A Fashionable Arrangement
Dallas clothier stitches up deal to acquire digital startup darling
Two Dallas-based menswear enterprises have found each other. Q Fifty One, aka Q Clothier and Rye 51, has acquired Edition Collective, parent of Imprint (formerly Need) and Foremost.
The marriage merges the brick-and-mortar success of Q (the bespoke retailer has stores in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and Tucson) with Edition Collective’s digital savvy. Need launched in 2013, offering a curated assortment of menswear and accessories, which rotated monthly. Foremost, a small-batch, American-made clothing brand targeted to millennials, came along in 2015.
Edition Collective founder Matt Alexander, one of our Top Texans Under 30, will become president and CEO of Q Fifty One Digital. Edition Collective’s assets, including Imprint’s iOS app, will be absorbed by Q.
Alexander’s first order of business? Bringing the genius of Edition Collective’s online presence to Rye 51, the more casual of Q’s brands.
“The Edition Collective design sensibility, editorial production, and curation style will live on in Rye 51,” says Alexander, who believes he’s found the “ideal home” in Q. Also rather unbelievable is Q’s success without a robust web presence. This acquisition changes that.
“Leveraging the Edition Collective approach to e-commerce, photography, and storytelling, we feel confident that our exceptional brick-and-mortar experiences will be done justice on the web,” says Q Fifty One founder and CEO Raja Ratan, who opened the first Q Clothier in 2003. “The opportunities are endless.”
Rye 51’s complete overhaul is due to launch this November under Alexander’s direction, with a new version of Q Clothier following in 2017. Ratan also intends to grow Q Fifty One’s footprint across the United States.
