Ralph Lauren - Fragrance

Ralph Lauren - Fragrance is the perfume line of the American designer Ralph Lauren, based in New York City. The line began in 1978, when Lauren released his first two scents at once: Polo for men and Lauren for women [1]. The fashion house itself dates to 1967, but the fragrance business is counted from that 1978 debut rather than the earlier apparel founding [2]. From the start the perfumes have been made under license by another company rather than by Ralph Lauren directly, and since the mid-1980s that licensee has been L'Oréal [3].

The line remains active. Fragrantica catalogues roughly 116 Ralph Lauren perfumes, with the earliest from 1978 and the newest recorded in 2026, and the official Ralph Lauren Fragrances website is live.

Ralph Lauren founded his fashion company in New York in 1967, starting with a line of men's ties before expanding into wider clothing, accessories and home goods [4]. The first perfumes followed in 1978 and launched together at the department store Bloomingdale's: Polo, a men's cologne, and Lauren, a women's scent. Wikipedia notes this was the first time a designer introduced a men's and a women's fragrance at the same moment [1]. The two debut perfumes were produced by Warner-Lauren, Ltd, a venture between Ralph Lauren and Warner Communications. Polo was composed by the perfumer Carlos Benaïm [5].

Polo won a FiFi Award in 1979, the year the line added Chaps for Men and Tuxedo for Women [5]. In 1984 the fragrance license moved from Warner-Lauren to Cosmair, the United States licensee of L'Oréal, and it stayed within the group when Cosmair became L'Oréal USA in 2000 [6]. The 1990s brought the Safari perfumes, with a women's version in 1990 and a men's in 1992. More recently, the company launched Polo Earth in 2022, which it presents as its most sustainable fragrance to date.

Ownership of the line has two layers. The Ralph Lauren name and brand rights belong to Ralph Lauren Corporation, while the perfumes themselves are made under a beauty license. Fragrantica records the parent company as L'Oréal [2], and L'Oréal's own corporate site carries material on Ralph Lauren's Polo Earth under its commitments section. The licensing chain runs from Warner-Lauren (1978–1984) to Cosmair, L'Oréal's US licensee, in 1984, to L'Oréal USA in 2000, and to L'Oréal today [6]. As part of L'Oréal Luxe, the line sits alongside other prestige fragrance and beauty names in the group such as Lancôme, Kiehl's and Creed.

Ralph Lauren Fragrances describes its output as a "wardrobe" of scents. According to the brand, when the line launched in 1978 Lauren "created an outstanding wardrobe of fragrances and grooming products for men and women," and the company frames its current best-sellers, among them The World of Polo, Ralph's Club, Romance, Lauren, Safari for Men and Polo Sport, as scents that each evoke a distinct mood. The positioning leans on a classic American style, described in third-party coverage as preppy and outdoorsy, and the line is sold at the prestige tier through department stores.

The founding pair, Polo and Lauren, remain reference points for the line, and the Polo family has since grown to include Polo Blue, Polo Black and Polo Red. Polo Earth, introduced in 2022, marks the line's clearest move toward sustainability. Ralph Lauren's corporate press material describes it as a "97% natural-origin, vegan fragrance" made without sulfates, phthalates, artificial preservatives or colorants and formulated with plant-based alcohol [8]. The scent is built around seven ingredients the brand lists as sustainably sourced, including bergamot, lavender, green mandarin, Turkish rose, sage, Haitian vetiver and bourbon geranium.

Polo Earth anchors the line's environmental claims. The company says its refillable bottle uses 20% post-consumer recycled glass, runs about 30% lighter than the brand's conventional bottle, and carries an FSC-certified wood cap and label [8]. Ralph Lauren also states it is gradually shifting its portfolio across major brands toward refillable formats and lighter glass. Tied to the launch, the company partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation on reforestation, with a stated focus on the United States, Haiti, China and Madagascar and a pledge to plant 200,000 trees worldwide [7].

The line's earliest formal honor was the 1979 FiFi Award for Polo [5]. Its 2022 sustainability push drew trade coverage, including a Women's Wear Daily feature on the Polo Earth launch. Polo, sometimes known by its green bottle, has been treated in later retrospectives as a long-running classic with a multi-decade following.

The line is active and global in reach. It operates as a designer fragrance house under a L'Oréal license, is distributed worldwide, and continues to release new scents, with Fragrantica listing a newest edition dated 2026 [2].