Warren Donner, president and cofounder of WD.NY, a successful women’s and men’s apparel company, died Monday of cancer. He was 75.
A graveside service will be held Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at New Montefiore at 1180 Wellwood Avenue, in West Babylon, N.Y.
Born in East Meadow, N.Y., Donner graduated from Florida International University in Miami and immediately entered the garment industry, where he developed a reputation as a shrewd marketer and established key relationships with retailers.
After working at numerous companies, such as Oleg Cassini and HMS Productions (Spenser Jeremy was one of the divisions), Donner went into business with his partner Edward Zhu and started WD.NY. The brand manufactures overseas, produces misses’, petites and plus-size women’s sportswear and dresses, social wear, outerwear and menswear. Donner was active in the business until last week. The company is located at 209 West 38th Street in New York.
With an extravagant personal style, Donner was anything but subtle.
“His company and being in the garment center was everything to him. He was very over-the-top in his style. He wore a ton of jewelry, and he was very into fashion. He had scarves and furs and had an excessive personality,” said his son, Jordan.
Donner handled sales and marketing, while Zhu handles the production. “He was the salesman. He had a lot of connections with buyers,” said Jordan Donner.
Zhu told WWD that in 2003, he and Donner began at HMS Productions the same week in January 1990 and left together to launch their own business in 2003.
“All of [the] people think he’s a tough guy and character, but to me, because I knew him so long, he was kind-hearted,” said Zhu. He said the business grew rapidly and in the first few years was doubling in volume every year. In 2006 and 2007, they started an advertising campaign and had huge billboards in Times Square and on telephone booths and bus shelters. Zhu said they were sued by the Donna Karan Co. because the company’s initial punctuation was W.D.N.Y., and were similar at the time to D.K.N.Y. Zhou said both sides compromised, and he and Donner changed the punctuation to WD.NY, and DKNY removed the periods.
In July 2008, the parent company of WD.NY, which was located in Switzerland, began trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. They had a second IPO in London the next year, and the third year went public on Nasdaq, said Zhu. In 2010, they bought back the company and took it private, said Zhu.
In an interview in 2005, WWD reported that WD.NY’s showroom, which at the time was at 1412 Broadway in New York, had a huge fish tank of exotic sea creatures that just arrived from Hawaii, a feng shui-arranged waiting room and a gigantic ad from WD.NY’s holiday collection on the wall with a framed lace-trimmed camisole beside it — the company’s first bestseller.
During that interview, Donner arrived with dark, slicked-back hair, jeans (“I never wear anything else,” he said), an untucked (and halfway unbuttoned) shirt and velvet blazer, all topped off with enough jewelry to keep the men’s accessories industry in business for years. And how did he get to work? In his bright, yellow Corvette. At the time, it was reported that the business was generating more than $60 million in its first two years of business, and was selling to more than 2,000 department store and better specialty doors nationwide.
“We started this line at the perfect time,” Donner told WWD in 2005. “It’s fashion for the misses’ customer. It looks contemporary, but hangs in the better area of department stores and fits the real woman. This is product that this customer has never seen in better.”
These days the brand sells department stores as well as Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx and Ross Stores.
Later in life, Donner became very involved in his synagogue, Central Synagogue in Manhattan, and was very active in a charity, The Sarcoma Foundation. He was also a fitness buff and worked out regularly.
In addition to his son Jordan, Donner is survived by a grandson, Lucas.
