Can We Talk About Israeli Fashion?

Ruti Zisser was born in Haifa, Israel and the oldest of 5 children. Ruti’s mother, Tova, was a source of inspiration, a single mother working as a wig artist to create hair pieces for sick women. Her mother felt rewarded by helping women feel beautiful and confident.

Ruti’s love of fashion was influenced by her grandmother who served as Eva Braun’s (Adolf Hitler’s long-time companion) personal seamstress. Ruti spoke with her grandmother for hours on end about fashion, which captivated Ruti as people were mostly focused on surviving during that time and fashion seemed so trivial. Her grandmother explained that her profession, and relationship with clothing, is what helped her survive the holocaust.

Ruti emigrated to the United States in 2002 and worked in the tech industry throughout her 20’s and 30’s. She felt disheartened with her career – feeling far away from algorithms and AI – and longed to work with something tangible. Ruti felt that working in tech felt like a wonderful mistake. After years as a tech executive, Ruti took a leap of faith and struck out on her own to create a new kind of luxury brand. She realized that tech was the missing link to solving issues within the fashion retail world and began to apply her past career experience to her new endeavor.

RUTI was founded in 2009 to change consumers relationship with their closet. Ruti devoted herself to creating the clothes she has been searching for but was never able to find. She began creating pieces that were both flattering and practical – designed to be stylish and to be worn on several occasions, as well as being aspirational.

RUTI began as a direct to consumer e-commerce company but quickly grew and expanded into brick and mortar. Ruti believed in building a brand with a hybrid approach – taking the guesswork out of buying fashion and to impact as many women as possible in the world. Today, the brand has opened retail flagship stores across the country in the following major cities: Dallas, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Venice, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and New York (Madison Avenue) with two additional stores in Scottsdale and Seattle scheduled to open at the end of 2018/early 2019.

Ruti lives in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley with her husband and three children.