Today we’d like to introduce you to Lorena Ortiz Turnbull.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m from a dance and choreography background studying dance in New York and then LA working in the industry as a dancer and later as a choreographer directing music videos, artists, and shows. I also have my own dance convention with a faculty of incredible teachers and talents from the dance industry.
As part of this, we even designed a line of dance apparel especially aimed at young dancers which led to the formation of the Rupert Bye kids clothing line, after the birth of our son Kayden.
Kayden has been the main inspiration behind Rupert Bye Kids, he models many of the prototypes for us which helps us make decisions on comfort, cuteness, fit and durability. My husband comes from a fashion background so forming a clothing line for kids made complete sense. We realized that comfort and style in kids clothing doesn’t often go together and being from a dance and choreography background I was able to identify with clothing that was easy and comfortable to wear.
Has it been a smooth road?
As artistic minded people running a business isn’t always easy, I visualize and focus on the Creative reward at the end of the spreadsheets, paper work, and organizational side of running a business.
One of the things that we find works is to always have a set of small achievable goals for each day so as not to overwhelm ourselves.
Our advice to entrepreneurs is “Just go for it” and “Never, Never, Never give up”, persistence is the key, the overall rewards make the demanding challenges well worth all the effort. Making sure you have fun while doing it is incredibly important. Surround yourself with positive people. Mistakes are never really mistakes, they are opportunities to learn and move forward with a new-found confidence.
It’s important to set aside free time to spend with my family and balance out work with fun times. We visit the Huntington Botanical gardens a lot, it’s a great inspirational place for us, and has an incredible, thoughtfully created children’s garden. It’s a great space for the three us to spend quality time together and grow as a family. Our hobbies include succulent and cactus gardening and tropical fish keeping, all of these keep us grounded when times get hectic.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Rupertbyekids story. Tell us more about the business.
Rupert Bye kids is known for our array of incredible prints sourced locally in Los Angeles as are our elastics and threads, our kid’s clothes are super comfy and are designed to be highly wearable and fashion-forward, we are proud to say that everything is manufactured here in LA nothing is made overseas….
It’s tough when you are up against Amazon and the likes…. we really believe in community and sustainable shopping with small local businesses, so we have made a connection with local stores and Currently have 8 stores carrying the Rupert Bye kids clothing line in and around LA with plans to expand to New York, fingers crossed.
We recently included a women’s apparel line under the umbrella of Rupert Bye kids which has had a great response from professional women and mommies alike. My husband and I run every aspect of the business from planning photo shoots and casting children to be in them, running the online store, featuring as models in the shoots, sourcing fabrics and designing looks to brainstorming and figuring out new ways to expand and grow our small family business.
We are really proud to share some of the Local Celebrities who have chosen Rupert Bye Kids Designs for their children. Halle Berry, Neve Campbell, Wes Bentley and Louis Tomlinson and there are more in the pipeline!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Social networking and figuring out trends and niche markets are a big side of things for the future of RB kids, we really enjoy working on our Instagram feed and trying to reach out to mommy’s and connect with them, kids are the future, we want to present positive vibes and confidence going forward with a great set of morals.
We always want to manufacture our clothing here in Los Angeles as we don’t believe that outsourcing overseas is sustainable, necessary or beneficial to creating variation and uniqueness.
We hope that people will shop local as much as they can and that this will help to create and sustain community and social connection, community and the people in it are so valuable, many of them have supported us and helped us grow.
Pricing:
- Discount for LA Voyage readers copy paste LAVOYAGE%15OFF at checkout on our website.
Contact Info:
- Address: Sherman oaks ca 91423
- Website: www.rupertbyekids.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rupertbye/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rupertbye
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rupertbye?lang=en
Image Credit:
Lorena Ortiz Turnbull
Rupert Bye
Ra Dreyfus
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