Arlo Mott, the sportswear brand founded last year by Alex and Karen Drexler and Susan Woo, is making inroads in the contemporary space, doubling its wholesale business from last fall to this spring.
In its first fall 2025 season, the brand entered about 15 wholesale accounts. For spring 2026, the number of wholesale accounts has expanded to 40 specialty stores, including Capitol, Tootsies, Kirna Zabête, TNT boutiques in Canada, and Max in Colorado, among others. The company is showing the fall collection to retailers this week.
Alex Drexler continues to run Alex Mill, a women’s and men’s classic sportswear brand, where his wife, Karen, previously worked. Before that she was a buyer at TNT, a Canadian retailer. Woo worked at Derek Lam and Chanel before starting an eponymous line in 2009, which closed in 2015.
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Last February, the three cofounders combined their skill sets — design and product development for Woo, design, merchandising and sales for Karen Drexler, and business and start-up know-how for Alex Drexler, and launched Arlo Mott. The brand’s nameplate is derived from a name (Arlo) that the Drexlers had originally considered for their daughter (but ultimately named her Frankie), and Mott is a reference to Mott Street, where they said they have always discovered new brands.
Karen Drexler and Woo became friendly through their children when they were in pre-school. The three founders work out of the Drexlers’ apartment in TriBeCa.
“It’s the three of us. I’m so thankful there are three of us because it’s so much to start a company. Nobody does it as a hobby,” said Woo.
Karen Drexler said that she took five years off after having their child in 2018. “I thought I was going to do Alex Mill and motherhood, but I was all in with motherhood. Then COVID hit. And it wasn’t until my daughter was in preschool that I met with Susan and [started] thinking about the next chapter,” said Drexler.
Woo said they have such complementary skill sets, “and it takes so much to run a company, and yet each of us has such an expertise in different areas.” Woo and Karen Drexler design the collection together.
Woo said the collection is contemporary but has a refined aesthetic. “It’s a really sophisticated contemporary brand,” she said.
Karen Drexler added, “We’re not trendy. We want timeless pieces that stay. My love language is like a poplin shirt…you can layer it, or it can stand on its own. Touch it, there’s a certain crisp. This feels incredible. It makes you feel put together. If you don’t know how to layer, it’s OK.”
The brand uses European fabrics and produces mostly in New York, but makes the knits in China.
For the first fall season, they only wanted to work with a limited number of specialty stores and wanted to keep the distribution tight.
Karen Drexler said fall sell-throughs were really good. She said they like working with specialty stores because you get feedback instantly. “It’s so incredible to have that touch point. I can pick up the phone or I can go to Tenet in the Hamptons. You have that rapport with the salespeople,” she said.
Beth Buccini, founder and owner of Kirna Zabête, which has seven stores in the U.S., said she’s bringing the line in for spring.
“We added Arlo Mott for the spring season, and I’m really looking forward to the delivery. Karen has an impeccable style and a true understanding of a woman’s needs. The collection offers an elevated take on uniform dressing, with sophisticated essentials that feel fresh, modern and effortless. It is nearly impossible to remake basic shirting in a cool and desirable way, but she has truly managed to do so. I’m really looking forward to our client’s reaction. I know she’s going to love it,” said Buccini.
Asked what sold best in the first season, Karen Drexler said, “The poplins, for sure. They’re all named after streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn.” A poplin shirt retails for $365. The knitwear also did well. They did re-orders the first season.
Woo said when she and Karen Drexler first talked about it, they realized people want to dress up again after COVID. “We wanted to create the aesthetic of something you can dress up or dress down, but feel very comfortable.” She said they have added different fabrics and color palettes every season.
“I think we’re into a year of knowing our customer. We’re taking on leather pieces this season. We’re getting better and better every season as we grow because we’re just more seasoned,” said Woo.
She said they were talking to their friends about it and these women are busy and have professional and personal lives and always going to different places. “When we described it, they’re like, ‘we do need that.’”
T-shirts retail for $125, sweaters are $395, poplins and pants are $365, and jackets are from $450 and up. They are offering 50 different styles for fall. Sizes range from small to extra large, and bottoms go from 0 to 12. Among the looks for fall are shirtdresses, leather jackets, draped trousers with a self belt, and poplin shirts with a tie.
In addition to wholesale, they have developed an e-commerce business.
The executives said they show the collection at the apartment and the buyers can come in and see and touch the fabrics, and they can have a civilized conversation.
“We’ve had stores come and order lunch, and it becomes a conversation. For us, we want to put our best foot forward. It resonates because this collection is so personal. We’re showing it out of our home, you get the whole sense of how special it is to us,” said Woo.
Woo said they launched during all the tariff chaos. “It was so volatile. We are doing the best we can to be fair to our company and fair to our customers. That could change next year. Because we’re a small company, we can also be flexible,” said Woo. “We don’t have these huge lead times. We get to be more flexible.”
They said that Alex Drexler’s dad, Mickey, isn’t involved in the new business, “but he’s very supportive.”
