It doesn't matter if you're a mom taking the kids to the playground, a young professional investing in adult work clothes for the first time, or an Emily Ratajowsky-level It girl. Once you find Los Angeles-based designer Jamie Haller's shoes (handmade Italian butter leather loafers, sandals, and flats), you'll want to wear nothing but them. Meg Strachan, founder of Dorsey Fine Jewelry, told me she ordered three pairs of Jamie Haller loafers the day they were restocked. Or Rutakowski herself, who always wears Haller penny loafers when she walks around Manhattan.

From sub-stack tastemakers like Leandra Medine, author of Cereal Aisle, and Hillary Kerr, founder of WhoWhatWear, to offline but in-the-know shoppers who have been Ordering a pair of Jamie Haller shoes has been a ticket to a secret fashion society. Instagram has 16,000 members, and once you become a member, you are expected to purchase at least two pairs. Sales increased tenfold from 2022 to 2023 and quadrupled from last year to the present. All of this is due to word-of-mouth recommendations and partnerships with smaller boutiques.

Haller, who gave me a tour of the upcoming collection at the New York showroom, said she met a woman who got up to 12 pairs for herself. She herself has not worn someone else's shoes for the past four years. I get it,” she laughs. I'm obsessed with my own shoes, too.”

Now Haller is preparing for her brand community to develop a new obsession with her clothes. Today, the designer is launching her first ready-to-wear line to match her easygoing, trend-neutral shoes.

Before striking out on her own with a shoe brand in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Haller had been designing clothing for over 20 years, including award-winning work for the LA-based label NSF. Her expertise was obvious during a walk-through last May. According to my recorder, Haller spent four minutes explaining the exact stitching for the pants to fall just right.

Denim, Haller's specialty, is the cornerstone of the new collection. Unpretentious utility pants, a “chameleon” T-shirt, and a seasonless paper bag waist pant called the “Everything Pant” round out the first drop. Prices start at $198 for the T-shirt and cap at $540 for the wide-leg jeans. Ideally, these are clothes you would wear almost every day.

Haller's first designs have gained such an enthusiastic following largely because of their inherent ease. The material is soft to the touch and produced in small quantities. The silhouettes are sophisticated yet understated, specific yet versatile. Both the shoes and the clothes reflect Haller's deliberate way of dressing. She says, “I think people can relate to me on a personal level and think, ‘Oh, I like her style.’ It's almost like a non-style, but it's very laid-back, casual, and understated,” Haller tells me. She wears a black top, olive green pants, and loafers with silver earrings. Maybe there's a cool element to the way I like to mix and match things, but it's very basic and lifestyle oriented.”

Haller's friendliness is not limited to her clothes. She invites her followers to join her in making each garment and shares candid updates on Instagram about the realities of starting a business from scratch: the delays in orders, the difficulty of keeping up with the increased demand after a celebrity sighting, and the heartfelt gratitude when a piece is a real hit.

Before scaling up to a true warehouse, she rented a house next door as a shipping facility and design studio, handling orders from both its garage and her own home. Meg Strachan of Dorsey recalled in an e-mail that she received her first pair of shoes directly from Haller's home in Silver Lake. 'When I arrived at Jamie's house, she was in the garage packing my order. Her daughter handed me my bag. It reminded me of Dorsey's very early days.”

Her unafraid to show every aspect of her work goes back to the start of her business and the first community that supported her ambitions. Haller designed her first shoes behind closed doors, using a neighborhood COVID pod as a soundboard for each piece. She said, “There was no outside input, and that's where the beauty was. I just did my thing, worried about myself, and didn't have to worry about anything else. I was just creating something.”

Four years later, staying true to her inner design compass led her to a debut line of ready-to-wear with an almost universal appeal. Says she, “For me, being a good designer means being confident in my vision and not being afraid to make decisions.” Jamie Haller's early test capsules of denim, sweatshirts, and utility pants didn't just sell, they reverberated. Almost everything sold out in a day,” says Haller. Says Haller, “Almost every item sold out in a day.

Fans who have yet to try the clothes are ready to load their carts. 'I'm really looking forward to seeing her prêt-à-porter. Fashion often feels disconnected from the lives we actually live every day. Women are looking for something easy to wear. That's what Jamie creates.”

She told me that no matter how big Haller's brand gets, she plans to design everything herself. She explains, “I think what I'm proud of is being in this brand and being really honest about showing myself, not being a logo on the background, but being a person who is like, ‘This is hard, these are my kids.’ This is real life, and this brand is me.”

But there is a hands-off perk to seeing her label expand, and with it, her community. She doesn't have to package clothing orders herself. Finally, her garage has become too small.

Jamie Haller's clothes are sold exclusively at JamieHaller.com.