Once upon a time a long time ago, in a village called Evanston, there lived a girl named Denise. She liked to knit and knit and knit some more. She knitted pretty things to wear. Denise loved to go to flea markets and look for old discarded items of whimsy. She bought buttons, ribbons, patches, tattered clothing, old socks, broken jewelry, velvet birdies, and extra-loved stuffed bunnies and teddies. She strung them together, shrunk them and cut them, or added ribbons, giving old things new lives.

One day her best friend in the whole wide world, Fran, asked her to please consider making some of these special creations for her friend Mimi, who lived in the beautiful city of Boston. Mimi lived in a little jewel box on Newbury Street selling only the most irresistible goodies in the world. So, Denise made two special sweaters, but when she was ready to send them off to the jewel box, she had no labels to put inside. She quickly grabbed a piece of her satin ribbon and embroidered it with her initials by hand. She added a little small rose flower to the corner of the labels, folded them, and sent them off.

When the box was opened, a customer walked into the jewel box, saw the two sweaters, and bought both of them. Mimi asked Denise to make 6 more and so the story began………………..D.A.R. (Denise Allen Robinson) was born. 6 sweaters turned into 12, then 40, then Henri Bendel’s, and before Denise knew it she had outgrown her basement and was ready to spread her wings and fly to her own studio in Chicago.

Now Denise was able to hire many talented people to help her develop, grow, and sell D.A.R. sweaters all across the US of A. In time, Denise wished she had special clothes to wear with her sweaters. She made skirts with all the signature D.A.R. touches; scrunched and seamed fabric in many places, gathered and twisted ribbons sewn on plain fabrics, layers of fabric with hidden and torn underskirts. This was clothing for “grown up girls”. On her hangtags she suggested that you might want to skip, twirl, and dance while wearing your Neesh…………Yes, this label had a new name and it was Neesh.

“Neesh” was given to Denise by Sara—Fran’s littlest daughter. When Sara wanted to say Denise, she said Neesh instead. Neesh by D.A.R. continues to evolve since the first 2 sweaters in 1992. D.A.R. and Neesh experienced many adventures together over the years and now, once again, are into something new.

Yummy Knits and Urban Whimsy are the newest additions to the Neesh family. Denise decided that she wanted all the girly and vintage touches of her past with the comfort and ease of modern stretch fabrics. Now she can look like a Neeshy grown up girl from day to night, and even roll her Neesh into a ball and throw it into her suitcase for an adventure. She can mix the tees and jackets with her jeans and boots and put on a big oversized flower pin to go just about anywhere.

Neesh is so excited to share her creations with you that she now offers a constantly-changing small array of her favorite things on her new Ecommerce website. The revamped website includes video blogs and photos to give you a little peek into the lives of Neesh and everyone at D.A.R., how we wear it, see it, and live it.

So, in the tradition of Neesh, please feel free to jump, twirl, skip, and dance while wearing your Neesh—we do!