Party has just begun

"For my 50th anniversary, I wanted to create and share a runway experience that was deeply personal and a summation of the style I've always believed in: personal, authentic, and forever, in a place so quintessentially New York and special to me－Central Park," says Lauren, who hails from the Bronx.

Downtown yet sophisticated, the gala showcased a variety of ways to wear clothes.

"The message is to show you a little of the sensibility of what made Ralph Lauren strong," he says in an interview with China Daily at his office before the show.

The designer who has defined American style for so many years said he enjoys designing for women "who have good taste".

"I'm showing them how to mix it up, and how to be current even with clothes that don't necessarily have to be this year's," he adds.

Lauren built his business up from a single tie design. In 1967, Lauren, then 28, persuaded the president of tie manufacturer Beau Brummell to let him start his own line. He started by only making neckties, which he packed and sold himself.

The next year, Lauren, who is interested in sports, named his first full line of menswear Polo. He worked out of a single drawer in a showroom in the Empire State Building and made deliveries to stores by himself.

By 1969, Bloomingdale's exclusively sold Lauren's men's line, the first time the Manhattan department store had given a designer his own in-store shop. In 1971, Lauren introduced the Polo player emblem on a line of tailored shirts for women and opened the first solo store for an American designer in Beverly Hills, California.