#About Us

Rougél by Monica Rougelot Kiefer

The Company, founded by Monica Rougelot Kiefer, a visionary designer by trade. The natural born designer possesses an array of creative skills, including graphic artistry, fashion illustration, and inventive ideas. The designer’s mission is to deliver iconic change within the evolution of style. The essence of creative originality will inevitably attract interest to ROUGEL’s inventive pattern and construction, fashioning a new development in pattern cuts, tailored suits, versatile wearability, and distinct appeal. The essence of originality will naturally shift garment style and construction into a new era.

In today’s fashion era, brands from every price segment tend to manufacture their products in China, from cheap items at Forever 21 to BCBG on Rodeo Drive. ROUGEL Innovations is different in that its apparel will be manufactured with quality in mind: both locally in the United States, as well as in France.

Rejecting Fast Fashion

One of the biggest problems in fashion today is known as “fast fashion,” where consumer demand for low prices has spurred apparel designers to create low-quality items that are not designed for durability. Designers have increased the number of fashion seasons in the year, releasing new styles up to 52 times per year.1 This trend has contributed to what some have called an environmental emergency, increasing pesticide-heavy cotton production, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, filling the world’s landfills, and leaching chemicals into the ground and water. Yet while the 2 push for disposable fashions has been growing for the entire lifetime of Generation X and Millennial consumers, many are growing weary of the ethos and they want something different for their lives. They have begun to push back against consumerism and the pressure to purchase fashions that will be out of style next season. Many crave products that were lovingly made to last by a company that has a compelling backstory.

ROUGEL is a French label in heritage, with the Company’s founder having deep roots in the Haute-Savoie Department in the south of France, near the Italian border. This is where the Company will aim to produce. Additionally, the Company’s founder’s great

great-grandfather opened New Orleans’ first and largest department store, Rougelot’s Department Store, in 1890, where chic French women sold Rougelot’s fashion. The department store popularized all over New Orleans, The Boys Outfitter read that it was the shoppers’ favorite store. Subsequently, the movement spread, and Rougelot’s Department Store. Later you see, Maison Blanch flagship department store pop-up on New Orleans’ Canal Street in 1897. M. Rougelot will use this sort of intuition of market needs in the development of ROUGEL.

The ROUGEL brand is created by a native of New Orleans and designed in a town named after the Regent of France; the town where cultural trends and creative abilities are soulful, and unique. The designer has discovered a way to use her artistic sense to meet consumers on a commercial level, without making style over-the-top and “only for runway.” These designs will be for anyone who wants to feel confident yet comfortable, distinctive, sophisticated and classic.

Monica Rougelot Kiefer, Owner

Monica Rougelot Kiefer specializes in creative direction and product design. She has experience working as an artistic director and in project management. Ms. Rougelot Kiefer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Costume Design from Tulane University in New Orleans, where the emphasis was on the evolution of fashion design, creating characters using an in-depth analysis of human behaviors throughout history and of modern day. She also holds an AVEDA certification and a degree in Education from Holy Cross University in New Orleans.

Ms. Rougelot Kiefer has a brilliant talent in design and a strong eye in fashion. This talent runs deep within her; a natural ability that never ceases. As a young child, Ms. Rougelot Kiefer would take part in the beauty industry, watching her mother run her business operations and making over her high-profile clients in her salon. Clients often asked for fashion advice, which her mother would dispense using look books to present style ideas for various events or day-to-day maintenance. Ms. Rougelot Kiefer followed in her mother’s footsteps at the young age of 15, doing makeup artistry, suggesting styles, and creating looks for the clients.

Throughout her collegiate years, while designing costumes for Tulane productions, the young designer began making custom styles; mostly couture dresses for her mother’s clientele. To this day, affluent individuals, superintendents, and other highprofile individuals go to her mother’s salon in need of style advice.

Ms. Rougelot Kiefer’s career has spanned working as a makeup artist and stylist, both at the AVEDA Institute, where she trained stylists, as well as on a freelance basis in the film industry. In the greater Los Angeles area, the artist has worked as a Design Assistant at companies that sell fashions to the high-end boutiques on Melrose Place, as an Athletic Apparel Designer at a women’s golf brand, and as a fashion industry freelancer and editorial stylist contributor at fashion industry publications. Her work has been published by fashion magazines like Inspire, Lucky, American Salon, and In Style. Her designs have been covered by prominent fashion photographers, have been featured on album covers and in music videos, and designs unique looks for various celebrities and local musicians. Ms. Rougelot Kiefer has been honored as an awardwinning designer by the Fashion Group International between 1996 and 2005.

Ms. Rougelot Kiefer has spent years learning and mastering the business; making solid business connections with manufacturers, distributors, department store buyers, and celebrity interests. The next logical step is to launch a business featuring designer looks with a strong customer base.