By Beth Treffeisen
A new kind of store has opened up shop at Copley Place in the Back Bay. A Ruby, a local store that sells comfortable yet chic women’s clothing stands out amongst the other brand name stores such as Tiffany & Co. and Barney’s that fill the upscale shopping mall.
The founder and original Club Monaco co-founder, Avra Myers, lived in the South End for many years and is excited to share her own brand of clothing to the city.
Myers first came up to New England when she worked for J.Jill, a women’s apparel company.
“I really wanted to make this my home,” said Myers. “Everyone was telling me, why don’t you do your own thing?”
This sparked the beginning of A Ruby, which Myers says combines “cozy, comfortable and chic” all in one clothing line.
A Ruby is headquartered in Quincy’s Marina Bay, and is known for featuring wardrobe essentials like a great pair of leggings, a crisp white shirt, a V-neck tunic sweater and stylish outerwear.
The holiday pop-up store will carry A Ruby go-to essentials, the AV-RA Performance athleisure line, and a selection of curated items including tees, dresses, tencel shirts, denim, accessories and more.
Inspiration for her clothing came to her when she noticed a lot of women wearing leggings but not looking amazing in them. Myers said she wanted to figure out a way to make them more acceptable in the work place but keep the comfort.
From the leggings she went to designing graphic tees with French phrases on them that go with the brand and then, “it just expanded from there,” said Myers.
Myers said she wanted to open a store because just being online can be really tough to get your brand out there. She said, if you have a store someone could be walking by on the way to another big brand store and only be 50 feet away from her stores window front.
“I need traffic,” said Myers. “I want this to be a store that you always go back to.”
New for the holiday season, a custom handmade sweater line called Trois Bateaux will be featured in collaboration with South End designer Dylan Uscher.
Customers can come into the store and pick out their style, color, and size and even get their initials on the handmade sweaters.
“It’s a great holiday gift for someone who wants to get someone something nice but doesn’t want to chose everything,” said Uscher.
The orders will be sent to Uscher’s studio in the South End where he will create them.
Other featured items will include a line of Parisian-inspired charm jewelry including scarabs, Eiffel towers and poodles, all made with LDC, a jewelry store out of Rhode Island.
Myers is always on the look out for what her customers are looking for and strives to cater her clothes to meet their needs.
“I don’t design clothes in a vacuum,” said Myers. “I really look to see what she wants – I really follow the trends.”
A Ruby Copley Place will be open throughout the holiday season and is located on Level Two of Copley Place, near the central elevators across from Barney’s.
You can visit www.aruby.net for more.