nyfw spring 2019

Oprah Gives Loving Toast to Ralph Lauren

Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey. Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images

After Ralph Lauren’s 50th anniversary fashion show at New York Fashion Week, Oprah Winfrey, one of many high profile guests attending the event and champion speech giver, gave an endearing toast to the enduring designer. Standing at a table with Ralph Lauren himself, Hillary Clinton, and Anna Wintour, Oprah lead the room in raising a glass to one of the most prolific designers in American history.

“The show was a bonus,” Oprah said. “The real reason we are all here is not for the show, it’s because of you. We are here to celebrate you, Ralph Lauren, and 50 years of you designing our dreams.”

“Fifty years of you stimulating our ambitions, 50 years of you creating a sense of value, that brought goodness and wholesomeness to glamour. Your story exalts our collective story” she said. “That fact that you were a boy from the Bronx, who was able to have an idea about big ties and smart enough not to let Bloomingdale’s take it, and take that ideas of big ties and create a gigantic company.”

Her toast followed the intersecting paths of her and Ralph’s careers, and she ruminated on how his designs not only reflected what is great about fashion, but what is “great about America.”

“Your work these past 50 years has told the story of lives, the lives that we live and the lives that we aspire to,” she said. “You care about the things that matter. You care about home. You care about freedom. You care about integrity.”

Oprah Gives Loving Toast to Ralph Lauren