Even if you've never set foot on a polo field and don't know the difference between a mallet and a hockey stick, you've probably heard of Nacho Figueras. In fact, he's probably the only polo player you've heard of.
In part that's because Figueras's ruggedly handsome visage is everywhere, in magazines and on bus stops and billboards, as the face of Ralph Lauren's men's fragrances. (And yes, we are obligated to use the phrase "ruggedly handsome" when referring to him.)
But Figueras has became far more than a polo-playing model. He's famous enough to sell a line of romance novels; he's been tapped by the Argentine government to help rescue their foundering economy, and he's an international ambassador for his sport. In short, he's the David Beckham of polo.
"He's like a magical god," said Girls' star Andrew Rannells, after watching Figueras play earlier this month at the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic. "Particularly when you see him on the horse, you're like 'How is that a man, and I'm a man? How are we the same species?'"
The Sport of Kings
Ignacio Figueras was not to the saddle born. Unlike many of his fellow players, he wasn't raised on a family ranch, but rather on a small farm near Buenos Aires. One of his father's closest friends was a polo player named Lucas Monteverde. When young Nacho was nine, he began playing polo with Lucas Monteverde, Jr. during weekend visits to the Monteverde estancia.
It was good training. Lucas Jr. went on to become a 10-goal player—the highest possible ranking, which only about 20 players in the world now hold—and whose current 9-goal ranking still makes him one of the best players alive. (For his part, Figueras became an 8-goaler, though he has since slipped to a 6, which still ranks him in the world's top 100 players.)
In 1994, when he was 17, Figueras went pro and quickly got a job on a French polo team—complete with his own room at a château. He then played in Atlanta and Spain before he was asked to play on Peter Brant's White Birch team in Greenwich, Connecticut. For two decades he has been working the polo circuit, from Bridgehampton to Wellington and on to Napa Valley and Great Britain.
Becoming the Man in the Logo
It was in the Hamptons in 1999, during a dinner hosted by Kelly Klein, that Figueras met photographer Bruce Weber, who shot all of Ralph Lauren's campaigns. In 2000, he posed for his first ad for the company. It's an almost uncanny match of face and brand. Lauren, so adept at conjuring up an almost-too-perfect fantasy of a certain way of life, seems to have found the flesh-and-blood embodiment of his rugged (there's that word again), alpha male ideal.
Figueras's relationship with Lauren is also one of unusual endurance. For 16 years, he has represented the brand's fragrances and clothing. It's tempting to imagine that the polo player spends months at a time being photographed in exotic locales. "Not so much," says Figueras. "With so many years of pictures, there are a lot that they can pick from. Every once in a while we shoot a new campaign. Now there is Polo Blue, so there will be new photos. We have had blue, red, green, and black."
For all his longevity, Figueras never saw modeling as an alternate career. In an interview with Peter Brant, his old polo-playing boss, Figueras explained his ambitions for the sport:
"In the beginning, I was getting all this feedback from [fellow players] saying, 'What are you doing? What is this?' But I thought to myself, 'This is a great opportunity. This is a perfect bridge to help me achieve my dream and my vision of polo becoming a bigger, more visible sport.' So I used the money that I was getting from modeling to buy better horses and to become a better player. There are many guys out there who look like me—you know, brunettes with long hair. There are thousands. But I think the difference is that I am a real polo player, who does endorsements for Ralph Lauren on the side and I've always looked at it that way. "
After Brant's team, Figueras played for teams Peocho, St. Regis, and for Argentina. He now captains the widely traveled Black Watch team, named for the Scottish infantry regiment and sponsored by Ralph Lauren, which trains and competes in Argentina for six months of the year.
That suits Figueras fine, as he and his wife, Delfina Blaquier, a model, photographer, and landscape architect, now have four children. Her polo-playing family has a 30,000-acre estancia in Argentina, which is where Figueras and his family spend holidays. When they're not on the road, the family lives in a chic modernist house on the grounds of a polo club in General Rodriguez, Argentina, surrounded by the elegant houses of other well-known players.
The Blaquier family seems as close to Ralph Lauren's gauzy fantasy as any Figueras photo shoot. La Concepcion, their historic ranch, was bought by Blaquier's great-grandfather around 1850. "His son built the chapel there in 1902. My father inherited his mares from his father, who was a really good player, 7 or 8 goals, for sure," says Blaquier. On a wall at the main house, there is a caricature of Delfina's grandfather, Juan José Sylvestre Blaquier (who died tragically at the age of 43 when his private jet went down in 1958), swinging a polo mallet from a race car. Naturally, the ranch became the setting for a Ralph Lauren spot.
Expanding His Brand
Figueras and his wife have recently expanded Cria Yatay, a serious horse-breeding operation, with state-of-the-art stables for the project. "It holds 44 horses," Figueras says of the 30,000-square-foot structure, which they just presented on at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
[instagram ]https://www.instagram.com/p/BFY3p_5zXWi/?taken-by=criayatay&hl=en[/instagram]
Figueras is also responsible for the only polo tournament most civilians have heard of. He founded the Polo Classic, which is now held annually in both New York and Los Angeles. The matches draw a celebrity crowd; in 2010, with Madonna watching, Prince Harry famously fell off his horse when his Sentebale team took the trophy on Governor's Island.
Figueras and Blaquier have also staked a claim in the literary world. At the behest of a friend, literary agent Luke Janklow, Figueras has lent his face and name to a series of romance novels. "Luke though it would be a unique way to spread my passion for polo," Figueras says.
"It's fiction," Delfina is quick to add. Jessica Whitman, the series's author, is actually a group of ghost writers. "We had input about the story. I came up with the names and told them what polo players would say and how they would behave pre- and post-match. They had it in the Spanish language, but I wanted the Spanish to be Argentinian, so I did a lot of correcting."
Could the books—Nacho Figueras Presents High Season, Ride Free, and Wild One—appear on the big screen one day? "We just have to find someone who rides, and we can teach him to play polo very easily," Figueras says. "That's the magic of the movies. They can make anything look good." When Figueras says the word "polo," it comes out breathy, "puh-lo," as if whispered by one of his ponies.
The book launch hasn't consumed all their time though. Figueras just played polo with Prince Harry in Great Britain, and after a few weeks in New York following the Classic, he plans to play at the Piocho Ranch and vineyard in Santa Ynez, California. The family will spend July and August in the Hamptons, Blacquier says.
That said, Figueras does have time for one more endeavor: helping to save the economy of Argentina. "I love projects. I love business," he says. "So I'm trying to help as a kind of ambassador, to help bring investment. After 12 years of bad management, we have a president who is doing great things. So I bring people from the U.S. to Argentina to show them all the opportunity."
It's a fitting role for Argentina's most famous export.
