Rodarte

Orchid print waved dress with pleated underbase RODARTE

interview / model LIZ GOLDWYN
polaroids by TODD COLE

 

Out West in Pasadena, these sisters are doing it by themselves. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, creators of RODARTE, glean inspiration from across the ages, whether from a Velazquez painting or a Navaho weaving. They don’t follow trends, they just listen to each other.

Kate and Laura Mulleavy are sisters who design under the Rodarte label. But they didn’t go to fashion school. Kate majored in Art History and Laura in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating, the girls returned home to Pasadena, California and founded Rodarte. They live in a cottage with their mushroom-specialist father, their artist mother, who often makes jewelry for their collections, and their grandmother.

Their work is artistic, architectural, and has a refined aesthetic sense not generally…