Rachel Roy redesigns her life with a new plus-size fashion line and book

Rachel Roy is experiencing a rebirth this year. After her former business partner, Jones Apparel Group, suddenly pulled the plug on her designer label two years ago, the 42-year-old fashion entrepreneur and author of the new book “Design Your Life: Creating Success Through Personal Style” has surfaced with a new plus-size line, a revamped website and plans to relaunch her signature line.

With a fierce sense of self-determination, Roy has been busy working on the next phase of her brand, all happening mostly in Los Angeles, and building the new foundation for her fashion empire to flourish despite unforeseen setbacks.

During the early 2000s, Roy became a sartorial darling, especially in the New York fashion scene, going from intern at Rocawear to becoming the brand’s creative director for its women’s and children’s divisions. In 2004, Roy started her luxury namesake line with pieces such as trench coats and versatile day-to-night dresses sold at retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. She appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and she received awards for contributions to the fashion industry, including an induction into the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Then 2014 happened, leaving Roy to reconsider her business and essentially do the very thing she explains in her book: design your life and take control of your own destiny.

Her down-to-earth determination was witnessed one morning in March when the designer and author sat in a Sherman Oaks home in a bathrobe as her hair and makeup team tended to last-minute touch-ups before a photo shoot. Feet away on a wall in Roy’s kitchen, a small plaque a captured her mantra, “What Good Shall I Do This Day?”

While checking her eyelashes and work emails, Roy scrolled through her Instagram feed where her posts of inspiring and motivational messages and news about clothing collections Rachel Rachel Roy and Rachel Rachel Roy Curvy reach more than 300,000 followers.

The photo shoot preparation was an example of the delicate balance of a busy career, having constant mindfulness in all aspects of her life, and the pervasive presence of social media, especially in the fashion industry — all things Roy appears to navigate with grace, positivity and style.

Roy’s calm nature might have to do with a semi-recent move from New York, the place she called home and the epicenter of her business for 20 years, to Los Angeles two years ago, coupled with the fact that the Northern California native leads her life and design work with a belief in doing good and empowering the women who wear her clothes.

“I just try to uplift without making things too unattainable,” says Roy, who often shares quotes, lessons and business tools she finds helpful with her social media followers and during talks and lectures.

L.A. is the city which she and her two daughters, Ava, 16, and Tallulah, 7, now call home and where Roy is busy working with a new business partner, apparel manufacturing company Topson Downs, maker of junior and contemporary brands. It’s also the place, she says, she can exhale and be less anxious. (Roy filed a lawsuit against her former business partner in 2014 that was settled out of court.)

When it comes to her design aesthetic, Roy isn’t fazed by geography. “I don’t think the change is reflected in my designs,” she says. “At least I don’t notice it because that’s the one area where I don’t over think and don’t second guess myself. For me, that’s like breathing. I create currently for Macy’s, and they’re everywhere. So my mind when I was in New York creating tried to be everywhere in the country, not just New York.” Selections from her contemporary line, Rachel Rachel Roy, are available at Lord & Taylor and Von Maur stores and through her website, www.rachelroy.com.

Roy’s democratic designs and her ability to create clothing for women’s everyday lives are important reasons the brand has resonated so well with Macy’s, which has carried her contemporary line for more than seven years. “Her fashion works for all different shapes, sizes and demographics,” says Caprice Willard, a regional vice president for MyMacy’s Strategy.

Though her focus is to design for her customers’ needs, Roy is still taken by the Los Angeles landscape that now surrounds her, especially the legacy of Old Hollywood and the actresses who had to balance their on-screen glamour with a behind-the-scenes reality.

“I imagine the starlets [who] lived in those little bungalows near the Four Seasons on Doheny [Drive] with their silk robes and long cigarette cases, and those do inspire,” she says. “I connect with the glamour but also what’s on the opposite side of the glamour, which is their actual real life, and that makes me relate to them as a woman. They were equal parts feminine and strong. I like the idea that our clothes are costumes that we can put on and tell the world whatever it is we want someone to think about us and in those films they did it perfectly.”

Dressing the part is a message in her first book, “Design Your Life” (Dey Street Books). In the 213-page book, Roy writes about how fashion has been a positive and motivating force in her life, helping her dream beyond a humble start growing up near Monterey, and how she worked her way up through retail and internships; she also offers readers sartorial tips that have worked for her.

“As a designer, there are no rules in fashion. If there were it wouldn’t be a creative industry,” Roy says. “It really does start with knowing yourself and making decisions that reflect the type of life you want to live. And so, I wanted to pass that onto my readers. That once you get over that first step of discovering who you are — and you don’t have to be a creative person to do that — because every single person is creating the type of life they want to live. You just have to be aware of what makes you happy, and it’s the same for clothes.”

Taking her thought a step further, she says, “My approach is through style and fashion, but for someone else, it could be through another passion. For me, if I want to feel a certain way, I will start with what I put on my body, and it helps get me there. And I think that’s the great thing about fashion, that it can elevate your mood and then your confidence and then hopefully your intelligence.”

Roy’s approach to fashion informs the content of her newly revamped website, which includes video content and written pieces from contributors including Kris Jenner, Brittany Snow and others.

Along with taking bigger strides into digital this year, she created a small jewelry collection called Love Bomb, in collaboration with L.A.-based Enrou, made from bomb fragments from the Vietnam War era. The collection consists of a handlet ($98) and body chain ($148) and is available at enrou.co.

“[This type of project] is a reminder that you can change something that started out evil,” Roy says. “I love this kind of work because it makes all of the frustrating aspects of business that don’t come naturally to me but that I learned it because I loved the creative aspect, all worth it.”

And Roy also set out to change the perception of plus-size clothing with the launch of her Rachel Rachel Roy Curvy line, which debuted this spring. The 45-piece collection mirrors the styles of her contemporary collection, and pieces are sold at select Macy’s stores, on macys.com and through Roy’s website.

“It’s one of those things that should just be,” Roy says about the Curvy line. “Sometimes I tend to not make a big deal of things because they should just be and be effortless. What I’m making anyway can actually really effect change.”

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