A sartorial innovator whose seams were stitched from the inside of her own apartment in 2010, Ramy Brook Sharp—founder, CEO and creative director of Ramy Brook—cut her own path in the fashion world. Driven by a void in her own wardrobe, Ramy Brook Sharp set out to design and create her own garment that met the desired look she sought out and could not find elsewhere. Filling a void in her own wardrobe became a style reformation—and the ultimate catalyst for the initial showroom of what would become the contemporary women’s designer wear brand that it is today.
“I was constantly searching for a beautiful silk top I could wear with denim— something that felt sexy and sophisticated, worked with great jewelry and wasn’t the same price as a high-end designer,” said Ramy Brook Sharp. “I wanted something beautifully made that I could buy in multiple colors and wear again and again, and I just couldn’t find it. I remember thinking, ‘Why can’t I make this myself ?’”
And so she did.
Inspired by the designers that she had always admired—Lanvin, Gucci, Tom Ford, Prada—Ramy Brook Sharp wanted to take those influences and make them feel right for her own lifestyle. The first silk tops she had created were designed around versatility. “I wanted them to feel sexy and elevated but still easy to wear. They were also almost like a canvas for jewelry—you could wear the same top in completely different ways depending on how you styled it,” she said. That mix of simplicity, femininity and versatility became part of the Ramy Brook DNA from the beginning.
Now, Ramy Brook Sharp did not study fashion design. This was not a career she had mapped out for herself. In fact, this was more so a pivotal career shift entirely. Ramy Brook Sharp had started her career in Grey Advertising. That experience had a big influence on how she eventually built her namesake brand. “It taught me how to understand the customer, communicate a clear point of view, work with different personalities and think about a brand from both the creative and business sides. I also had the opportunity to work on the Burberry account, which gave me an early window into the fashion industry and really shaped the way I thought about branding, image and the consumer,” she said. “Advertising was also such a relationship-driven business, and I learned early on how important those connections are.”
Having taken the experience from her advertising days, Ramy Brook Sharp started having trunk shows in her apartment. She was selling six tops and one dress. Among her buyers were friends of hers—friends who shopped at Bergdorf Goodman. These friends would go to their appointments at the department store in their Ramy Brook tops, garnering the attention of a personal shopper who eventually started asking, “Where are those from?” and began sending her clients to Ramy Brook Sharp’s apartment to shop.
One thing led to another—all organic growth. The personal shopper then connected Ramy Brook Sharp with the legendary Betty Halbreich, who headed personal shopping at Bergdorf Goodman. Around that same time, Chelsea Handler’s stylist was also meeting with Halbreich to pull looks, and she came across a few Ramy Brook pieces. Handler ended up wearing a light blue Ramy Brook top which gave the brand incredible exposure and created even more momentum. The stylist was picking out pieces that felt fresh, flattering and easy to wear.
That was Ramy Brook.
“The goal was that women could dress them up or down, and they filled a gap in their wardrobes. It grew from women seeing the clothes, loving them and telling someone else about them, which led to Bergdorf placing our first major order,” said Ramy Brook Sharp.
Success was manifesting. “Getting picked up by Bergdorf Goodman was definitely one of those moments where I thought, okay, this is really happening. Being able to say Ramy Brook was sold at Bergdorf gave the brand an incredible sense of credibility and opened many doors for us…There have been so many milestones along the way. Seeing Taylor Swift organically wear Ramy Brook was certainly one of them.” said Ramy Brook Sharp. In the beginning, she was usually one connection away from anyone wearing Ramy Brook. She knew the stylist, the friend or the person making the introduction. Now, people discover and wear the brand completely independently of her, which she finds incredibly rewarding. When Ramy Brook Sharp looks back at where she started—with just a handful of silk tops and one dress in her apartment—to where the brand is today, with a full lifestyle collection, major retail partners, hundreds of domestic and international boutiques, and her own Madison Avenue flagship, she says “that evolution is something I’m incredibly proud of.”
Success does not come to fruition—and stay—without hard work, dedication and research. When reflecting on how she got to be sold in these department stores and having her own store now, Ramy Brook Sharp detailed, “I’ve always looked at the clothing from a customer point of view. I think about the wardrobe she needs in her busy multitasking life. A big part of our growth has also been knowing our customer wants. We’ve stayed true to who we are as a brand, at the same time evolving. Our retail partners have been an important part of that as well. I look at those relationships as true partnerships and something we’re building together. Having our own store felt like a natural next step. It gives us the chance to connect directly with the customer and really bring the full Ramy Brook world to life.”
For Ramy Brook Sharp, her inspiration is drawn from the women she is surrounded by or has met along the way—whether it’s friends sitting outside at a café, her own daughter or women she sees while traveling. She is also inspired by the places she visits, the colors and details she notices, and what she feels is missing from her own closet. All of these factors help shape each collection she creates.
With her inspiration, Ramy Brook Sharp gets more inclined to diversify what she adds to each collection—especially with her own customers wanting more. One client loved the full head-to-toe look ensemble she would see with the Ramy Brook pieces and wanted to shop it all from the brand—from the jewelry to the shoes. Regarding her other customers, Ramy Brook Sharp said, “We were constantly getting customer service calls asking about pieces we didn’t even sell yet, so expanding into more categories felt like a natural next step. Over time, we expanded into dresses, denim, knits, swim, outerwear, accessories, shoes and other categories so we could dress her for more parts of her life.” The goal became giving customers the full Ramy Brook look, not just one piece.
When it comes to the future of the brand, Ramy Brook Sharp sees it becoming a true lifestyle brand—expanding into more categories, growing its retail presence and continuing to build the business internationally. At the same time, she wants to make sure that Ramy Brook stays connected to their customer. She said, “The goal is to keep evolving with her and creating pieces that make her feel confident, feminine and excited to get dressed. Growth is exciting, and staying true to what made women connect with Ramy Brook in the first place is just as important.”
Now, we’ve seen Ramy Brook Sharp, the entrepreneurial designer, the career woman. Now, let’s look at who she is outside of her career, and how that identity actually fuels her success.
And it begins with family. Family is everything to Ramy Brook Sharp. She grew up in Chatham, New Jersey with her two sisters. Her father was a chemist and her mother a teacher, it only makes sense that their daughter knows how to synthesize her world just like her parents. In addition, Ramy Brook Sharp said “My mom loved fashion and used to make matching dresses for me and my sisters. As we grew up, going to the mall was basically our sport, so I think that love of clothes and shopping was always there from a young age.” Fashion preceded her but it became part of her future.
Today, Ramy Brook Sharp lives with her husband in New York , where they also raised their three children. When she started her business, the children were 5, 7 and 10, so in a lot of ways they grew up alongside the expanding brand. She said, “The first three years I worked out of my apartments so they saw all the comings and goings. Starting a company while raising a family taught me a lot about prioritizing and being efficient with my time. It’s also been special to see that entrepreneurial spirit carry into the next generation—two of my children are entrepreneurs themselves. My family has been incredibly supportive throughout the whole journey, and they’re a huge part of my life.”
Witnessing that drive in the next generation has only deepened Ramy Brook Sharp’s desire to pay it forward. Today, philanthropy is woven directly into the fabric of both her personal life and the Ramy Brook company. She said, “Over the years, I’ve been involved with organizations and initiatives including UJA, Project Prom, Project ALS, RENS Basketball, The Bowery Mission, and breast cancer awareness efforts (Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation). I also sit on the Innovation and Entrepreneurship board at Duke, which is another meaningful way I stay involved and meet with students who are pursuing their entrepreneurial journey.” When Ramy Brook Sharp finally steps away from her fast-paced business, connecting with her inner circle becomes her top priority. She’s learned how to play Mahjong and canasta—finding a lot of social events around both those games—and loves playing tennis and golf. She said, “Hosting my friends and family has always been a big part of my life. I love traveling. Many of those trips end up inspiring me creatively. I’m always paying attention to what people are wearing, where they’re going and how they’re living.”
Ramy Brook Sharp’s boundless curiosity and social energy define who she is at her core. She loves being around people and bringing them together. She’s very hands-on, eager to learn at every turn. She said, “I think a lot of my success has come from being willing to take chances and go after things, even if I didn’t have every step figured out from the beginning. I come from a family of really curious, driven people. My mom, Helene Shalotsky, is 85 and still writes a blog, which I love. She’s always learning, creating and staying engaged. My sister, Dr. Robi Ludwig, is a psychologist and has written two books. There’s always something interesting going on in my family, and I definitely think that their curiosity, creativity and work ethic rubbed off on me.”
She’s a fashion designer who elevates with every step she takes. She’s Ramy Brook Sharp.
