Name: Donwan Harrell

Current job title/ position:  Founder and creator of Prps, Vintage denim collector, Denim professor at VCU, Mopar mechanic

Specialty and Expertise: Creative concept direction, denim wash and finishing, denim historian, and Mopar Muscle car expert.  

Favorite denim store in the world: J’Antiques & Suntrap in Tokyo

Favorite denim item: My deadstock H.D Lee Jelt denim overalls from the 1940’s

Links: PRPS Jeans, Linkedin, Donwan Harrell’s Garage, PRPS Video

Resume highlights:

At an early age Donwan’s father used to take him to the local drag racing strip in Suffolk, VA to watch the greats race. So eventually he developed a love for the old school 60’s max wedge & 70’s drag racing styles. He went on to admire how the racers wore their dirty denim jeans with matching denim vest and embroidered insignias in various movies like 2 Lane Blacktop, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Vanishing point, Christine and American Graffiti.

Harrell has been a denim designer for the last 15 years and has incorporated both loves together as they overlap significantly. He uses his extensive vintage denim collection to incorporate authentic weathered mechanic looks in his wash characters. Over the years, he has been selected to design H.D.Lee’s 125th anniversary denim collection, he’s designed the 1998 World Cup uniforms for all the Nike signed soccer teams, the athletic Uniforms for the 1996 Olympic participants sponsored by Nike and has more recently started a denim curriculum for the VCU fashion department. He was also the founder & creator of the Akademiks sportswear line.

Amy Leverton
Website | + posts

Trend forecaster, denim designer, industry journalist and author of Denim Dudes.