LOCAL Houston | The City Guide NOVEMBER 2015 | Page 69

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE

I DIDN’T THINK THAT WE WOULD
ACTUALLY BE MAKING THE CLOTHES
OURSELVES. I THOUGHT WE WOULD
ALWAYS BE AT A FACTORY.

SHOP DYI
This city is so full of success stories. Of people having a dream and making it a reality.
LESLIE DENBY is just one of those stories. What started out as a small athletic clothing collection sold at the Define Studios in 2012 has grown to support its own little ecosystem.
Leslie shares, “We realized this was a time in the industry where so many studios needed this kind of apparel.” Leslie comes from an apparel background and remembers,
“Even when I was a little girl, I would have dreams of making dresses and I would come
down and tell my mom about some dream of a dress that I was making. So it all seemed
right. Like I really was doing what I was supposed to be doing.”

She graduate from TCU with a fashion and merchandising business major, graduated and went to New York “to work in a
basically The Devil Wears Prada kind of job. (She laughs.) I was a runner at the PR industry at Chanel. And it was kind of
like that.” Leslie returned to Houston disillusioned with the fashion industry but “being in the active industry feels so good.”
She loves the aspect of being active and working out and being around positive people.

Today Leslie caters to workout studios all over the world, printing their athletic wear
and customizing orders, and she also satisfies her creative side by designing the DYI
collection of thoughtfully, quality crafted apparel. She is quick to point out that she
couldn’t do any of this by herself. “I didn’t think that we would actually be making the
clothes ourselves. I thought we would always be at a factory.” Tucked in a studio at
Spring Street Studios, DYI is produced in-house where her team can oversee every step
of the process. Leslie is really proud of the force she has put together from the team of
talent that physically makes the clothing to the behind-the-scenes gals who promote and
close accounts.

www.shopdyi.com

november 15 |

L O C A L

69