Alternative Apparel Blog

Inside Alternative: Tiffany Ruiz

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:25:54 PST

Street fashion aficionado and design extraordinaire, Tiffany Ruiz is the latest addition to Alternative’s Los Angeles Design Lab. Coming from a lifelong interest in fashion which led her to a design career, this California girl has what it takes to create super comfortable and fashionable pieces for our brand. As Alternative’s Women’s Designer, Tiffany brings tons of creative ideas to the inspiration board in order to build the brand’s seasonal collections.

What is your design background?
My grandparents were both in the sewing business. They had a manufacturing company downtown, so I’ve been around the area since I was just nine years old and knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to be in fashion. I started my studies at a community college where I began to make and sell purses and t-shirts. A few years later, I decided to get serious about starting my fashion career so I went to Brooks College to major in fashion design. Soon after graduation, I started working for a small company, Porridge Clothing, and after three and a half years I landed a job with Splendid Clothing, where I worked for over three years.

What inspired you to get involved in fashion design?
My Grandmother – she’s my biggest inspiration. She was the first person who introduced me to fashion and taught me how to sew at a young age. From the time I first learned how to use a sewing machine, I became fixated on creating my own wardrobe.

Who are some of your design idols and fashion icons?
Marc Jacobs. I love how fun and playful his clothes are and how you can see his influence from music, art and vintage elements in his collections. I also really love Band of Outsiders because of how simple their clothes are. The brand takes elements of men’s fashion and manages to create very feminine collections out of them. Even though runway shows are fun to watch, I think that street fashion is my biggest influence. It’s amazing to see how people wear clothes in their own personal way and style. A t-shirt could be worn and interpreted in many different ways. Clicking through street blogs is my favorite past time. Some of my favorites are: Painfully Hip, Chicfeed and 15-year-old Tavi’s RookieMag.

How would you describe your personal style?
I would describe my style as having a dorkish charm. Meaning my style is a little bit of geek fabulous while at the same time being classically girly. I believe that everything needs a cardigan and my biggest accessories are my glasses and rings that have been passed down to me from my great grandmother. I’m obsessed with vintage tees and love to mix and match them with dressier pieces like skirts and layered under dresses. I think everyone needs a few favorite tees that can become their signature look.

What fuels your creativity as a designer?
I constantly look for inspiration outside of fashion to get a fresh outlook. For instance, movies, music and art all inspire me. I really enjoy going to local art galleries and some of my favorite artists are street artist Banksy, Alice Neel and Stella Im Hultberg. Ever since my grandparents introduced me to downtown LA, I’ve been heavily influenced and it’s become a part of my fashion design aesthetic.

Tell us a little bit about what you’re currently working on.
The upcoming fall collection was the first season that I worked on at Alternative and I was really lucky to collaborate with Julie Goldstein, an artist that works with wood carvings. Her work really set the tone for the fall 2012 collection because we worked with fabrics that had texture and created go-to pieces that were easy to wear, allowing the fabric to be the star of the style. I think what’s so special about Alternative and what I’ve admired even before I started working here is the passion the brand has to create pieces that are made to integrate into your closet and adapt to your personal style.

×Eleni Snider
Photos by Stephen Zeigler

Oasis of Color: Spring 2012

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:29:32 PST

It started with a trip to Palm Springs...

One sunny day last summer, we went out looking for inspiration deep in the California deserts. We scratched down a short punch-list, grabbed a bunch of cameras and mapped our pathway. We found that the gritty, honest aesthetic of Palm Springs was our creative canvas for our spring 2012 collection.

As we dug deep into the arid natural landscape, we discovered a hidden oasis where wildflowers bloomed alongside the weathered mountains and boulders. Pools of color in bold and soft tones popped against a backdrop of crumbling hotels, abandoned automobiles and rustic antique shops.

Now, we’re telling our story with rich textures, sun-bleached desert washes, natural prints and a warm, vibrant color palette to signify spring’s resurgence of life and new beginnings.

x Melissa Metcalf

Photos by Stephen Zeigler

Inside the Brand: Project Alternative

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:08:40 PST

Last night, members of the Alternative family gathered together at our headquarters to participate in a competition inspired by the popular fashion design television show, Project Runway. Atlanta and L.A. employees with a wide range of fashion design backgrounds entered into the Project Alternative competition. Some had a head start as they are designers in our L.A. office, while others had a chance to express a rarely seen creative side as members of our Warehouse, Human Resources and Customer Experience departments.

Each participant was given an Alternative style weeks before the competition and told they could do whatever their hearts desired to alter it. The only catch was that the article still needed to be wearable. Printing, gluing, sewing, cutting, beading and everything in between was acceptable and definitely utilized in their creations. Needless to say, we saw many amazing designs (and model runway walks) from participants.

The judges were fashion industry leaders from the Atlanta area. They consisted of crafty blogger, Becky Striepe of GlueandGlitter.com, David Goodrowe, Associate Dean of the School of Design at SCAD Atlanta and Atlanta PR pro, Kitsy Rose of Kitsy Rose PR. All three judges scored each participant on a one to ten rating scale based on creativity, stylishness and construction of their garment.

In the end, an award was given to best model and the top three designers received trophies. The winning look was a printed, lightweight summer dress inspired by Alternative's spring 2012 line. It was definitely wearable and hard to believe the Eco-Royal fabric was once our Eco-Heather Slouchy Pullover. The innovative garment looked oh-so-chic on creative designer and model, Lindsey Harbour.

Look out fashion week, you just might see a member of our Alternative family strut down the design catwalk someday!

x Eleni Snider
Photos by Abby Williamson

Leading Ladies Like Alternative

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:22:32 PST

Fashion icon and Hollywood all-star, Charlize Theron, sported Alternative at a recent Lakers game in L.A. The actress looked amazing while wearing our Burnout Deep V-Neck with Pocket tee as she and a friend cheered on their team from the front row. Doesn't she look amazing?

Just a few days before on January 2nd, actress Sarah Shahi was seen at the Vancouver airport wearing our Skinny Leggings in the holiday Twilight Fair Isle print. What a cute cold weather look she has going on!

As Seen On: Are You There, Chelsea?

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:04:55 PST

Chelsea Handler is one funny lady on her nightly talk show and in her hilarious books, and now NBC has created a sitcom based on her popular book, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me Chelsea. Although this time the show isn't starring her - it features Handler look-a-like Laura Prepon instead - and in next week's OK! magazine, Prepon poses in Alternative's Burnout Deep V-Neck with Pocket Tee in Violet. Check out the new sitcom "Are You There, Chelsea?" tonight (January 11th) at 8:30 pm ET on NBC. We might just see more of Prepon rocking other Alternative styles!

Keepin' it Raw with Harmless Harvest

jarod@alternativeapparel.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:19:14 PST

It’s always enlightening to chat with someone who is really passionate about what they do. There’s something about the spark and enthusiasm that Harmless Harvest co-founder Justin Guilbert has that makes you automatically like his product, even if you’ve never tried it.

Just three years ago, Harmless Harvest came to life after a year and a half trip almost all over the world taken by the founders, Guilbert and Douglas Riboud, who learned about different fruits that could be made into nutritional products and how to harvest them in sustainable ways in small eco-farms all over the world. The first fruit they decided to conquer was the coconut.

“Coconut water just seemed like a slam dunk for us,” said Guilbert. Not only is coconut water right on trend (it's practically a nutritional fashion accessory these days), but it also has numerous health benefits that help it stay on top of all of those other drinks. And Harmless Harvest knows what it takes to make the best.

The stand-out factor of Harmless Harvest coconut water is the fact that it is produced and sold in its purest form without heating or harming the water in any way by using High Pressure Processing. This form of processing is a technique that uses pressure applied to the water bottles instead of heat to increase the shelf life to 45 days without compromising the raw nutritional integrity of the coconut water. Harmless Harvest's coconut water contains no artificial sugars or flavorings to make it taste better; it is all 100% raw and USDA organic coconut water. It's so natural, it tastes exactly as it would if you just cracked open a coconut on a tropical beach and began sucking the juice out of it. Yum!

Harmless Harvest is not a company that started solely for profits. The “coconut bellies,” as they refer to themselves as because of their signature tees, mostly want to bring like-minded people together to provide a raw, sustainable product to people who really care about what goes into their bodies and how the food they eat and drink are made. The 30-something Harmless Harvest employees like to promote sustainable nutrition while keeping wilderness conservation in mind.

According to Guilbert, Harmless Harvest will be keeping busy in 2012. They will be introducing new raw products that are sustainably sourced fruit pulp blends, camu camu tonic, a coconut pulp and cupuacu smoothie and a complimentary line of new skus coming out in the near future.

Currently, Harmless Harvest coconut water is readily available in Whole Foods stores in the Northeast, Florida and most recently in California. Learn more about Harmless Harvest on their site and make sure to watch their informational video. Follow them on Twitter @HarmlessHarvest and like them on Facebook! As the people from Harmless Harvest like to say, “Keep it Raw!”

x Eleni Snider