Dôen, the Los Angeles–based contemporary label with timeless, feminine pieces, dreamy visuals through a feminine gaze, and a community of cheerleaders from Kaia Gerber to Taylor Swift, had an amazing summer. But the recipient of this year’s WWD Honor for Best Private Company is fast becoming a brand for all seasons.
“The most exciting new development that we’ve seen, just from a collection standpoint, is the performance of fall,” said Dôen cofounder and chief executive officer Margaret Kleveland during a recent visit to the brand’s Van Nuys, Calif., offices, which are in the midst of expanding from 10,000 to 18,000 square feet to accommodate the growth.
“We’ve been so known as a printed tops and dresses brand, and we are really starting to be a go-to for knitwear, and wanting to be a go-to for outerwear and a go-to for bottoms,” she said. “Comping sales weeks, our fall is up 73 percent to last year on not that much more inventory, and that feels really exciting.”
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“It’s not just the summer of Dôen, it’s also the fall of Dôen,” said cofounder and chief creative officer Katherine Kleveland.
The sisters, who hail from Santa Barbara, have experienced 40 percent year-over-year growth and are on track to do over $100 million in sales in 2025. They’ve got five of their own retail stores, with two more on the way.
This year saw a big rollout to specialty stores, including Max in Colorado and ByGeorge in Texas, and they will add more department stores next year, including Le Bon Marché, Bongenie and Holt Renfrew. The brand plans to keep wholesale to 20 percent of the business, however, which may be increasingly hard because demand is high.
They were just coming off a successful sales trip to Paris Fashion Week with the spring 2025 collection, where some stores tripled the size of their orders.
“It was the expectation that we were going to meet with some fashion directors, talk about future international expansion . . . and that people who had ordered we’re gonna be able to do re-sees and add a little bit. But we had so many requests for exclusives it was surprising the amount of traction. The mix of stylists trying things on and wanting to pull them for clients, and buyers seeing that, it was exciting,” said Margaret Kleveland.
Why the hubbub now, after three seasons of selling in Paris?
“People really understand that they can continue to come to us for a unique point of view and super elegant product. I also think all the efforts we’ve made in marketing and our wholesale presence and retail is really helping support and, of course, Gap,” Kleveland said of the Dôen x Gap collaboration that debuted this summer, helping to bring a new customer to the chain retailer and global exposure to the California brand.
If 2024 was a year for Dôen of proving the ability to scale based on previous investments in headcount, infrastructure and software, and the founders’ commitment to capping their stock keeping unit count, next year is about going global.
“We are taking on additional wholesale relationships, finding thoughtful partners for our supply chain, and continuing to expand retail,” said Kleveland. “At this moment in time we can self-fund four to five stores a year. It’s a lot to take on from a lift point of view, and sometimes the right leases aren’t available, so we’re targeting three a year.”
Their winning strategy has been to stay disciplined, especially when it comes to promotions, which they keep to a minimum with a Mother’s Day sale, a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale and an online warehouse sale. “It’s a really exciting event for our customer, the prices are good, and it’s nice to be able to reward the engagement,” Kleveland said, adding that the brand also has two in-person sample sales a year.
“There’s been so much conversation specifically in the U.S. about promotionality and how it’s been really hard on our industry. Training our customer that if they like a product, they should buy it full price and not wait for it to go on sale is important to us — and it’s worked. I’m a big shopper myself and as a customer, I know what sites I can sit on and get away with waiting to go on sale.”
Their inventory strategy and philosophy has been to test and try but not bite deep into products, and because of that, things do sell out. “We really try to walk the line between risk management and a good customer experience,” said Kleveland, adding that sign-ups for restocks and other feedback are good indicators for product development.
“We’ve learned a lot about what our customer wants from us for from a delicates and swim standpoint,” she said, as an example. “We just recut our stretch lace delicates for the second time in the exact same colors, because they had such a positive response. And then for swim, we weren’t sure if customers would be more into a vintage look or more technical fabrics, which actually ended up doing better. So we’re leaning into that going forward and growing those divisions.”
They’ve been smart about carrying over bestsellers or “favorite characters,” as they call them, and riffing on them. Take the pin-tucked scallop-hem cotton poplin Sebastiane skirt that was spotted everywhere this summer, from print media to the employee commissary at the William Morris Endeavor agency in Beverly Hills. It comes in plaid for fall and lace for holiday, and for spring, is being adapted into frilly Sebastiane pants. The spring collections also feature more of the brand’s bestselling sailor dresses and barn jackets, Henri blouses, smocked dresses and lingerie-inspired pieces, with nods to style icons Catherine Deneuve and Jane Birkin.
Following the more fashion-forward design direction, there are also touches of on-trend sheer, alongside tidy tailoring, slimmer silhouettes and shorter hems. And they are starting to experiment with a subtle “D” monogram logo on knits and sets.
For marketing (just 5 percent of revenues in terms of spend), the brand has found a winning formula of leaning into community, with a robust gifting program that continues to pay dividends in social media and media exposure. And the celebrity support keeps coming.
Gerber was snapped on the street in the polka-dot Rosaria dress from holiday last week; Florence Pugh has been wearing the Corinne dress doing press for “We Live in Time”; and Katie Holmes was wearing the mary janes during a stroll with daughter Suri earlier in New York.
The designers are expanding their holiday offering this year, launching two collections for the first time, in part a response to the shifting seasons. In L.A., for example, it stays warm well into October, so fall is almost non-existent, with summer transitioning right into holiday, Katherine Kleveland explained.
The second holiday collection dropping in November showcases the heightened level of craft (and price point) of Dôen’s Heirloom product on a chic, shimmying beaded fringed cocktail dress that will retail for over $1,000. Further into winter, they will release a sleek tailored Heirloom coat in navy blue wool, carrying a specialty tag from the Monteco mill in Italy.
Also during the holiday season, Dôen will drop a second collaboration with L.A.’s RMS Beauty, a festive velvet bag with two custom products, a Pinot lip stain and Champagne-colored Luminizer.
The sisters are eager to play more in the beauty space, especially with fragrance, and seeking the right partner. One of the reasons the brand is so primed for success? You can already imagine what eau de Dôen will look and smell like.
