When Baltimore natives Steven White and Dominick Davis met in high school, they knew they were meant to create something special together.
Both self-taught designers with a passion for apparel, they created their brand DIFFERENTREGARD with the goal of designing custom fashion that was as beautiful as it was sustainable. The duo opened their showroom and factory space in downtown Baltimore in 2011, starting as a menswear brand designing bespoke suits, but quickly shifting to offering women’s, men’s, and unisex designs.
Today, their clothing is both custom and ready-to-wear and they boast such high profile clients as Maryland first lady Dawn Moore and Robyn Dixon from The Real Housewives of Potomac. You can shop their designs both online and in their Mt. Vernon showroom, or schedule an appointment for a custom consultation.
The factory is zero waste and uses all leftover fabric for additional accessories and homewares—think pocket squares, bucket hats, dinner napkins, and coasters.
“Being in a manufacturing industry, you acquire a lot of material, trash, and waste. So instead of us contributing even more waste to a landfill, we decided to repurpose the scraps,” says White.
During the worst of the pandemic, they even used those extra materials to create PPE, donating more than 20,000 facemasks to Baltimore-area hospitals.
“Sustainability is important in my day-to-day life,” explains Davis. “So it was something personal that became more mission-based.”
A collaborative spirit is what sets DIFFERENTREGARD apart.
“We have a diverse team whose individual talents all come into play to create our beautiful products,” says White. “Our team of skilled labor ranges from a Hungarian seamstress to a Sri Lankan pattern-maker, to a Ukrainian tailor, and the list goes on. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without them.”
The pair also recently opened a new storefront location in concourse D at BWI airport and are expanding their production space.
“It’s really amazing for us to be doing this in Baltimore and offering opportunities to the talented people in our community,” says Davis. “We’re just so proud of Baltimore. People talk so much crap about it and I tell them they just don’t understand; it’s a melting pot of talent and we are just glad to be on this journey.”