Nacho Figueras: A Noble Sport
Nacho Figueras: A Noble Sport. Cover story written for lifestylemirror.com. Published on July 30, 2012.
Soccer has David Beckham and tennis has Roger Federer. And for the past two decades, polo has had Ignacio “Nacho” Figueras—the sport’s tireless prophet and most charming leading man.
Perhaps best known to those in the United States as the face of Ralph Lauren Black Label or the designer’s Polo fragrances, 35-year-old Figueras has spent much of his career with an eye toward popularizing the sport of polo. “There is a lot of history of polo being popular in America in the 1920s and ’30s,” Figueras explains. “It’s just a question of putting it back on people’s agendas and making them feel invited.” And becoming a model for one of the most recognized all-American heritage brands is just one way he’s doing it.
Figueras grew up on a small farm in Veinticinco de Mayo, outside Buenos Aires, Argentina in the late 1970s, and started playing polo at the age of nine. He turned pro by age 17, and subsequently moved around Europe to make a name for himself in the game. He settled in Bridgehampton, New York in 1999 to join White Birch, a team then owned by businessmen Peter Brant and Neil Hirsch. A year later, Figueras started modeling for Ralph Lauren, but it wasn’t until he was appointed as a brand ambassador for the Black Label line in 2005 that Figueras got his first major shot at ushering the sport into the North American limelight.
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