'Everyone Who Buys Blondita Is a Baddie': Meet the It-Girl Brand Worn by Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter (Exclusive)

What do Sabrina Carpenter, Sexyy Red and Chappell Roan have in common — well, besides their successful music careers? They all wear Blondita, and thus the woman behind the brand: Angela Ruis.

The owner of Blondita, 30, did not go to fashion school. She didn’t spend a cent on ads. She does not have a physical store, instead designing and creating each garment in her home in Los Angeles. Despite this, it-girls from far and wide – and their stylists – flock to her shop for ultra-minis, ultra-specific slogan tees and everything in between.

Founded in 2018, Blondita began as a side business for the self-taught designer — a Depop company where she hand-painted denim pieces to order. In 2023, she decided to join the brand, giving it all the “official bells and whistles,” she tells PEOPLE. “And it’s kind of organically ticked ever since, honestly.”

The model is wearing a Ruby top and short garter skirt by Blondita.

Blondita owner/designer Angela Ruis in her home studio.

Model wears Star Top and Katie Bubble Skirt. The model is wearing a Ruby top and short garter skirt by Blondita. PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

Blondita owner/designer Angela Ruis in her home studio. PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

Model wears Star Top and Katie Bubble Skirt. PHOTO:

Angela Ruis

Ruis still reflects on the way Blondita blossomed last year – a growth he attributes to both luck and “honesty… just doing everything from a really honest place.”

“It kind of blows my mind,” the native New Yorker says of her growing client list, which also includes stars like Beabadoobee, PinkPantheress, Madison Beer, Enya Umanzor and Tinashe. “How on earth did I get so lucky? I still don’t know.”

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Celeb, influencer or otherwise, the Blondite customer (or “girl,” if you will) tends to fit the bill, according to Ruis. “First of all, she is beautiful,” explains the designer. “Sometimes I just look at my tagged photos [on Instagram] and I say, ‘Anyone who buys Blondita is bad.’ ”

And, much like the brand’s designs—and the celebrities who wear them—the average Blondite customer is also a rebel.

Chappell Roan wears a Blondita tank top.

Chappell Roan/Instagram

“The client has a bit of humor and wit,” says Ruis, adding that they tend to “get into the culture.” In other words, Blondita was created by and for the “chronically online,” finding fashion fodder in cool girls past and present.

“I like playfulness. I like to refer to our nostalgia and the things we grew up with and add a fun, new twist to it,” says the LA-based designer. “And just being light and girly and… being a girl is just great.”

Blondita is both casual and elevated, chic and kitsch, ironic and sincere. But most of all, she’s referential, finding subtle but unmistakable inspiration in the it-girls of the 90s and 2000s. The Blondita Bubble Skirt, for example, is an ode to Misha Barton OCfrom the era of street style, while Gwen Stefani inspired the Gwen set — one of the most popular items in the store.

“I love the niche references of the time,” Ruis tells PEOPLE. “Like, that era without the conventional Y2K.”

The model is wearing a Mood Af off-the-shoulder top and a Katie Bubble skirt from Blondita.

The model wears the Gwen set by Blondit.

The model is wearing a Girls <3 My Swag Off Shoulder Top and a Diana Bubble Skirt from Blondita. The model is wearing a Mood Af off-the-shoulder top and a Katie Bubble skirt from Blondita. PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

The model wears the Gwen set by Blondit. PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

The model is wearing a Girls <3 My Swag Off Shoulder Top and a Diana Bubble Skirt from Blondita. PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

Stefani (her “Cool” music video, to be exact) also directly influenced the look of the Gwen set: an asymmetrical lace-up polka dot top and matching bubble miniskirt. It’s perhaps Blondita’s most recognizable piece — and it almost didn’t make it to the page.

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With polka dots low on the list of trendy patterns when Ruis first designed the set, everyone, including her mom (a former Fashion Institute of Technology student and Blondie’s “secret sauce”), was a little hesitant.

“She said, ‘Are you sure? It’s a really brave choice,’ recalls Ruis. “And I said, ‘No, I’m telling you, I want to do polka dots.’ ”

Seizing the opportunity — and trusting her gut — Ruis designed and dropped the Gwen set, and got the ultimate seal of approval: Blondita’s cameo in Carpenter’s “Taste” music video. The designer had an inkling it would end up in a viral visual after the pop star’s stylist, Ron Hartleben, reached out for some of the pieces, but she “didn’t know for sure,” she recalls.

“When the video came out, I was literally counting down,” the designer tells PEOPLE. “And then suddenly, at the end, [Carpenter] jump out with him. I was with my mom and boyfriend and it was a fun time with everyone I loved. It was so electrifying, like, ‘Oh, my God.’ ”

Sabrina Carpenter wears a Blondita Gwen ensemble in her ‘Taste’ music video.

Sabrina Carpenter/Youtube

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And the “Espressa” singer continued her Blondita streak, wearing a Katie Bubble Skirt in her new Netflix special, officially marking the store’s second appearance on the small screen. The first came in June, when Sexyy Red wore a custom ensemble to the BET Awards.

Ruis not only designed two original cuts for the “Pound Town” rapper — and provided garter shorts for the dancers — she was also backstage at the awards to help the performer’s stylist.

“[Red] she put the shine on herself. Ice Spice walks around saying, ‘Good luck, Sexy!’ It was such a crazy, cool moment,” recalls the designer. And, considering her family tree, it was also a full-circle tree.

Before Blondita, Ruis studied to be a producer, but “hit a wall” with music. “It wasn’t something super natural for me,” she says. Fashion, on the other hand, is in her blood.

A pair of shorts designed by Blondita Angela Ruis for Sexyy Red to wear to the 2024 BET Awards.

Sexyy Red at the 2024 BET Awards A pair of shorts designed by Blondita Angela Ruis for Sexyy Red to wear at the 2024 BET Awards PHOTO:

Angela Ruiz

Sexyy Red at the BET Awards 2024. PHOTO:

Sexy red/Instagram

An upholsterer by trade, Ruis’ late paternal grandfather spent much of her childhood hunched over a sewing machine. My mother’s side of the family was similarly crafty.

“I grew up very hands-on and DIY-y,” says the designer. “My mom was an art teacher. I lived with my nonna – that’s your grandfather in Italian – and he had a bridal shop in Brooklyn. So fashion was always there.”

Her late maternal grandparents, who ran a dress shop together, were “the business duo of the American dream,” says Ruis. “They came to America and just opened a store and that’s how they made a success. It was something they took pride in and it was something I always looked up to.”

All of her grandparents “unfortunately died before all of this,” she says, referring to her career focused on clothing design. – But I always think about whether they will be proud.

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Blonde designer Angela Ruis.

@krunkmama

As for the future of Blondita? Ruis is not short of ideas. “I’d love to make kids’ clothes,” she excitedly tells PEOPLE, adding that — in true Y2K style — she also has visions of tiny dogs rocking her slogan T-shirts.

Recently engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Ruis also has some custom looks to create: “That’s the only thing I think about when it comes to my wedding: ‘What do I wear?’ ”

And, in a return to her former career goals, she’s also looking to recruit some musically minded commoners for a “Blondita mixtape,” a concept she likes “’cause I don’t sing, and I’m not self-centered.”

“I’m so shy sometimes, even when it comes to clothes—I feel like sometimes people don’t even know I’m running the brand,” says Ruis. “But I love highlighting other creatives and using my platform, in whatever way I can, to lift other people up and bring other people together. I just love the community.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education