Laura Barker opened Dot Reeder in 2007, naming the store after her grandmother. Her aim is to “do the work for you” by curating styles that evolve with the needs of residents and fashion trends. Laura picks up trends on the streets of New York City, where she currently lives.
Laura said that she wanted to have a store that could “appeal to a women that has sensibility, a sense of style, a classic esthetic, but offer her something that was accessible in a certain respect. Something she can relate and identify with but can’t find easily, something that she could incorporate into her wardrobe.”
Prior to opening up Dot Reeder, Barker had dipped her toes in countless fashion based jobs with twenty some-odd years of experience. She described her career by saying, “it’s not your kind of crazy ambitious story, I just put one foot in front of the other. I always knew that I wanted to be in fashion, things just kind of happened organically from the people I’ve met and from the experiences I’ve had.”
Growing up in South Jersey, Barker worked in a retail store at the mall as a teenager. Her career began to spiral when she moved to Manhattan to pursue her dreams. She then worked as a costume designer, wardrobe stylist, did wholesale, production, designed, consulted in terms of creative directions for brands, was a merchandiser, and has had a store in the past. She has also spoken to the fashion students at Montclair State University for the past four years.
Barker changed careers and started from square one many times. It was around the time that she was let go of her previous job in wholesale, when she started thinking in terms of opening up her store in Montclair. Read more about Laura’s journey and Dot Reeder on The Montclair Dispatch.
Learn more about Dot Reeder by viewing their full profile here.