After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, DTLR is back with its famous fashion preview showcasing its upcoming fall line, Excel. The clothing retailer is also marketing the brand with the Roman numeral XL to represent their 40th anniversary as a company.
Apprelle Norton who is over the visual merchandising department in the Southern market, and David Storey who is the district manager in the Florida and Savannah region, as well as Atlanta shared what we can expect to see on the runway.
What inspired the name of the fashion show?
David Storey: Before I let Apprelle explain the name, I just want to say I’m so happy that we’re back. Covid-19 had stopped us, and we are back. I am so excited to bring this show back because we are the only urban clothing brand that is giving back to the community on a fashion show aspect, but I’ll let her explain the [meaning of] Excel.
Apprelle Norton: With our 40th anniversary, we just wanted to celebrate the company by bringing the fashion show back as our fifth annual at this point because this will be year five for us. Obviously, both of those numbers are kind of like a big deal. We were kind of driving home the whole 40th anniversary [milestone], and our kind of coming together as a group, trying to see what forty means to us.
Looking up some things as far as what an anniversary gem would be or just Roman numerals, that’s kind of where we came up with the name for Excel. The Roman numeral for forty is XL. Just thinking about our journey throughout the years [and] how we’ve been excelling as a company naturally, [it was] just like a double entendre. We kind of played off of it, and that’s kind of where we came up with the name.
What can we expect to see on the runway?
AN: This year is our first [time] putting on a fall show. In the past, we’ve always done summer previews. That’ll also be exciting to be able to see some of the upcoming pieces of what we’re kind of going toward as a company in the fall.
Now as far as the brands that we will show, I don’t think there will be any brand-new brands. [It may be] one or two here and there. A lot of the brands will be what we are currently carrying right now. We might even throw in a couple of ready-to-wear at the moment. Also, just to give people a little mix of preview, and if you wanted to go into a store and buy we got a couple of items that you can buy now just to hold you over until fall comes.
DS: Expect the hot streetwear brands. As Apprelle said, we have a couple of new brands that we carry that I know everyone will love because I’m a fan of one of them. Just that hot streetwear look with a good mix of that athletic look is basically what’s going to drive the look of the show.
