Our most-oft asked question: Why did you start Rose Room? Great question. For all of the options out there, why bother? We break it down here:
Ally: I love all things visual and am an all-the-time student of fashion and the arts. I was looking for pieces to wear for hosting dinner parties at home – pieces that were chic and a bit dressed up but easy to wear and still felt cozy. It felt impossible that there weren’t options for that, but other friends felt the same way. We all want to feel great in our clothes and were often compromising on either style or comfort. It’s hard to find both.
Louise: It was also about bringing people together. Rose Room is a clothing collection as much as it is a concept: a way to celebrate togetherness, grounded in a sense of place. These are the pieces we want to wear when we’re together with others. They make us feel like ourselves and put the focus on the conversations and experiences around us. You don’t have to think twice when you put them on…comfort is luxurious and should be the standard. The “C word” is often reviled in fashion, but to us, comfort is the ultimate in style.
Ally: So we set out to create those elusive pieces that are equal parts comfortable and chic: nice but relaxed, put together and easy, practical and great quality….which translated into our first pieces: wrap tops with roll-tab sleeves, stretch-back pants for pasta and dessert enthusiasts, and dresses that flow and move with you.
Aesthetically, we both have studied the arts and love interiors as a personal passion – I went to design school at NYSID during the pandemic and Louise minored in art history. And we found it’s how we often wanted to dress, too. We love drawing visual cues from decorative arts, so that the lines between fashion and interiors blur.
Louise: From an operations perspective, we also felt there was a lot to be improved about the way clothing and accessories are being made in our industry. So if we were going to launch a collection, it had to be done differently. That meant: working only with the best naturally-derived materials like silk, organic cotton and Tencel, producing locally in New York with the highest-quality manufacturers to support our community, repurposing "unusable" scraps and materials usually tossed in landfill, and making the collection on-demand and in small quantities to avoid overproduction…all of which reduce our carbon footprint (and are big challenges in the fashion industry).
To break it all down, there are the key “pillars” to the collection (forgive the corporate-speak), which we measure each design against. Rose Room is:
1/ Sophisticated, edited, timeless and comfortable
2/ With an aesthetic and original prints inspired by antique decorative arts, interiors, and architecture
3/ Made thoughtfully in New York from the best materials with quality craftsmanship
4/ Meant for gathering together with friends old and new and having fun (think: "dinner party dressing").
Have you started something? What were your reasons? Would love to hear —drop a comment below.
— Louise and Ally, Co-Founders of Rose Room