The exquisite design of the window display draws you into the store like a magnet. Once there you are surrounded by a plethora of design…..everywhere you look……and COLOR!
Who is the whirling dervish 24-year old owner of this remarkable store?
At age 5 Mozart was driven to compose. At age 3 Charlotte was driven to clothes.
“Don’t buy clothes for me, “ she stomped her foot at her mother who was buying her the most exquisite hand-made little dresses. “I will choose my own clothes”
12 year old “I bought all the fashion magazines possible and covered the four walls of my room with it. Did lots of scrap booking with pictures of runways, models, editorials… “
The moment she was given an allowance, she became a person driven to buy clothes, clothes and more clothes. Her room was bursting at the seams. Her friends came to visit and came away with…. more clothes !
When her allowance was no longer adequate to “buy, buy and buy,” Charlotte went to work in dress shops. Driven by passion, not money, she quickly became top salesperson. “I wanted every woman to come home with an item of clothes that would make her feel good about herself every time she put it on.”
Moving forward to age 17 and now a student at Lasalle College in Fashion Marketing. “A breeze…except for accounting! Ooooh I failed it so many times.”
And no slouch. While going to school she was working 3 sales jobs at the same time.By now, she was hooked on vintage. Why vintage ? “Because you can find fabulous outfits for cheap! High-end items at super low prices. Love mixing vintage with new. In that way it is easy to trick everybody. Makes them feel your outfit cost a million bucks!”
When she was out doing a school project focused on all the vintage stores in montreal, suddenly a light went on.
“I’ve got to work for myself. I have to be my own boss. I’ve got to own a vintage store! “ But where? Charlotte had discovered the Mile End. On St.Laurent,on a block North of Laurier. That’s where young, ambitious and talented entrepreneurs and their stores and restaurants were clustered. All consumed by new ideas that were no longer being developed and nourished by downtown shopkeepers.
It took two years to find it . The only space that was just right. There was a lineup of young owners-to-be. And the three owners had no intention of renting to a 22-year old….until the woman of the trio met her. “I remember you! From Lasalle. I picked you immediately as a winner, driven to success!” Charlotte got the lease.
Where did the name of the store, Ruse, come from?
“From age 20 to age 22 I was looking for the perfect name for the store. . I was doing brainstorming almost everyday! I was really going crazy! One day, I woke up at the middle of the night and knew I had found it!!!!! RUSE, that was it!
“It works in both English and French. Ruse means a trick that is used to fool someone. Since I knew I wanted all of our clothes in the store to look new even if they’ve been worn, this word was kind of perfect!
“In French I say: Tu dois être rusé pour venir magasiner chez Ruse! In English it means: You have to be “sly” to shop at Ruse!
Has she still got a mad drive to buy clothes? As strong as ever. And when she buys too much clothes for herself? She puts them into a bag and “gives” them to her store.
“When I buy, I have absolutely no rules. Anything that colorful, bold, or funky….I immediately have to get it!”
Where next? And when? In a couple of years another store. More employees. But what would Charlotte herself do? “Travel in Asia and Europe to discover young, talented clothes designers before fame and fortune has taken them out of reach.”
And then what?
Her own label. Her own collection. “Hated sewing, I will design, and others will execute.” How long will it take to get there? “About 10 years.”
Watch this dervish. “Fear of failure” is not Charlotte’s vocabulary. She has the “feu sacre” cursing through her veins.
If Mozart had been born Charlotte, he too would have been driven like her: to compose, not music, but his own label!
