Remote Design Studio in Ayr Flourishes Without a Physical Office

Ayr, a fashion label with 17 employees and no offices or headquarters, has recently welcomed Diane Cha as its head of merchandising. Cha left her senior job at Gap Inc.’s Athleta brand to join the virtual-only company. With employees working from home in their own US time zones, Cha will work from her bedroom in Orange County, California, with a team spread across three time zones from Ojai, California to Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

While most fashion labels rushed employees back to the office after pandemic restrictions loosened, Ayr permanently shut down its offices in New York’s Noho neighborhood. Co-founder Maggie Winter and her husband Brice Pattison, vice president of menswear, work from their house in Ojai, California. This drastic change has resulted in Ayr’s sustained revenue growth, with annual revenues quintupling over three years and topping $50 million this year.

Operating virtually has allowed Ayr to recruit more experienced people from across the country and has made a significant impact on the label’s growth. When Mallory Snyder, Ayr’s chief people officer based in Emigration Canyon, Utah, posted an opening for a senior creative manager, she received over 5,000 applications over the three months that the posting stayed up. “Opening up the team to the entire country gives us access to a deep well of talent,” Winter says.