My Story
Founder + Designer
Hey! I'm Ruby and I am 20 years old. I've lived in Seattle pretty much my whole life. RLA is the primary focus of my every day and it has been since I founded it as a junior in high school during the early days of the Covid pandemic. I think some people assume I've had this vision or dream my whole life to start a streetwear brand, but I really just started creating one day and it became something I absolutely love doing. For as long as I can remember, my parents had a small number of family principles they would always talk about. I remember them being posted on the wall in my room, and in our kitchen. One of them was simply "make things you love". That notion of being a maker and focusing on something that I myself love is really what influenced Ruby Laine Apparel.
I was inspired to become an entrepreneur by designing and hand-crafting apparel that was intended to be just for myself, but which I quickly learned resonated with so many other people who told me they wanted it for themselves. It's that type of customer obsession that keeps me going and inspired today. The idea of designing streetwear using mostly pullover hoodies and sweats came to me for many reasons. The first being that I like wearing comfortable clothes. Second, I knew there were ways to make them more fashionable. I’ve always been drawn to patchwork styles. I was especially influenced by The Frankie Collective. I was inspired to use the many colors and styles of bandanas to make my own version of patchwork sweats.
I am currently studying fashion at Parsons School of Design in NYC. I can't wait to show you what I have been learning and new collections I am working on.
Original Collection
First Photoshoot
I designed over 25 products for RLA's soft launch in September 2020. We sold out in the first couple of days. Excited about the launch's success, we quickly set a new goal of dropping 500 new pieces by the end of November 2020.