When Laura La Rue reflects on her life, from modeling for Elite Models at age 13 to living off the grid in a trailer, the tie-wearing 32-year-old designer marvels at her quiet life today in Ojai, where she lives next school bus with her 16-month-old daughter Laska.
“I feel like I should be 100,” she says, laughing. “I just turned 32 and my goal is to try to enjoy it and everything that comes from the changes I’ve made. I’m trying to be there for my daughter. I hope she learns the value of simplicity and that happiness doesn’t come from material things.”
Laura La Rue and her daughter Laska, dressed in Ride or Dye Ojai clothing, relax in the bedroom of a school bus.
Growing up in Thousand Oaks, La Rue says she had a happy childhood and was “very fortunate” to attend private schools. “My mother was always a horse lover and had an interest in ranching, while my father was passionate about camping and bird watching,” she says. “So I grew up with a deep love of nature.”
La Rue dropped out of high school at the age of 16 after failing the California high school entrance exam so she could model in editorial campaigns shot by celebrity photographer David LaChapelle and walk runways for designers such as Jeremy Scott.
Shortly after, she moved to Los Angeles and lived in Los Feliz from 2009 to 2015, eventually partying with celebrities including Seth MacFarlane, Jared Leto, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Those were my girls’ party days,” La Rue says of hanging out at L.A. spots like Soho House, No Vacancy, Drai’s, Teddy’s at the Roosevelt Hotel and the S&M nightclub in West Hollywood, where, La Rue says, dancers were shown naked.
“What a strange time,” he says. “When I tell my friends in Ojai my crazy stories in Los Angeles. Maybe one day I’ll write a book about this.”
After eight years, he ended up in Los Angeles.
La Rue makes pancakes inside her school bus. “It’s cool and not too crazy,” she says of the child-proof bus. “It’s a kid’s paradise.”
“I was out of the city life,” she says. “I thought, I don’t like it at all. I could feel my cortisol levels going through the roof. I had health problems caused by stress.”
So La Rue moved into a 10-by-12-foot cabin on his recently divorced mother’s 72-acre ranch in Santa Paula and started over. But when the Thomas Fire swept through Ventura and Santa Barbara and burned the property in 2017, including the cabin, he moved to Ojai, where he worked as a hotelier.
After finding herself in a toxic relationship, La Rue decided to focus on herself and try to get back on her feet. “I was on a ridiculous diet plan and I wanted to get back on my feet,” she says. “I started going to therapy and spent time working on myself.”
La Rue grows most of her natural dyes for Ojai’s Ride or Die, including indigo, sulfur cosmos, coreopsis and scabiosa.
But living in a cabin in a small town was difficult. “I was alone,” he says.
During that time, she recalled a cowboy she met on her mother’s farm. “I remember him jumping off his horse to shake my hand,” La Rue says. “I was used to city boys in tight jeans. Here was this well-dressed cowboy from Idaho. I looked him up on Facebook and messaged him. We eventually met at Deer Lodge and when he asked me to dance, we instantly fell in love. It was a breath of fresh air.”
Beginning in 2019, the couple began traveling nationally and eventually settled on a secluded life near Carpinteria, where La Rue lived in a 1981 Silver Streak trailer. “I did this for four years,” she says. “We had no electricity, no running water, no bathroom. We were really struggling.”
La Rue Tie Station in Ojai.
Natural colour samples from La Rue.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and a friend became interested in natural dyes and decided to dye thrift store finds, from colorful T-shirts and jeans to quilts. “I became obsessed with it and my side hustle became my full-time job,” she says. She began attending workshops, reading books, and experimenting with different colors, including turmeric root and pink. She created a small collection of unique scarves, socks, and baby clothes and her own fashion brand. Build or color Ojaiwas born
When La Rue discovered she was pregnant on her 30th birthday, she admitted that her off-grid existence with the baby would be difficult. “I needed phone service in case of an emergency, and the community needed that,” she says. “I didn’t want to rely on a generator if I needed power or walk to a pit toilet.”
In addition, her relationship with the cowboy was deteriorating.
“It was clear to me that it wasn’t going to work,” he says.
La Rue, Laska and June Carter, the dog spends most of his time outdoors.
When a friend told her about an affordable lot for rent in Ojai with water and electric hookups perfect for a trailer, she immediately signed the lease after seeing the property, nestled in an oak grove.
“I was looking at the school bus and I couldn’t believe that this piece of land had happened,” he says. “I started working little by little. This property will be my workplace.”
Meanwhile, when torrential rains prevented him from returning to his trailer in Carpinteria, he took it as a sign.
“I couldn’t really go back there,” La Rue says. “I worked for a long time in my garden painting plants. We grew it from scratch. It was huge and beautiful, and the flood washed away the entire garden that I had poured so much blood, sweat, tears and money into. “I took that as a sign that I should move to Ojai.”
After purchasing an RE200 school bus from a friend’s property, he committed to living in Ojai full-time on the bus starting in March 2023. “It’s already built,” he says of the driver’s bus, which features a composting toilet and shower. Its compact stove and oven run on propane tanks he carries in his Toyota every few months. “I had a perfect corner for a kid. There were so many signs along the way that compelled me to be here.”
Coreopsis flowers on the property.
Laska works next to one of her mother’s eco-prints, left, in the outdoor workspace.
Today, La Rue grows most of her dyes on her plot, including indigo, sulfur cosmos, coreopsis, scabiosa, and modera root, and has established her own tie-dye station on the property. She is inspired by the landscape, and incorporates walnuts, oak balls, and leaves into her colorful eco-friendly prints. She also teaches workshops and classes and vlogs about her life through her YouTube channel. @rideordyeojaiwho presented his video with more than 230,000 views. “My goal is to inspire people to make changes to improve their lives and not be afraid to take risks,” he says.
La Rue, Laska, their dog June Carter, and their cat Johnny live mostly outdoors. “We do everything outside, and it’s the best way for a child to grow up,” La Rue says. “I grow all my produce. Most people get married, buy houses, and have kids. This is what I wanted: a safe haven where I can have people over and enjoy the essentials. Luckily, my way of living doesn’t cost a lot of money, so I can support myself with Savora or Rad.”
It can be difficult, though. La Roux says living on a bus without air conditioning can be unbearable in the summer heat, and the tight quarters of the bus can sometimes feel “claustrophobic.” But at one point in the story, parents are left feeling sad, so much so that The US Surgeon General advised Highlighting concerns about stress and mental health, La Rue believes in the need to raise Laska in an unusual environment where her daughter can roam freely.
Textile fabrics are soaked in mordant as part of the natural dyeing process.
She sets up or dyes Ojai’s laundry, surrounded by oak trees, drying in front of Laska’s playpen.
La Roux credits her parents for giving her the support she needed to take an unconventional path.
Her father, Allan Crandall, helped La Rue build a comfortable 10-by-12-foot air-conditioned shed on the property where she and Laska can relax and escape the heat.
Plus, if she needs help, her mother, Holly La Rue, lives just a few miles from La Rue and her daughter. “When I was living in Los Angeles, I was very worried about her,” La Rue’s mother says. “I was just waiting for her to start the work that I fostered. And that happened. She created her life in Ojai. She didn’t know anyone. She left Los Angeles to find her place here, got into the tie business, and found a community of artists and musicians. She’s very driven and down to earth.”
“Laska is a quiet girl,” Holly La Rue adds. “I envy the way they raised their daughter. It’s exciting for me as a mother to see her succeed.”
It may be hard to reconcile those accolades with his life in Los Angeles, but La Rue feels he is where he belongs. He hopes to remain on the school bus for a long time.
“Disasters, births, divorces, new loves, everything: I feel good about my decisions,” she says.
La Rue takes her daughter’s hand.
When asked what she hopes Laska will gain from living on a school bus in a small town, La Rue says she hopes to develop independence and a deep connection to nature. “I hope she understands where her food comes from, appreciates the changing of the seasons and learns to live sustainably,” she said.
“I want her to feel a strong sense of community. In a small town, people know and care about each other. She will grow up surrounded by people who support and care for each other. She understands that it’s okay to take a different path and has the strength to overcome challenges.”
