RIDGEFIELD — When town resident Ashley Alt gave birth to her son seven years ago, she went through a period of postpartum depression where she said she stopped taking care of herself.
It was that depression, she said, that was the “final push” to motivate her to pursue her own fashion brand that caters to improving women’s mental health.
“I was breast feeding in oversized T-shirts and boxers. I was not doing what I normally did, which was doing my hair, doing my makeup, putting on a really cute outfit because that was my job (working with modeling and acting agencies). I had to look the part and I wasn’t doing that,” said Alt, a married mother of two.
Alt’s clothing line, called VALT, was launched in May and is a luxury loungewear brand built on the foundation of positive mental health. Since then, VALT has been featured twice during New York Fashion Week and is scheduled to showcase in other U.S. markets this year including in Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. The brand, which consists mostly of silk and cotton robes and scarves, can be purchased on Instagram @valtbrand or by visiting valtshop.com.
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Clothing designer Ashley Alt shows some of the material that goes into her clothing creations at her home in Ridgefield, Conn., on Wednesday March 15, 2023. The brand is called Valt. Alt’s fashionable bathrobes and other types of robe wear are custom made.
Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media
fashionable bathrobes and other types of robe wear are custom made.”/>
“I want women to feel like they matter and that they deserve to wear what they want to wear, be who they want to be, say what they want to say,” she said.
‘Escaping reality’
Alt buys all the fabrics, materials and trimmings for her designs in the Garment District, a fashion center in midtown Manhattan. Then, her seamstress, Manahattan resident Emily Hiro, does all the handiwork.
One of Alt’s goals is to design fashionable robes for women to wear when they’re waiting to be examined at their gynecologist’s office — an idea that came out of a recent personal experience.
“I just got a mammogram last week and they gave me a waffle robe to sit in the waiting room. There were like 10, 11 of us women all sitting there in the waffle robes. These places can be scary,” said Alt, who has a showroom in her home studio in Ridgefield.
“I was looking around at everyone in the waffle robe and they just looked so sad to me,” she said. “I would love to replace those with something that makes women feel pretty and feel feminine at a time when they’re feeling afraid.”
She’s also at work designing what she refers to as “getting ready robes,” which are kimono robes one wears like a duster over a T-shirt and jeans or a out of the shower, like a bathrobe.
She’s also interested in designing robes for women on vacation.
“When you go into a hotel room and have the fluffy white robe in there for you … (it gets you) into the mindset of escaping reality a little bit, in a healthy way.”
She also designs beach cover-ups that can be used when women are sitting by the pool.
She said she got the idea to make silk scarves out of leftover fabric she had from her kimono robes.
“Most of them sold via trunk shows held at various boutiques and salons,” she said.
‘Wear what feels good for you’
Valt grew up in Ohio and previously worked with the Performing Arts Academy in Chicago, teaching modeling techniques to students and coordinating with acting coaches and photographers for photo shoots and commercials.
She has also managed several women’s boutiques, working closely with local designers and styling models for fashion show productions.
She learned about starting a business by taking classes and doing research.
“It was just a lot of different fashion courses, sustainability courses … figuring out gaps in the market (and) what niche I wanted to get in,” she said. “That was what really helped me get out of my postpartum funk — listening to inspiring podcasts and reading self improvement books. I wanted to turn (my interest in fashion) into something purposeful that could make me money.”
She said, with ALT, she wants other women, no matter what they’re going through, to know their life has value.
Her fashion advice is to go with whatever one feels like wearing, rather than what current trends dictate.
“Stay true to your own aesthetic and wear what feels good to you,” she said. “If it feels good to you to go to the thrift store or the consignment shop and put things together … do whatever it is that makes you feel good.”
She added one doesn’t have to dress only in black or white to be “chic.”
“You’re allowed to have like a little a purple here, a little orange there — life’s too short to just be so serious,” she said.
Ideally, she said she would love to have her own storefront and also, see her brand in select resorts around the U.S. and beyond.
“I would love to be in little resorts … and be the presence in the gift shops where people can go and grab a really great souvenir and remember their great times that they had at their luxury resort or wherever they are vacationing,” she said.