Holly Soroca joined Dôen as president in May of 2021, bringing with her experience as a buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. “She’s been developing an expansion plan, including strategic retail. And she has a deep understanding of New York and the New York customer,” Kleveland added.
“Dôen was built on this amazingly strong community and we share a lot of experiences through our Brentwood store, online, on our social media and through our email channels,” said Soroca.
“But from the day that the brand launched, people were saying when can we come shop in person and be part of this community in New York.…The customer has an amazing loyalty to us online, but there’s probably categories that will be better for us in-store because the customer can touch and feel.”
One of those could be its newest category Dôen Delicates, launched with a brief, cami and bralette. Earlier this month, the brand also launched a punny re-commerce program called Hand Me Dôen.
“We’ve been having a great year so far. I think we have a really unique price point and customers feel like they’re getting incredible value out of our product,” said Soroca.
Like Dôen’s Brentwood Country Mart and Montecito Country Mart stores, the New York outpost is being designed by Nickey Kehoe.
Dôen launched in 2016 with women’s dresses, nightgowns and tops, and has expanded into children’s clothing, outerwear, handmade heirloom knits, denim, T-shirts and swimwear, as well as velvet ballet flats, clogs, sandals and leather bags.
Prices are $115 to $898. And fans include actress Busy Philipps, Zoë Kravitz, Lily Aldridge, Zoey Deutch, Laura Brown, Samantha Traina and hairstylist Tracey Cunningham, a partner in the business. The Klevelands opened their first store in Brentwood Country Mart in 2019, and have collaborated with Net-a-porter on capsule collections, as well as with Liberty and home accessories designer Heather Taylor.
Female empowerment and motherhood are brand touchstones, and the dreamy, visual style begins with seasonal look books photographed by founding partner and creative consultant Hilary Walsh in nature-filled destinations around the world.
Curated by content director and partner Phoebe Dean, an online journal spotlights women of the Dôen community (sometimes photographed with their children, and always wearing the brand), such as chef Lori Stern, surfer Tori Praver and Room to Read’s Heather Simpson.
No doubt lots of New Yorkers will be next.
Reports /TrainViral/