THE FASHION POWERHOUSE

Ripley Rader

Founder, Ripley Rader

SUPERPOWER: Going through the world boldly and unapologetically

A creative through and through, Ripley Rader has worn many hats over the years. “I was singing before I could talk, then I started dance at 6. I started doing professional theater when I was 10, and that’s about the same time I started sewing with my grandmother.” By age 15, she was dancing 20 to 30 hours a week, earning money as a performer, and selling shirts she made to classmates for them to wear to concerts. Before graduation, she had progressed to designing and making prom dresses for friends.

It would be another creation of hers—a jumpsuit—that would get her a spot in the California fashion and accessories stores Fred Segal and launch her mega-successful Ripley Rader clothing line. The piece attracted the notice of women in positions to help: First, the buyer for the iconic Hollywood boutiques who promised to launch her brand, then the fashion editor at Los Angeles Magazine who took a chance on her soon-to-be line, and then celebrities such as Felicity Huffman and Sandra Oh who fell in love with Rader’s work. “Women inherently help other women. If not for the women taking risks on me, I would never have a career.”

Rader, originally from Beckley, acknowledges that the privileges she has enjoyed in life have helped her along the way. “I’m white, and I’m upper middle class, so there’s a lot of privilege that goes with this. I felt like I could belong in any room, so even if I was from a small town, I never felt like a fish out of water in New York City or when I lived in Paris or in L.A.”

Empowering women is at the center of the Ripley Rader brand, and not just through the inclusive products the brand intentionally creates, but in the very fabric of the business. “We have this radical belief in ourselves, everyone who works here. This idea of giving women permission to step into their power, their beauty, their strength—if we model that unapologetically, then the ripples of Ripley Rader can reach beyond our wildest dreams.”

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