EXCLUSIVE: Hill House Home to Release First Apparel Collection
Hill House Home is continuing the momentum of its best-selling Nap Dresses with the launch of its first full apparel collection.
The five-year-old brand, which saw explosive growth during the pandemic for its Nap Dress offerings, is debuting its Mermaid Drop collection on June 16 that includes new Nap Dress styles and prints as well as new apparel and accessories styles outside of its traditional Nap Dress.
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“We’ve seen this appetite from our customers for more across all categories, so we’re excited to go deeper in apparel,” said Hill House Home founder and chief executive officer Nell Diamond. “We’ve barely scratched the surface in dresses. There’s just so much that we want to show people and put that Hill House Home spin on.”
The Mermaid Drop collection is the brand’s most expansive apparel collection to date and is meant to be a celebration of summer with bright colors and graphic prints inspired by florals and mermaids. Diamond and the Hill House Home team started working on the collection in October with the hope that this summer would see somewhat of a return to normalcy.
“It’s funny to think about how fast things changed, but we really didn’t know when the vaccine was going to be available or if we’re all going to be working from home [this summer],” Diamond said. “We all sat together and decided to be optimistic and hope for a summer where we can really be celebratory and see our friends. This also represented a real opportunity for us to push our aesthetic and our assortment.”
The ideation process for the new collection started with the prints, namely the “space floral” design in emerald and powder blue and the white and pink “mermaid” print that depicts images of mermaids, seashells, stars and other designs.
Both prints are available in existing Nap Dress styles, including the Ellie, Caroline, Katherine, Athena and Sabrina dresses. The collection also offers existing Nap Dresses in a red cotton style, a white paisley print, black swiss dots and navy.
The Mermaid Drop also expands on the brand’s Nap Dress category with new styles. There’s the Akilah Nap Dress, which is a collared, smocked body style similar to the Ellie dress, the Roxie dress, a tube top dress with strings that Diamond described as “early 2000s tabloid vibes,” and the Lucy Dress, which is a maxi version of the Roxie. The collection also offers more Tiny Ellie options, which are the brand’s Nap Dresses in children’s sizes.
“When it comes to the aesthetic of the things we’re creating and the shapes, we really felt like we are leaving the prairie and cottage core and we’re going to the club,” Diamond said about how this collection is unique to others from the brand. “We’re going to the club with our girlfriends, we’re dancing on tables and we’re having fun and at the same time we’re going to be comfortable.”
Outside of the Nap Dresses, the brand is offering its Paz set, which is a top and skirt set similar to the Ellie Nap Dress, available in navy, white, mermaid and space floral prints. The collection also includes the Amal Skirt, a maxi broderie anglaise skirt, the Lou Lou Duster, a lace, loose-fitting coat, and the Desk Sweater, a pink, ruffle detailed cardigan, among other styles.
“I really hoped we’d be able to go into apparel,” Diamond said about the category expansion. “When we first launched the Nap Dress there was a huge part of me that was hoping it would hit. I was really hoping people would respond to it, but also understood that it might just not. I think it’s been really key to Hill House Home the entire time that we don’t do things that our customers aren’t responding to.”
Hill House Home was one of the few brands that saw tremendous growth amid the pandemic, thanks in large part to its Nap Dress category. In 2020, the brand saw year-over-year revenue growth of 275 percent with the Nap Dress category seeing a jump of 1,120 percent. Diamond stated that this growth has continued into 2021, with a year-over-year increase of 350 percent. The brand is predicting that it will be at over 300 percent by the end of this year.
This growth gave the brand the chance to expand its apparel offerings and dive into other categories. The Mermaid Drop also offers accessories like a mermaid-print beach bag, two cat-eye sunglasses, hair barrettes and Nap Dress-themed merchandise, among other items.
Throughout the last year, the popularity of the brand’s Nap Dresses have extended to its other categories, including its bath, bedding and table linens. The Mermaid Drop will include these categories with the mermaid print available in bedding, robes, beach towels, cocktail napkins and tablecloths.
“What we’re seeing in the data is that the Nap Dress is the top of the funnel moment,” Diamond said. “It’s how people meet us and hear about us. Once they own the product and live with the product, they end up coming back to us when they have a need in one of the other categories. In a world without Nap Dresses, we’d still be really excited about all of these other categories.”
The Mermaid Drop will be available starting June 16 at 12 p.m. EST on Hill House Home’s web site and ranges in price from $35 to $175.
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