May 8, 2017

Meet Derrick Case of Dress Up in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Case.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My wife, Danielle and I started Dress Up back in 2009 in our hometown of Dahlonega, GA after realizing the need for a trendy and, most importantly, affordable clothing store for women. This was never a “lifelong dream” of mine or Danielle’s by any means, but it has turned into our dream. The idea sparked when we drove down one weekend (like most weekends) to the closest mall. I was outside a store waiting as my wife and her two sisters were doing some shopping. They came out of a store very frustrated saying, “Everything is the same and overpriced. We are sick of these mall trips that lead to nothing but disappointment!” Danielle then suggested to me that we start our OWN store in Dahlonega! My wife and I believe that when we decide to do something, we go in FULL force into it. With that, we had a lease for our first location in downtown Dahlonega only a few weeks later, and the first DU was born. That was 8 years ago and we now will be opening 3 more stores in May to bring our total store count to 20! We also have an ever-growing online presence as well at shopdressup.com. We never expected DU to blow up like it has, but with the help of our incredible team, along with our customers, we know this is just the beginning.

Has it been a smooth road?
Generically speaking, it has been a pretty “smooth road”… however, with all growing companies, you always run into issues and trials. All of the issues that we’ve run into have derived from rapid growth and pains associated with such. In particular, in 2013, we doubled our company size. We went from 5 stores to 10 stores and doubled our employee count, but did not have the necessary policies and procedures in place, as well as the needed tech to handle that much growth. So, our focus from that point forward has been to prepare and plan for growth so that we don’t run into these kinds of drawbacks.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Dress Up story. Tell us more about the business.
Dress Up is a women’s clothing store. We have 20 locations across the southeast that have thrived on one mission, to love people and love clothes. Dress Up provides a unique shopping experience for our customers through our customer service, affordability, and ability to shop on-trend new arrivals weekly. Nothing in our store is over $48 and we get 65+ new arrivals every single week! This is one aspect of Dress Up that truly sets us apart and keeps our customers coming back. It’s nice to come into our store each week knowing you will see all new on-trend styles. Dress Up is also well known for our customer service. Our employee’s goal is to make sure our customers leave feeling more confident and empowered than when they walked through our doors. This is where the “Love people” part of our motto truly plays such a large role in what we do each and every day.

My wife, Danielle, and I are simply most proud of what we’ve built. We get approached all the time from people asking if we want to or will franchise. We also get asked what our end game is, and my answer is always, we want to grow at a pace in which we can maintain not only what we’ve built, but continue to grow at a pace in which we can be proud and continue to give others opportunities.

But, most of all, we are proud of our people in general. We’ve got approaching 300 people that work for us, mostly female. We feel like we have one of the best teams in the entire country in the retail business. Danielle and I are very proud of our team. This is why our heart is truly to give them the most opportunities that we can.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Retail in particular is shifting towards an omni-present customer that will require us to be more tech based. So, we are trying to do all we can do now to provide our tech and efficiencies for the modern customer. Typical “old fashion retail” simply will not work anymore. We are not afraid to break the mold and feel as though this will provide for overall better growth for Dress Up.

Pricing: