In this file photo Ralph Lauren waves to the audience following the showing of his Fall 1994 women's wear collection in New York.

Now 78, the designer has marked a half-century in the industry with a 50th anniversary show in New York City. 

Fashion designer Ralph Lauren in 1970.

Born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, New York, in 1939, he changed his last name to Lauren at age 19, and in his early 20s worked as a tie salesman. With no formal fashion training, he decided to revamp a classic menswear staple with his own line of ties.

As his line (which he called Polo) took off, he expanded into menswear, women's wear, children's clothing and home décor. Founded in 1967, it grew into a publicly-traded company that is worth $10 billion today.

The name Polo represented a lifestyle, Lauren said. "And the people that played polo were international and very elegant," he told CBS News' Jane Pauley.

It's a style Lauren wants his customers to feel: "When you put on something that you really like, you feel like you are that person, or the person you want to be," he said.

Ralph Lauren's Polo fostered an aesthetic shaped by the tweed and tartan traditions of the English aristocracy; the sleek trims of the nautical set; and the romantic ruggedness of an African safari or the American West.

Using tones of brown and steel, designer Ralph Lauren showed three variations on his sophisticated women's suit theme for Spring 1996, as part of Seventh on Sixth presentations in New York's Bryant Park, Nov. 1, 1995.

Ralph Lauren preps a model for a photo shoot during the rollout of the fashion designer's 1980 fall collection, in New York, March 1980.

From left: American Olympians Ryan Lochte, Bryan Clay, Giuseppe Lanzone and Heather Mitts pose in their official Olympic outfits designed by Ralph Lauren, prior to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. 

Actress Lupita Nyong'o arrives in a stunning Ralph Lauren Collection red caped gown at the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, Calif., Jan. 12, 2014.

On September 7, 2018. Ralph Lauren's 50th anniversary runway show was held in New York's Central Park.

GQ's Matt Serba wrote of the show's first section, "[It] featured western-meets-manor-house-meets-biker-meets-Peaky-Blinders fashions for him and her all rendered in a mashup of neutral tweeds and rich jewel-tone velvets. It was all undeniably elegant and definitely expensive but also—crucially—effortless."

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

The second half of the 50th Anniversary Show celebrated Polo fashions for young (and younger) and old. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

From the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Show, at Central Park in New York City, Friday, September 7, 2018. 

Fashion designer Ralph Lauren greets the audience after the Ralph Lauren 50th Anniversary Fashion Show during New York Fashion Week, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 in New York City.

     
For more info:

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By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan