ALITY Designs is a luxury clothing brand based in North Pacific Beach and La Jolla. The founder, Ality Richardson, who grew up as a tomboy, felt uncomfortable with the dichotomized off-the-rack clothing for men and women and decided to make her brand.
San Diego Community Newspaper Group met with her to delve deeper into ALITY’s story. Richardson used her given name as the brand name, which is also a suffix that means “the art of being.” Just as “reality” is the art of being real and “personality” is the art of being a person, ALITY encourages customers to become whoever they want to be.
Her fashion taste was greatly influenced by her father. “My dad was a very stylish man. He was outspoken and colorful,” Richardson recalled. Yet, finding high-end clothing with versatile qualities was challenging.
She wanted to put two senses together in her apparel – the fancy stuff and the comfort of loungewear – so that she wouldn’t have to change multiple times a day to suit different times, places, and occasions.
“I had the idea of blending the sophisticated sexiness of Tom Ford with the workmanship of Carhartt outwear. An outdoor aesthetic combined with luxury appeal.” This desire led her to create her brand, ALITY Designs.
As Richardson was a third-generation family business owner, she had experience running a company. She also had know-how in marketing and a passion for design. She was ready to start a new phase of her life and launched the first collection in October 2022.
ALITY’s philosophy is based on three pillars: “low-key luxury,” “slow fashion,” and “gender-free.” Richardson explained that her team coined the term “low-key luxury” for the San Diego lifestyle, which is classy but also laid-back.
ALITY is also dedicated to sustainability. Their most significant effort is focused on small-batch production.
“Slow fashion is related to small-batch production, making things in our backyard not to have the emissions and all of the waste from cheap fabrics,” said Richardson. She expressed her pride in choosing their partners wisely and focusing on producing smaller quantities of higher quality.
One of the unique aspects of ALITY is their use of the term “gender-free” rather than “genderless” or “unisex.” They chose “free” to motivate customers to demonstrate themselves freely, regardless of their gender.
“I am very proud of how well our first collection fits,” said Richardson. She has never been comfortable with tight-fitting clothes and didn’t enjoy shopping in the women’s section. However, men’s clothing wasn’t suitable either, as it would be too big or wouldn’t fit her curvy body. To solve this problem, her team was committed to creating the perfect fit for both men and women physically.
Now ALITY is working on creating their second collection. “Keeping small batches, keeping quality as the key, keeping our values aligned with supporting the small business is what I want to do.” For more information about their story and products, visit ALITY Designs.
