Ralph Lauren will obtain the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden in a ceremony on the White Home in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
The award — the nation’s highest civilian honor — acknowledges Lauren’s extraordinary contributions as a visionary dressmaker, trailblazing entrepreneur, progressive enterprise chief, and devoted philanthropist.
Lauren is the primary dressmaker to obtain this distinction — a historic acknowledgment of his transformative affect on American tradition and society.
Established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom honors people who’ve made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or safety of the U.S., world peace, or different vital endeavors. Through the years, the medal has been awarded to a various vary of influential figures throughout disciplines, together with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Ronald Reagan, Maya Angelou, Mom Teresa, Invoice and Melinda Gates, Robert DeNiro, and Frank Gehry, and extra lately, Billie Jean King, Michelle Yeoh, Michael Bloomberg, and Simone Biles.
Along with Lauren, the opposite 18 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom are José Andrés, Bono, Ashton Baldwin Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michael J. Fox, Tim Gill, Jane Goodall, Fannie Lou Hamer (posthumous), Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Robert Francis Kennedy (posthumous), Lionel Messi, William Sanford Nye, George W. Romney (posthumous), David M. Rubenstein, George Soros, George Stevens Jr., Denzel Washington, and Anna Wintour.
In line with a White Home launch, President Biden believes nice leaders hold the religion, give everybody a good shot, and put decency above all else. He believes these 19 people are nice leaders who’ve made America a greater place and have made extraordinary contributions to their nation and the world.
For greater than 60 years, Lauren has celebrated the essence of American tradition, crafting an everlasting imaginative and prescient that defines American model. Via his collections, Lauren has formed the best way the world perceives the nation’s heritage and values. His collections have usually been described as storytelling by design, with each bit evoking themes of aspiration, custom, and individuality.
Translating his inventive imaginative and prescient into a worldwide life-style model, the 85-year-old Lauren has been acknowledged as one of many world’s most progressive leaders in design and enterprise.
Lauren’s journey started within the Bronx, N.Y., the place he grew up and discovered the ability of exhausting work, aspiration and authenticity. He started by designing males’s ties from a single drawer within the Empire State Constructing and went on to construct one of the crucial iconic world life-style manufacturers in historical past, producing revenues for fiscal 2024 of $6.6 billion. The designer attracts inspiration from the nation’s landscapes, cultures, and artistry. Via his males’s, girls’s, and kids’s clothes, house collections, cinematic promoting, and famend shops and eating places, Lauren has grow to be an arbiter of timeless American model. His story is a testomony to the probabilities of creativity, dedication, and the American Dream.
All through his profession, Lauren has gained quite a few prestigious honors such because the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, which acknowledges his lifetime contributions as an incredible American and his management in preserving the Star-Spangled Banner; France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in recognition of his affect as a designer, enterprise chief, and philanthropist, and an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Wonderful Order of the British Empire (KBE), making him the primary American designer to obtain this distinction.
Lauren has additionally obtained quite a few honors from the Council of Vogue Designers of America, corresponding to Menswear and Womenswear Designer of the 12 months, the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Vogue Legend Award, amongst others.
Along with his contributions to trend and tradition, Lauren continues to make a profound influence on philanthropy, with a selected give attention to the combat in opposition to most cancers. His mission to cut back disparities in most cancers care has positively impacted numerous lives. The Ralph Lauren Company Basis continues to champion fairness and empower underserved communities worldwide.