industry: Free to be an Individual” by Hannah Berry, Hannah emphasizes how social media especially advertisements pressure females to use certain product to in order to be considered beautiful. She also acknowledges the current effort of advertisement today to more realistically depicts of women. In addition, these advertisements use the modern women look to advertise products to increase women self-esteem and to encourage women to be comfortable with one’s image.

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the leading clothing companies in the world. They manufacture

The claim presented in the article is how ads often set unrealistic beauty standards, and how the author encourages them to “break free” from these standards by giving two examples on how ads should be compelled.

Ross Stores, Inc. is an American off-price department store, which has two different stores: Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS. Ross Dress for Less has around 1,340 stores in 36 states in the United States, and dd’s DISCOUNTS is much younger image than Ross and has 193 stores in 15 states. Its headquarter is located in Dublin, California, and it is the second largest off-price retailer in the USA after TJX Company. Ross offers trendy name brand and designer apparel, accessories, home furniture, footwear, and snacks for everyone from young children to old seniors. Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS sell products at 20% to 70% off from the regular prices to target people who have limited income but also want to have new products every season. They not only focus on business but also focus on social responsibility. Since they want to know more and be closer to their consumers, they are focusing on four different areas to touch their target customers.

Biographical information: The grandson of slaves, Ralph Ellison was born in 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His father worked as a construction worker, and his mother was a domestic servant who also volunteered for the local

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

Louis Vuitton “was established in France in 1854 by Louis Vuitton and became known as one of the oldest French luxury fashion houses” in the industry (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-2). The firm’s products range from high quality “leather goods, handbags, trunks, shoes, watches, jewelry, and accessories”; manufactured by highly skilled and expensive laborers in France (Forbes.com, 2016). In addition, Louis Vuitton market their products “in 50 countries with more than 460 shops and generates more than €7-billion ($9.5-billion U.S.) in annual sales” (Wendlandt, 2013).

Gucci, a brand known for its quality, luxurious and royal association was confronted with strategic issues which made the company take notice of its strategy of expansion and brand personality. The company was not only having concerns with their product line but they were lacking unified corporate vision and strategy after its acquisition of some major names like YSL. Due to which they started having loophole in their luxurious goods market discipline. Strategic concern for the company was how does the brand image cascade down in the target market and how does it rejuvenate itself is a management lesson.

Ralph Barger was born in 1938 and grew up in California with his alcoholic father and older sister. His mother left when he was 4 and his grandmother helped take care of his sister and him but died a few years later, leaving them to care for each

Ralph had been born to two wonderful parents of the names Leo Baer and Lotte Kirschbaum on the day of March 8th 1922. He was originally born in Rodalben, Germany and spent all the way up to his teenage years there. Life wasn’t very easy for him in his hometown, he was expelled from his first school because of his ancestry and his beliefs. Baer had later been forced to go to an all Jewish school until he finally moved to New York during his teenage years to escape the persecution previously mentioned. He became a naturalized United States citizen.

For 50 years, Ralph Lauren 's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. However, in 2015, they reported a 5.3% drop in revenue from June 2014 to June 2015 (O 'Brien, 2015), and since then, the shares began a downward trend.

J.Crew began in 1947 as a low priced clothing company that sold its merchandise door-to-door. It was originally called Popular Club but the name was eventually changed to J.Crew to better suit its preppy image. In 1983 the company released its first catalog in an effort to mimic the success of like Lands’ End and L.L. Bean. People fell in love with the company’s preppy aesthetic that was much more affordable than designers like Ralph Lauren. Within the decade, the company grew its customer base exponentially. Their sales increased from $3 Million to $100 Million in less than 10 years. In 1989 the company expanded into retail stores with their first brick-and-mortar location in South Street Seaport in New York.

Moreover, Stella McCartney provides massive information about its brand thus maintaining the brand identity and image to build brand communication between brand and customer. Not only express it self but also exactly consider about what customer will perceived from the brand (See Figure 2).

1. The textile/clothing sector is vertically de‐integrated: design, textile manufacture, clothing manufacture, distribution are undertaken by specialist firms. Why? In this case, clothing firms like American Apparel have vertically integrated, in order to get time to market, increase resources availability, and cost efficiency. However, many textile/clothing sector is vertically de‐integrated which means that their design, textile manufacture, clothing manufacture, distribution are undertaken by specialist firms. (De-verticalization) is the process of separating functions and services from a once-integrated business model. Companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., who emphasize the