Ralph Lauren’s Classic Car Collection: Art You Can Drive

Ralph Lauren began sewing neckties out of a cramped rental in the Empire State Building in 1967, inspired by European cuts and determined to shake up American menswear. Within five years, his line was retailing at Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, and his first freestanding Polo boutique opened on Beverly Hill’s ritzy Rodeo Drive in 1971. Before long he began collecting cars. Some of his earliest purchases were his 1971 Mercedes 280SE 4.5 convertible, a 1979 Porsche 930 and a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe bought in 1983. Today, his collection of more than 70 cars is perhaps the highest-valued in the world, estimated by Forbes to be worth at least $300 million, making up a significant portion of the fashion designer’s personal assets outside his shares in his fashion company. (In all, Forbes estimates his net worth is $6.2 billion.) “I’ve always seen cars as art. Moving art. While friends of mine were into paintings, I somehow felt that the real beauty of owning a rare and magnificently designed car was the fact that you can use it. You can look at it, enjoy its visual qualities, as with a painting, but you can also get inside and drive it – which means both enjoying the drive itself and going somewhere with it,” Lauren said in a 2004 interview for a book detailing his collection. Read more at Forbes.