California Apparel News

Stylist Zoe Battles-Moore was sick of driving long distances from her home in the San Fernando Valley to stores in Beverly Hills and Hollywood to do her fashion shopping. So she decided to do something about it. She opened her own boutique, Ruby Jean, in the Valley’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood on July 17.

In recent years, well-regarded fashion boutiques—including Tryst, Belle Gray and Stacey Todd—have opened in the Valley’s Studio City and Sherman Oaks neighborhoods.

But Battles-Moore said she believed she could create a specific niche with her fashion edge. After spending more than 12 years scouring Southern California to find unique clothes for music videos, she decided to open a boutique that features up-and-coming designers offering art-inspired looks. “I treat buying for the store like buying for a styling job.It’s about finding the most funky, unique stuff. It can’t be plain,” she said.

Many of Ruby Jean’s designers come from the Los Angeles area. Her collection includes Corey Lynn Calter; Trina Turk; Petro Zillia; and the ragged but intricate pieces of Hollywood-based Josh and He-Yang, whose sweaters and skirts have a price range spanning $60 to $250.

Battles-Moore also sells the sophisticated but tough look of New York’s Heike Jarick, with price points ranging from $125 to $525. Then there’s the contemporary casual style with Caribbean nuance of Puerto Rico design house Ecliptica. Ecliptica’s fashions include everything from batik bolero jackets to silk ponchos, priced from $80 to $450.

The first-time retailer said she financed the store with bank loans. She designed the shop with high ceilings; a large chandelier; and Venetian plaster walls with a light tangerine color and bamboo-like horsetail foliage, which gives the place an island theme.

Battles-Moore debuted the store with a party for more than 50 people, including former Los Angeles Clippers basketball player Pooh Richardson. —Andrew Asch