You may have seen her shoes on Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Halle Berry — $1,200 stilettos with 6-inch heels made for strutting the red carpet. Footwear designer Ruthie Davis is a big hit in the celebrity world.
Davis has come a long way since she honed her skills at Reebok, back when the company was based in Stoughton, and at Babson College, where she earned her MBA in 1993.
Her eponymous online store, launched last year, includes subtle references to a sporty, business background that is unusual in the world of high fashion. In addition to the flashy, spiky, sexy stilettos you’d expect to find on Hollywood stars, the digital shop also features more conservative options that could fit into a board room and even offers a few sneakers (at $728 on a pair, you might want to wear them for style and stick to the $60 cross trainers made by her former employer when it’s time to hit the gym).
Davis plans to open her first retail location next year in New York, where she works these days. But she was back in the Boston area recently for her induction into Babson’s Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. The honor might have surprised classmates of the former campus fashionista. “When I first got to Babson, I wasn’t perceived as seriously because I was into fashion,” she said.
The same perceptions that bothered Davis two decades ago still exist today. This month, her alma mater sponsored a conference on venture-capital funding for women-led companies. One panelist, a successful female technology entrepreneur, said funds are scarce in part because “there are a lot of women creating businesses that solve small problems.” She punctuated her point by asserting that “we don’t need another shoe company.”
“I just ignore that kind of dismissiveness,” Davis said when told of the remark. “It’s always an afterthought, the fashion thing. Well it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. This whole theory that if you’re smart, if you’re a CEO, you shouldn’t be concerned with your outfit — to me, that’s like the Dark Ages. Women should be able to wear a 6-inch heel and be CEO of the company.”
Know a new or interesting store or place to shop. Tell us about it at yourstoryhere@globe.com.