Red Dress Boutique: What Happened To The Brand After Shark Tank?

The 2000s saw a huge boom in online clothing retailers, and fashion lover Diana Harbour was smart enough to get in on the trend early. After founding her brick-and-mortar shop called The Red Dress Boutique in Athens, Georgia, with her husband Josh Harbour, Diana launched her e-commerce site Red Dress in 2009. What made the online boutique stand out from others was that Diana made the time to personalize each shopper's purchases. "I style everything in complete outfits, something that had not been done before with online shopping, so you can buy one piece or you can buy the entire outfit already styled for you," she told HuffPost.

After Red Dress went live, Diana and Josh worked non-stop to get it off the ground, and they found success. After four years, just the site alone made over $7 million, but the Harbours needed to upgrade their system on the backend in order to handle the slew of visitors. That's when the entrepreneurs decided to apply for "Shark Tank," and their pitch was alluring enough on a Season 6 episode of the show, that aired in 2014, for two of the Sharks to strike up an offer. To put it lightly, it proved to be a wise investment.

Diana and Josh Harbour got their big chance when they appeared on Season 6 of "Shark Tank." Standing before the Sharks, they got right into their pitch. "We are seeking $600,000 in exchange for 5% equity in our company," Josh told the business moguls. The high number elicited surprised looks from the cast, but it was when he told them that Red Dress made $8 million the prior year that he got their attention. Diana added, "And we're on target to do $12 to $15 million this year."

Despite the impressive numbers, Kevin O'Leary didn't think it was a smart investment, as he thought the company's growth was too big for the Harbours to handle. Lori Greiner and Daymond John both thought they weren't the right investors for the business, so they were out as well. When the retailers shared that they needed the investment to help with a new site that could provide more data, Robert Herjavec jumped right in, as he told them, "That is my world — analytics, enterprise type of information. That's where I live every day." He offered them $600,000 for 15% equity, which the Harbours thought was too much stake. Mark Cuban jumped in with a $1.2 million offer for 20%, and ultimately, he and Herjavec split the deal, getting 10% equity each.

Upon scoring their deal with not one but two "Shark Tank" gurus, Diana and Josh Harbour set out to expand their technology. "Customization takes man-hours, it takes testing, it takes time, and all of that costs money," she said, per Online Athens. "We need our system to be redone and customized to the volume we have now." Meanwhile, Josh shared his excitement at working with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec, stating, "They've built businesses from scratch to multi-million-dollar businesses. That's why we did this show, and what we're getting is a ton of helpful expertise and guidance on how to grow our company." He revealed that they hired 30 employees since appearing on "Shark Tank," and the numbers were set to grow.

Unfortunately, with the company's growth came some issues. "Six days after 'Shark Tank' aired, we did a million dollars, but all that traffic crashed the site for 17 hours," Josh shared (via ABC). "We were losing momentum, we were losing customers," Diana added. When they looked to Cuban for advice, he told them not to create a new site, and with his help, they were able to get the ball rolling again. "In 2014, we finished the year over $14 million in sales," Josh revealed.

In 2016, Diana Harbour expanded her business by opening a contemporary clothing store named Fringe with Benefits in Athens, Georgia. Her vice president of marketing Kristen Kacmar told Explore Athens (via Yahoo! News), "It's been in Diana's mind for years and is just another way she can express herself creatively. Red Dress has its own aesthetic, and we were comfortable with it, but Diana really wanted to do more." As of now, the store is still up and running, and folks can buy forever pieces for their wardrobe on its website as well.

Kacmar revealed of Harbour's work ethic, "You don't develop this business, get to plateau for a second and sit up and look down. She truly is still running this thing from the ground up, so there is no reflection," per Red and Black. Diana added, "I love it. It's perfect for the ADHD. I am a bullet train." In 2017, Diana and Josh Harbour had plans to launch a phone application for their store and revamp their site. The fashionista also included her very own labels, adding to Red Dress' ever-growing inventory. She stated, "In life, you have two choices: You can have security or you can have freedom. And if you work your a– off, you can have both of them. That's what I wanted to do."

Diana Harbour is officially a national retailer. In 2023, she partnered with Florida boutique store Cabana by The Seaside Style to display her very own creations called Cotton and Linen Rainbow Collection, News Channel 7 reported. The line featured bright, multi-colored beachy looks that will inspire your next summer trip. Harbour credited her success to maintaining online connections and told the news outlet, "I always wanted to maintain a connection to my customers, and so as the online evolved, the connection came through social media and my asking customers what do you want, what do you like, what do you need? I began connecting with them that way, and it grew."

Red Dress currently has over 730,000 followers on Instagram and 16,000 on TikTok. You can also find curated outfits on its website with fun themes like end-of-summer 'fits and the tenniscore style loved by Zendaya and Hailey Bieber. According to Rocket Reach, Red Dress is worth over $28 million, making Harbour one of the biggest success stories to come out of "Shark Tank."