Rodarte was founded in Los Angeles, California in 2005 by Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Kate and Laura received their liberal arts degrees from the University of California at Berkeley in 2001. Kate studied art history with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Laura focused her studies on literature and the Modern novel. Kate and Laura were raised in Northern California. Following their graduation from Berkeley, both Kate and Laura returned to their home in Los Angeles where they launched their brand Rodarte. Rodarte is their mother’s maiden name.

Rodarte is stocked globally by the world’s premiere retailers including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Net a Porter, Matches, Ikram, Nordstrom, Opening Ceremony, ShopBop, Trois Pommes, and Tsum. International icons including Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, Emma Stone, Margot Robbie, Michelle Obama, Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga, Brie Larson, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, Alicia Vikander, Danai Gurira, Rooney Mara, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Beyonce, Elle and Dakota Fanning, Hong Chau, Chloe & Halle, Saoirse Ronan, Ruth Negga, Sienna Miller, Millie Bobby Brown, Anne Hathaway, Tessa Thompson, Greta Gerwig, Kerry Washington, Maggie Cheung, Jay Z, Kanye West, Reese Witherspoon, and Constance Wu have worn Rodarte.

Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s design and costume work have been featured in solo exhibitions at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2010) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011) as well as at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC (2018). Rodarte is included in the permanent collections of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum at FIT in New York.

Kate and Laura designed and created the ballet costumes for the Academy Award winning film, Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky, receiving a Critics Choice nomination for their work.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2012 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with Frank Gehry, Rodarte, and Christopher Alden, featured costume designs by Kate and Laura.

In 2017, Kate and Laura Mulleavy released Woodshock at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival. The film was written and directed by the Mulleavys, starring Kirsten Dunst. A24 distributed the film theatrically, opening in the United States in September of 2017.