The Thom Browne Alum Making Playful Workwear Out of Natural Fibers
As one of New York City’s fashion greats, Thom Browne has served as a career launching pad for designers such as Daniel Roseberry and Jackson Wiederhoeft. Ruby Jones also cut her teeth at the American luxury brand, where she worked as a womenswear designer before starting her own namesake label one year ago.
“Thom Browne has such a strong vision and his aesthetic is quite different from mine, so I really had to put myself into that world,” Jones tells Fashionista of the experience. “It really helped my creativity because you have to design such a cohesive collection, from hats to socks.”
There, Jones learned the ropes of fashion production, from building tech packs (detailed blueprints for garment construction), to communicating with factories. Beyond mastering the day-to-day operations, Jones also studied the art of building the sort of cohesive, head-to-toe look for which Thom Browne is known. But once it came time for Jones to venture out on her own, rediscovering her own aesthetic — one unchained to her employer’s elevated, preppy tailoring signatures, but still informed by its teachings — proved to be its own hurdle.
“It took a few months for me to really regain my own point of view,” Jones says. “I was so wrapped up in that world. Even [with] fabric shopping, I’d be like, ‘Oh, what a lovely gray wool.’ And [I’m] just getting to a point where I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m designing for me and for what my design point of view is.'”
Photo: Courtesy of Ruby Jones
Jones’ aesthetic is rooted in the rural sensibilities of her Massachusetts upbringing, consisting of “timeless, but not so classic” staples meant to be reworn season after season. Now, she embraces her own take on a uniform via workwear-inspired silhouettes and playful floral detailing — all exclusively constructed from natural fibers.
After her “outdoorsy childhood” near the Berkshires, Jones pursued a degree in fiber science and apparel design at Cornell University, where she dove into the complexities of textiles alongside traditional design. (“There was one class where we literally burned different fibers and saw how they reacted,” she recalls.) Now, she approaches her eponymous “eco-conscious” label, which celebrated its first anniversary last month, with a “fabric-first mentality.” Rather than selecting fabrics to fit a design already manifesting in her mind, Jones first chooses a fabric and determines a silhouette from there.
Photo: Courtesy of Ruby Jones
Her go-to is Casentino wool, a Tuscan fabric originating in the Casentino Valley that has been produced since the Middle Ages. The durable cloth features a textured, curly surface that is both insulating and breathable, per the brand. It’s used in several pieces from Ruby Jones’ fall collection (pictured above), including toggle coats ($590), Western-inspired vests ($315) and “gnome” hoods ($95). Jones also regularly reaches for organic cotton, knitted into waffle and rib finishes, due to its inherent durability. “When I started the brand, one of the guiding questions was, ‘What has been in my closet the longest?'” Jones says, reflecting on the waffle tops still lining her wardrobe (mirroring the one she wore during our interview).
Environmentally friendly fabrications permeate Ruby Jones’ latest offering, which also features a wool gauze tiered skirt ($360) and a naturally dyed Bedford cord jacket ($395).
“There was a lot of trial and error in that [first] year, and so this collection has been about defining the core Ruby Jones wardrobe,” the designer says. The label’s button-down Gatherer jacket ($395) proved to be its “number one hit” last spring, so this season, Jones introduced a matching pair of 100% cotton straight-leg pants ($275), also available in eggplant and cocoa colorways to “reinvent that [style] for fall.”
Photo: Courtesy of Ruby Jones
While a touch of personality imbues every Ruby Jones piece, quality seems to be the biggest priority for its customers, according to the designer. “My design background in luxury brands really brings a level of quality to the garments that a lot of those other brands don’t have, even at higher price points,” Jones says.
When it comes to Ruby Jones’ small-batch production, the designer remains closely involved throughout the process. For her first collection, she constructed all of the samples herself, but has since handed that responsibility over to the four New York-based manufacturers she works with. To this day, Jones still personally handles her sample pick-ups and drop-offs.
As Jones enters her second year in business, she is laser-focused on “trying to grow at a very sustainable pace.” Her strategy involves connecting with customers IRL via markets, craft shows, pop-ups and brand events. “It’s really helpful for me to have those experiences, to remember that there’s real people out there that connect with the pieces,” Jones says of her experience with in-person events. (Catch the brand at Renegade Craft‘s small business fair at New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion on Nov. 14 and 15.)
Photo: Courtesy of Ruby Jones
The designer has her heart set on one day opening a brick-and-mortar flagship store. She also has her eye on formally expanding into menswear and kidswear, as she notes her designs “are already versatile across gender and age.” While Jones is mainly focused on bolstering her brand’s direct-to-consumer channel, she does have a couple of smaller wholesale relationships to nurture, including one with a hotel resort in the Berkshires.
“The things that motivate me now are a little different than the things that motivated me from the start,” Jones reflects. “At first, it was just like, ‘I want to have a brand.’ And then once the brand existed, it was really like, ‘OK, now what is this about?’ It’s really been about forming [a] community and meeting customers and building relationships with manufacturers and always finding new ways to improve my processes.”
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