Power dressing: couture designer Rene Ruiz is building his brand by creating fashions for Miami's rich and powerful—and not just women

South Florida CEO, July, 2004 by J.P. Faber

Rene Ruiz' couture shop on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is almost Disneyesque, in the sense that so much goes on behind the scenes to make the out-front ride work. The high-ceilinged showroom displays the "ready to wear" dresses he designs; deeper into the store are changing rooms and a sumptuous, heavily curtained private chamber where he works with his top clients. But open a door in the rear, and you will find a warren of pattern makers, cutters, fitters, sample makers and some two-dozen employees working at sewing machines, cutting fabric or draping cloth on mannequins.

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Ten years since he first operated from a single, second-floor room on Giralda Avenue, Ruiz is in full form on Miracle Mile, where he designs and creates gowns for some of Miami's most powerful and socially significant women, as well as custom suits for a growing number of its leading men. While his sales are increasingly coming from off-the-rack designs, more than half his business still revolves around personalized gowns for clients ranging from real estate sales powerhouse Alicia Cervera to advertising agency owner Deborah Scarpa Castro. He dresses both Katrina Peebles and her husband, developer and Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau chairman Don Peebles. As a group, his clients' loyalty borders on reverence.

"Rene is unique because of his ability to assess the physique and style of each of his clients," Katrina Peebles says. "Unlike some couturiers, his designs aren't just well-tailored. They are also unique creations that enhance the individual beauty and personality of his clients." Scarpa Castro gushes even more: "Rene is a man-child. When you look at him you see purity, sincerity and innocence. He gives off such a great energy and he is beautiful to look at. I love him."

Ruiz, an affable and soft-spoken man of 40, is slightly embarrassed by such praise, but nonetheless confident of his creations, which can range from $1,500 for off-the-rack designs to between $2,000 and $8,000 for couture. A wedding gown can reach $16,000. His jeweled handbags cost $1,000; a ready-to-wear leather bustier is priced at $925. "What we do equals the best companies in Europe," he says.

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If Ruiz is obsessed with one thing, it's the quality of the cloth he uses. Despite the high cost of the Euro, he insists on silks from France and Italy, rather than less expensive silks from India or China. "This is a fabric that cannot be found any longer," he says, fingering cloth like a miner might finger gold dust. "I stumbled across the company in Paris last summer. It's painted silk."

Despite his growing success--he won't reveal figures, but says business this summer is triple last year's--Ruiz never intended to become a fashion designer. A native of Cuba who came to the US at age 14, Ruiz started out studying engineering and architecture. But his childhood fascination with the styles of the Hollywood stars he saw in movies--women like Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman--led to a degree from the International Fine Arts College in Miami, followed by an apprenticeship in Florence, Italy, where he learned to construct clothing under Valentino's head sample maker.

Back in Miami, his first break as a name designer came when Mary Anne Shula, wife of the legendary Dolphins football coach, hired him. "She wanted me to design a cocktail dress for her, in emerald green--I'll never forget it," Ruiz says. "Then she told people, who told people ..."

Now Ruiz is looking to expand his name as a brand, first by opening another location next year in Palm Beach, and then by pushing his designs at global fashion shows. "I would like to create a high-quality, luxury label for things originally made here in South Florida," he says. "This [Miami] may not be the center for fashion as much as New York, or Milan, or Paris, but there is an energy and style here, a sexiness, that's becoming an international trend."

Latin Americans, in particular, look to Miami for design direction, Ruiz says. And that was driven home last year when he was the live fashion commentator for the Latin Grammy awards, working with CBS-Channel 4 entertainment reporter Lisa Petrillo. "I was doing a story on the making of a dress for the Grammys, and I got to know him while he was making my ball gown," Petrillo says. "So we did a two-hour live show for all the CBS affiliates, making comments about everyone on the red carpet. He had no attitude, and was very cool."