Founded in 2002, RUBY is an eminent fashion label based in Aotearoa, best known and loved for the mutually nourishing relationship it has with its community, and the way its designs embody those who wear them.
RUBY is a family-owned brand, and the care, intimacy and love that comes from this is woven into its DNA.
With Creative Director Deanna Didovich overseeing the design house, the brand is fluid, forever evolving alongside its community. The RUBY spirit occupies a space beyond the fabrics and silhouettes that form its collections: it is a collective movement that RUBY has coined its Rubettes.
Rubettes are inclusive, multi-dimensional and progressive. Rubettes want to live life to the fullest, to make their mark on the world, and to leave the earth in a better place than they found it. Rubettes are free-spirited: they seek an abundance of joy and have an eagerness to learn, reflect and grow.
These values are stitched into each of the collections RUBY creates, and RUBY draws inspiration from its community to create pieces and provoke conversations.
Today, RUBY has seven stores: located in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
liam designer emily miller-sharma delivers a considered edit of essentials to be worn, added to, mixed, matched and enjoyed. starting with the understanding that fashion reflects and influences our world, and inspired by the creativity of women, liam takes a simple and assured approach to dressing, enhancing all of life’s moments, large and small.
within each collection, clean lines and unfussy structure share space with little unexpected details, a vibrant palette and unconventional print. liam balances smart with spirited, and builds flexibility into every piece, allowing the wearer to choose their own path.
liam is stocked at all RUBY stores in new zealand.
a collection of patterns! paper patterns to use to sew clothes at home!
emily miller-sharma explains:
“making things gives so much to people. there is a slowness in the very internal process that goes on when you make things with your hands that can be a powerful tool for wellness. it also shows us, quite viscerally, just how talented the people who make our clothes are, empowering and humanising these highly-skilled machinists in a way that words on a page can’t.
there is such joy in being able to pass a skill on to another person, and a great way to give a loved one something enduring.
over lockdown i discovered a strong community of sewers through hosting online sewing and patternmaking classes. it was the first time in ages that i got to spend time getting jazzed about different ways to do dart manipulations, or my view on how to (and imo how absolutely not to) add fullness to a skirt. what I loved about it was that the people who joined me seemed just as interested in the minutiae of patternmaking as me and it made me fall in love with my job again, and grateful to feel like I belonged to something positive.”
the future is circular!
circular considerations underpin all decisions made throughout this collection’s design and production process:
all fibre used to make the pattern paper, and the card for the envelopes they come in, is waste from (or the by-product of) sawn timber production from radiata pine forests in the north island of new zealand. the finished product is fsc certified and 100% recyclable, and the intention is that these patterns get used over and over again.
there are a variety of free downloadable .pdf patterns to use up extra fabric or offcuts from the making process.
sustainable consumption - it’s an oxymoron really. liam patterns is our first step to radically shift that.