Slogan tees are very much having a moment this summer, popularized by everyone from Charli XCX to Zendaya, but for one emerging brand, they’ve always been the main character. Ruby Loot was founded by Georgia Buchanan back in 2024, born from a struggle to find a baby tee brand that captured her playful spirit and didn’t leave her drowning in customs fees.
In the last year, the brand has garnered an impressive community of like-minded women, the kind who “say it with their chests,” according to the brand. With tongue-in-cheek slogans like “brat girl,” “do it for the plot” and “eyes up,” the brand hopes to empower its wxmen fanbase to be unapologetically themselves, and look good doing it.
“We’re building a community that our customers want to be a part of. A place where you can wear your personality, find your people and say exactly who you are without saying a word,” Buchanan tells Hypebae. “From high street to high fashion, [slogan tees] have been a fashion staple for decades because people will always have something to say – whether it’s cute and silly or political and vital,” she adds.
We caught up with Buchanan to find out more about the story behind Ruby Loot and the power of the slogan tee.
Read on for the full interview and head to the brand’s website to shop its collection of tees.
Tell us a bit about the story behind Ruby Loot. How did it start and where does the name come from?
Once I retired from my music career, I was a little bit lost about what to do next, but I knew it had to be something creative, and I’ve always loved fashion. I was a big slogan baby tee wearer, and there were a couple of brands abroad that I used to order from because we didn’t really have anywhere in the U.K. that only sold slogan tees. I’d have to trawl Depop and Vinted or hope a high street brand (designer usually out of my price range!) would drop one that I liked.
But these international brands took forever to arrive, often with hidden taxes, were fast fashion and usually of pretty crap quality, and loads of the slogans were super crass. Don’t get me wrong, I love something a bit cheeky, but I don’t usually want to walk around wearing a tee that says “I give amazing he*d” or “I f*cked your boyfriend”, so one day I was scrolling one of their sites, and I suddenly just thought to myself, “I think I could make my own and make them better?”
[I knew I would] really care about the quality, and make slogans that were cheeky but wearable, sexy, empowering, inclusive, feminine, loud and proud. That would create a community of amazing people and fill a gap in the U.K. market along the way. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I happened to meet a friend of a friend in a pub around the time I was applying for a bank loan to get it started and he told me he worked in fashion production, and it just felt like a sign!
As for the name, the idea was to keep my music alias alive a little, turning the Loop into Loot, like a treasure haul. I wanted to add a girl’s name on the front to make it sound like a character; I imagined this cool fashion girlie that everyone wanted to be friends with. It happened to be my parents’ ruby wedding anniversary at the time I was brainstorming and I was like… “Ruby! Yes. I love that name.” I envisaged the brand being red for some reason, so it all just fit really nicely. Since then, my brother and sister-in-law had their second baby girl, my second beautiful niece, earlier this year and they named her… Ruby!
Love that symmetry! What can you tell us about your creative process? Where do you begin when designing a new collection?
Similarly to when I was songwriting, I’d get inspiration every day from little things I see and hear and then I just make notes in my phone and see which ones I keep coming back to. It could be overheard conversations, memes on Instagram or pictures on Pinterest, even something in a TV show or film. I’ve got a huge spreadsheet of slogans, written out under different themes, and long lists and shortlists for different drops throughout the year. It’s ever changing, though.
Sometimes, something happens culturally that I feel I then need to incorporate – although I’ve learnt the hard way that it’s risky for me to jump on a trend because we’re not a fast fashion brand, so by the time I get my tees to market, the trend’s usually on the way out! So for me, it’s really more about finding and creating evergreen, universally understood catch phrases or mantras that you know (or hope) will stand the test of time! Once I’ve got the slogans, I start testing them out across different colorways and fonts – some of them come to me visually immediately, but some of them take some trialling and focus grouping.
I also love to get my followers and customers involved in the design process because, after all, I’m making these pieces for them! And as I’m just a one-woman team, it’s super helpful to ideate with their help. I ask my friends’ opinions too in the initial workshopping phase, but really, it’s my Ruby Loot community whose feedback is the most important. So I love doing IG polls and gauging people’s reactions to different ideas. At that point, it helps me to imagine the collection as a whole, and the world I’ll be creating around the tees, the shoots, the content and the context that makes it all feel part of a bigger story.
What’s been your favorite slogan of Ruby Loot’s so far?
“Too Old For Dicaprio” definitely has a special place in my heart! It’s just so good. The perfect example of a universally understood joke, based on truth! (Leo, why you gotta be that way?) You’ll be wearing it out and get at least 5 girls reading it and catching your eye and laughing with you. Which is what it’s all about. “Eyes Up” is another favorite — it’s very fun wearing it out and seeing men read it and then immediately avert their eyes and look very embarrassed. I also really love “Do It For The Plot” from our new collection as that just sums me up. I’m a yes gal, and everything I do has an element of that to it.
Who would you say the brand is for? Who do you hope will wear it?
Ruby Loot is for anyone who loves to have fun with their fashion! Who’s got a voice and isn’t afraid to use it? Who’s loud and proud? Who wears their tee when they want to give themselves that extra confidence boost, like putting on a bold lipstick, it should make you feel sexy, brave and ready to be seen. I love building a community where people feel heard, included and empowered, so the majority of our customer base is women and people from the queer community and we love leaning into that and catering to them with the tees we make, the campaigns we create, and the events we put on.
In the golden age of the slogan revival, where does a brand like Ruby Loot sit, and how do you ensure the brand’s USP goes beyond a trend?
Slogans are obviously having a big moment again this summer, which we’re loving – but at Ruby Loot, they’re not just decoration – they are and will always be the main event. We launched before this trend cycle hit and we’ll still be going strong when it comes back around again (because it always does)! Slogan tees are timeless. From high street to high fashion, they’ve been a fashion staple for decades because people will always have something to say – whether it’s cute and silly or political and vital. Our USP is that whilst t-shirts are our product and we make them very well, we are more than just a t-shirt brand. We’re building a community that our customers want to be a part of. A place where you can wear your personality, find your people and say exactly who you are without saying a word.
Finally, what are some of your plans and goals for the future of Ruby Loot?
More collaborations with iconic womxn and brands. I love bringing different voices into the brand and letting them play. We are already steadily establishing ourselves as the go-to place for slogan baby tees in the UK, which is super exciting, and if that can evolve into us becoming a household name… that would be a dream. I’d love to see RL stocked in some iconic British stores, like Selfridges. I’d love to expand our product range. I have some super cute ideas for some new lines that are more androgynous and less seasonal.
In the meantime, whilst our product offering is still very summer-focused, I’m looking into focusing on the Australian market over our winter as I think they’d go down a treat over there! On a personal level, as a founder, I’m also at a point where I’m keen to get a business partner involved, as I think it’s time to start really scaling the brand in a way that I don’t yet have the experience to do alone. So if anyone’s reading this and thinks they might want to get involved… slide into my DMs!
