Donwan Harrell

Donwan Harrell is the founder and former creative director of the New York-based luxury denim line PRPS and was formerly the head designer at Nike.

Early life

Born in North Carolina and raised in Virginia, Donwan grew up in a low-income family. His father worked as a naval ship repairman and his mother was a seamstress. He often helped his mother sew her own designs that she sold at local flea markets, and would sketch his surroundings to pass the time. His mother began entering him into art competitions. He began to design and sew clothing, selling it to other students.

Before he began high school, Donwan began taking pre-collegiate art and drawing classes at RISD before attending Virginia Commonwealth University on a partial scholarship. After graduating with a BFA in fashion design from VCU in 1989, he entered the Chambre Syndicale international fashion design competition sponsored by Air France, winning two years in a row.

Career

Donwan moved to New York City and garnered a job as associate menswear designer for Robert Stock. After a brief stint at Joseph Abboud, he became associate menswear designer for Donna Karan. Nike later recruited him as worldwide director for "Organized Team Sports" based in Hong Kong. Donwan created national uniforms for the 2002 World Cup including Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, United States, Korea, Japan, Poland, and the Netherlands. Additionally, he designed uniforms for many international team sports including rugby, baseball, basketball and football.

Donwan launched Prps in 2002. The denim brand was made up of three collections: Prps Noir, Prps and Prps Goods & Co.

References

• Jeans Engineering, New York Times Magazine.
• [1].