CarrieMe London: Ralph Lauren stays on top til 2017 and wow is CarrieMe glad

Who else is a fan of Ralph Lauren?

Ralph Lauren takes a spin in the designer's circa-1948 Willys jeep
on the Double RL Ranch Colorado 2007. www.vanityfair.com

The good news for us is that he'll be staying on as CEO of his own label until 2017.... with an increase in his salary by 40% in these straightened times, to £1.1m, still paltry compared to some overpaid bankers!

So despite already being worth more than $4.3bn, he's still motivated to make accessible the luxury fashion and culture that he definitely didn't inherit: ensuring you all can look and feel rich, however much money you have. Pretty good showing considering he was born in 1939 with Lifshitz as his surname and grew up in the Bronx.

We're told that "replicating preppy fashions, Art Deco sophistication, and Adirondack ease isn't motivated by skepticism, and, no, he isn't driven by nostalgia either. Lauren isn't trying to live in the past. He's trying to get the past to live in the present, which takes a lot more chutzpah, because to make it work you have to get other people to sign on to your fantasies." (Vanity Fair)

So a modern day Walt Disney then?

"When people describe things as "very Ralph Lauren," they have in mind a world of old money and relaxed style that impresses not just because it is so beautiful but because it seems at once so familiar and so effortless." (Vanity Fair)

Not being preppy or of WASP inclination, its not that I'm out buying his clothes for me or my father much, but there is an undeniable elegance and luxury associated with the brand, from the simple dresses to the casual polo shirts that everyone in China is trying to copy.

Here are some of my favourite looks over the years, all sophisticated and sexy!