As Ralph Lauren is fond of saying, Stefan Larsson is the “first CEO I ever had”. Until last October, Mr Lauren acted as chief executive of his fashion house. The appointment of Mr Larsson, a Swede with 18 years’ experience in retailing, first at H&M and then reviving Gap’s Old Navy brand, drew speculation that the 76-year old American designer might be retiring.

In fact Mr Lauren stayed on, as chairman and chief creative officer. But it now falls to Mr Larsson, 41, to deliver the bad news. During a three-hour presentation to investors this week, Mr Larsson, who wears heavy-rimmed spectacles of the architect school and has collar-length curls, outlined the “Way Forward” plan, the first of the radical changes he plans for the ailing $8bn business, where sales and profits have fallen by 50 per cent in two years.

The “Way Forward” plan will involve 50 store closures, 1,000 job losses and a restructure to remove three of the nine layers of management that stand between Mr Larsson and “the actual doer doing the work”, as he puts it. It will also mean a refocus on the best-selling “core” products of the Ralph Lauren brand — classics such as the “blazer, the double-breasted jacket, the chinos and biker jacket”.