Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca · CC BY-SA 3.0

Born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants, Lauren changed his name at sixteen and, in 1967, started a tie business that grew into one of the defining American fashion houses of the century. His Polo brand, launched with a mounted-player logo in 1972, built an aesthetic of English aristocratic style and equestrian tradition — cricket sweaters, tweed, the promise of old-money permanence — that had nothing to do with where he actually grew up, and sold it back to America as a national look. He stepped down as CEO in 2015 but remains the company's chief creative officer.