Delia's

This article is about the clothing company. For the genus of butterflies, see Delias.
Delia's, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryE-commerce
Founded1993 (31 years ago) (1993) in New York City, New York, United States
Defunct2015, as a retail
HeadquartersNew York City, New York,
United States
Key people
Tracy Gardner
(CEO)
Brian Lattman
(President)
Patricia Johnson
(Chief Merchandising Officer)
ProductsYoung women and girl's apparel & accessories
OwnerSteve Russo

Delia's, Inc. (stylized as dELiA*s) was a lifestyle brand of apparel and accessories, primarily targeting girls and young women.

From its founding in 1993 through the early 2010s, Delia's was an independent retailer and direct marketer, and in its prime was the leading marketer to 10 to 24-year-old females in the United States, with labels for preteen girls (#deliasgirls) 7-13 and girls between the ages of 13 and 19.[1] Delia's was popular among college women, as many of its products were affordable and suitable for college-age students.[2] It currently operates under license as a sub-brand of online retailer Dolls Kill.

Products

Delia's sells apparel (including pants, shorts, skirts, tees, jackets, blazers, and bikini tops and bottoms), accessories, footwear (including shoes and boots), cosmetics, and room furnishings. The brand previously sold to teenage consumers through direct mail catalogs, websites, and, for Delia's, mall-based specialty retail stores. As of 2020, Delia's products are only for sale through its parent label, Dolls Kill.[3]

History

The company was launched in 1993 by two Yale University graduates.[4] One company focus was its Gen Y understanding, as reflected in its use of the internet for furthering brand identity.[5][3]

The company was acquired by Alloy Inc. in 2003, for $50 million.[3][6] The combined company had annual catalog, internet, and retail sales of $300 million. It also had a database of over 20 million names, constituting 30%–40% of U.S. consumers who were 12–18 years old.[6]

Alloy then spun off the company in 2005.[7]

In January 2013 HRSH Acquisitions LLC bought Alloy Inc, now being marketed as Alloy Apparel, for $3.7 million in cash. HRSH also assumed $3.1 million in liabilities.

On December 5, 2014, it announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, and would be liquidating all 95 stores.[8]

Shortly after, its shares fell more than 80% to $0.02.[9] Steve Russo of Fab/Starpoint acquired the brand for $2.5 million,[10] and in August 2015, re-opened the store with an online-only presence,[11][12] but this was unsuccessful.

Online fashion company Dolls Kill later licensed the Delia's name and re-launched it as a sub-brand in November 2018, with its clothes available online and through pop-ups in Los Angeles and San Francisco.[13][14]

Subsidiaries

In December 1997, Delia's acquired Gurl.com.[15]: 152  It later sponsored a free e-mail and web hosting service, known as Gurlmail and Gurlpages respectively, owned by Lycos.[16] Beginning in May 1998, Gurl.com began to offer merchandise from Delia's catalogue.[17]

In 1999, Delia's opened iTurf as an online subsidiary, including Gurl.com and its associated web addresses as properties under iTurf, in an attempt to build teen-centered websites marketed towards Generation Y.[18] During its initial public offering in 1999, shares were priced up to $66 each.[15]: 152  iTurf's websites had 35 million page views in February 1999 and $2.1 million in sales for the quarter ending on January 31, 1999.[18] In the same fiscal year, they had earnings of $425,000 on sales of $4 million.[18] Following the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, iTurf reported nearly $16 million in losses within the first six months of the same year and had their stock value drop to $1.[19][15] Delia's sold or closed all their Internet properties with the exception of Gurl.com, which was later sold to Primedia in May 2001 for an undisclosed amount.[15]

References

  1. ^ Cannon, Susan; Scarano, Christina Sofia (2005). Where to Wear 2006 : Fashion Shopping from A-Z (2006 ed.). New York: Fairchild & Gallagher. ISBN 9780976687795.
  2. ^ Evans, Joel R.; Berman, Barry (2001). Retail Management : A Strategic Approach (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 151, 209–210. ISBN 9780130263346. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Murphy, Caryn E. (2008). New Girl Order: Youth, Gender, and Generation in Contemporary Teen Girls' Media. University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  4. ^ Lattman, Peter (February 24, 2011). "Delia's Puts Itself Up for Sale". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  5. ^ Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People – Marc Gobe
  6. ^ a b Del Franco, Mark (September 1, 2003). "Alloy Buys Rival Delia's". Multichannel Merchant. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  7. ^ "dELiA*s, Inc. Announces Effectiveness of Registration Statement Relating to Its Previously Announced Rights Offering". Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-30.
  8. ^ "Delia's Chapter 11 Voluntary Petition" (PDF). PacerMonitor. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  9. ^ Cheng, Andria (December 5, 2014). "Delia's joins Circuit City, Borders among retailers in history's dustbin". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  10. ^ Maheshwari, Sapna (September 3, 2015). "Delia's Has Risen From The Dead, Will Make Clothes For Grown-Ups". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  11. ^ Denton, Elizabeth (July 22, 2015). "Here's your first look at the all new Delia's". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  12. ^ "Delia's". Archived from the original on 2015-08-07.
  13. ^ Brooke, Eliza (November 2, 2018). "Delia's, the iconic '90s fashion catalog, is back — sort of". Vox. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  14. ^ Krentcil, Faran (November 2, 2018). "The Delia*s Catalog Is Back". Elle. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  15. ^ a b c d Shade, Leslie Regan (2004-07-19). "Gender and the Commodification of Community". Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice. By Feenberg, Andrew. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 151–160. ISBN 9780742529595.
  16. ^ Brown, Jane D.; Steele, Jeanne R.; Walsh-Childers, Kim (2001-11-01). Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media's Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. United Kingdom: Routledge. p. 195. ISBN 9780805834901.
  17. ^ Ryan, Thomas J. (1999). "DELIA'S INTERNET IPO SEEKS TO RAISE $45 MILLION". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  18. ^ a b c Dignan, Larry (1999-04-09). "Web Retailer iTurf Cashes In On All the Right Buzzwords". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  19. ^ Zeitchik, Steven M. (2000-10-18). "Analysis: Teen portals proving unfruitful". CNN. Archived from the original on April 11, 2001. Retrieved 2021-07-10.