Southern California-Based Online Boutique Is Making Old Things New Again
By Sarah McCosham|Published May 09, 2022
×
Sarah McCosham
Author
I write like it's my job - because it is! I have a Master's in English and love words: crossword puzzles, Scrabble games, Wordle, and, of course, good, old-fashioned books.
I'm a writer and editor at OnlyInYourState, and a contributing writer at Cincinnati Magazine. I love the Great Outdoors and am endlessly awestruck by this beautiful country of ours. Coffee keeps me going, yoga keeps me sane, my kids keep me grounded, and my writing keeps me inspired.
Fashion is a massive, global force, and while it’s a place of immense creativity and expression, there is another side to the industry that’s becoming increasingly harder to ignore. Fast fashion — the design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing — makes hot trends and designers accessible and affordable for consumers. But this inexpensive and instant gratification can have costly and long-term effects on the environment, which is a detail often overlooked by companies and consumers. So how do we begin to affect change within this global behemoth? We start small, on a micro-level, one designer and company at a time. Just like Katie Levans did in 2021 when she launched Ruthie, a curated online boutique of apparel and accessories made from customized vintage, secondhand, and salvaged goods based in Los Angeles, California.
Levans might just be one person, but in the year since Ruthie was launched, she has already amassed quite a following and fanbase in her little corner of Southern California. Her story will undoubtedly inspire you to pursue your passions and, ultimately, be the change you want to see in the world.
Interested to learn about other unique American small businesses? Our 2022 Small Business Spotlight series highlights the often-overlooked work of small business owners across the country, from Massachusetts to Southern California.
In 2021, during the midst of a global pandemic and with little more than could fit inside her car, Katie Levans left the life she's built in Charlotte, North Carolina, and drove cross country to the sunny skies of Southern California.
She'd always felt pulled to SoCal and having recently left "Charlotte Agenda," a locally-focused digital publication she co-founded with Ted Williams, Levans found herself without ties and the drive to go West.
"On Halloween 2019, I wrote a message in my notes app that said: LEVANS - one-of-kind salvaged apparel. I had recently made the shaky decision to leave the digital media company I co-founded without a plan for what was next," says Levans. "I was lost, but I had ideas."
One of her ideas was working with vintage jewelry and apparel as part of the burgeoning secondhand sea change that's sweeping the fashion industry. She saw an opportunity and jumped on it.
"Everyone from behemoth operations like ThredUp and The Real Real to apparel rental services, traditional brick mortar vintage shops, and individual thrift flippers on Poshmark and Depop plays an important role in the secondhand ecosystem," explains Levans. "There is room and need for everyone at every price point."
Levans did her homework first. Before coming to SoCal, she had enrolled in a workshop at the Carolina Textile District to learn more about domestic apparel production and how to build a U.S. supply chain. She also spent months sourcing, customizing, and photographing product.
"I wanted to make sustainable apparel but decided that, for me, the road to original sustainable garment production would start with what I already knew: vintage reselling," she explains.
She also made a business plan that involved a variety of secondhand products and inventory. The boutique stocks a mix of salvaged vintage and collegiate apparel that she cleans, mends, and restores, as well as bespoke designs created by Levans which she sends, along with selected secondhand apparel, to a local embroidery shop for production.
Ruthie opened for online sales in February 2021, and in the year since, the boutique has constantly sold out of everything, from vintage sweatshirts to custom prints. The store's name, Ruthie, is a family name on Levans's dad’s side, "handed down from my great-grandmother Ruth to my grandmother Betty Ruth to me [Katherine Ruth] and now to the Ruthie business." It's a beautiful way of "reusing" a family name that perfectly captures everything this secondhand store stands for.
"Ruthie is different in that it is a brand that could have been created on new apparel, but I committed to only working with secondhand garments as an environmental imperative," explains Levans.
"Rather than produce my own apparel, I put my designs on secondhand garments to reduce my environmental impact, recirculate industry excess, and reimagine what’s possible for the apparel industry."
Advertisement
The boutique's designs are whimsical and fun, and Levans truly has an eye for curating a total social media presence with Ruthie. The store's all-time bestselling design, for example, is "Pizza My Heart," a pizza slice with heart-shaped pepperonis.
But aside from the creativity that comes with designing and running a clothing company, for Levans, the most thrilling part of this business is seeing people "so proudly wear, tag, and share their Ruthie products knowing that a few weeks prior it was in a pile of otherwise forgotten industry excess."
What a wonderful gift to the planet, and incredible example for the fashion industry.
"Ruthie is a small proof of concept for a big idea in the secondhand industry," says Levans. "You can build a cohesive, scalable, profitable apparel brand out of haphazard industry excess."
If you can dream it, you can do it. And Levans is doing it with Ruthie in her little corner of sunny Southern California.
Many thanks to Katie Levans for sharing the story of her inspiring and inspired small business in SoCal. Learn more about Ruthie at its website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
Of course, Ruthie is just one of the many small businesses affecting positive change in SoCal; please nominate your favorite attractions and businesses for a chance to be featured in an upcoming Only In Southern California article. And be sure to follow Only In Southern California on Facebook and Instagram to learn about this region of the Golden State’s most incredible places, attractions, and events.
OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
