Delia's, Inc. is a lifestyle brand of apparel & 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 7-13 and teenage girls between the ages of 13 to 19. Delia's was popular among college women, as many of its products were affordable and suitable for college-age students. It currently operates under license as a sub-brand of online retailerDolls Kill.
Products
Delia's sells apparel, accessories, footwear, 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.
History
The company was launched in 1993 by two Yale University graduates. The company was acquired by Alloy Inc. in 2003, for $50 million. 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. Alloy then spun off the company in 2005. 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. Shortly after, its shares fell more than 80% to $0.02. Steve Russo of Fab/Starpoint acquired the brand for $2.5 million, and in August 2015, re-opened the store with an online-only presence, 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.
Branding
One company focus was its Gen Y understanding, as reflected in its use of the internet for furthering brand identity. It direct-marketed teenage girls, and in 1998 launched the non-commercialized girls website gURL.com, which focuses on issues such and sports and dating, and which it linked to its own homepage. In 2001 it sold gURL.com to the parent company of Seventeen Magazine.
