Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruby Cloutier.
Hi Ruby, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been interested in how people express themselves through what they wear, collect, and surround themselves with. My path into interiors wasn’t completely linear, but looking back, there’s a very clear thread through all of it.
I studied fashion design and spent about seven years working in luxury retail and styling. That experience taught me how to really observe people, their tastes, behaviors, personalities, and the things they were drawn to, even when they couldn’t necessarily articulate why.
In 2007, I started a fashion blog called Beneath The Image, and later launched Illest Vintage, a collection of vintage jewelry and home accessories. After spending time in Montreal and eventually returning to Austin, I started a home staging company, Vazzo Spaces. That became my bridge into interiors. I realized I was less interested in simply making a room look good and much more interested in how a space could communicate something and affect the way someone felt within it.
From there, my work naturally evolved into interior and spatial design. My foundation is in residential interiors, but my interests have continued to expand into exhibitions, installations, objects, and creative direction. I’m increasingly drawn to work that allows those disciplines to overlap and inform one another.
Today, my practice begins with experience. I’m interested in defining what a project should feel like, how it should unfold, and what it should make possible before major design decisions are fixed. From that north star, I can help assemble the right team and work collaboratively with architects, builders, artists, makers, and other disciplines to carry the idea through.
When I look back, the scale has changed from clothing, to images, to objects, to rooms and environments, but the instinct has stayed remarkably consistent. I’m interested in people, perception, and creating experiences that feel considered and whole.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. My path has been very nonlinear, and for a long time I think I saw that as a weakness instead of understanding that it was actually shaping the way I see.
I’ve had moments of starting over, changing direction, questioning where I fit, and trying to understand how all of my interests connected. Fashion, styling, vintage, interiors, photography, objects, and spatial design can look like separate things from the outside, but for me they have always been connected by the same curiosity about people, identity, atmosphere, and how we experience the things around us.
One of the bigger challenges has been resisting the pressure to define myself too narrowly. I knew I was interested in interiors, but I also knew I didn’t want to be confined to a traditional definition of interior design. It has taken time to understand that my real interest is in the experience of space and in shaping a project from the earliest idea through to the finished environment.
There have also been the very real challenges of building a creative practice, finding the right clients, trusting my own point of view, and learning when to say no to work that doesn’t align with where I’m trying to go.
I think the biggest lesson has been that clarity doesn’t always come before the work. Sometimes you have to keep moving, experimenting, and paying attention to what consistently energizes you. Looking back, the difficult parts were often the moments that pushed me toward a clearer understanding of the kind of designer I want to be.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I’m at a point in my career where I’m thinking very intentionally about what I want my practice to be and how I want projects to begin.
My approach is increasingly centered around experience first. Before a design team is assembled or major resources are committed, I want to help clients define what matters most experientially, spatially, and financially. That becomes the north star for the project and informs everything that follows, from the team we bring together to the architecture, interiors, materiality, and where we choose to invest.
Ideally, I’m involved at the very beginning. I establish the experiential and spatial direction, then curate the right architect, builder, and collaborators for the project. From there, the process becomes very collaborative. I’m interested in architecture and interiors developing together rather than one discipline being brought in after the other.
That is really the practice I’m building now. I want to create work that feels cohesive because the experience, the architecture, the interiors, the objects, and the atmosphere are all being considered as parts of the same idea.
I’m also very interested in expanding beyond residential interiors over time into exhibitions, installations, objects, and other spatial experiences. I see the practice as something that can move between scales while still being grounded in the same point of view.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my favorite childhood memories is trying to recreate outfits I saw on characters in children’s books. I was always paying attention to what people were wearing and how they put things together, even before I really understood that as design.
I also have really strong memories of playing sports. I was a great athlete and very competitive, and it became one of the main ways my dad and I connected. Some of my favorite memories are tied to that time, not just because I loved competing, but because it gave us something we shared.
Looking back, both memories feel very connected to who I am now. One was about observation and self-expression, and the other was about discipline, drive, and connection.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://substack.com/@rubycloutier
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiorubycloutier/
- Other: https://rubycloutier.substack.com
