Streetwear Trio Is ​“DA’W.O.R.L.D.”

The bell above the door sounded at DA’W.O.R.L.D., the Whalley Avenue mecca for men’s urban clothing.

“Coming in for some love,” the customer said, dapping up DA’W.O.R.L.D. manager Hallie ​“Bizzy” Bolden III, wardrobe consultant Tariq ​“Riq” Bolden and owner Hallie ​“Rock” Bolden, Jr. behind the counter. ​“Have a good one.” 

“A lot of times people come in even if they’re not shopping,” said Rock, as the neighbor exited. ​“Make themselves known, make their presence known, show their respect. And that feels great because I think one of the most important things you can do if you have a business in the community is know your people. Nothing’s better than feeling welcome, anywhere.” 

That generosity of spirit extended further when DA’W.O.R.L.D. donated upwards of $10,000 in children’s clothes to a free holiday shopping event at Stetson Branch Library, according to organizer Kristen Threatt. 

Rock, along with sons Bizzy and Riq, opened DA’W.O.R.L.D. in August 2021 with a mission to offer premium men’s urban clothing and accessories as well as, Rock said, ​“to involve ourselves with this community.” Rock formerly owned Rock’s World, a retail men’s clothing store at the intersection of Orange Street and Chapel Street.

“Fashion can be very appealing to our youth,” said Rock, as Kanye West’s ​“Flashing Lights” sounded on the speakers in the mellow light of the shop. ​“Engaging with them is a big part of who we are and what we do. If you come into this store, even if you just want to look, someone is going to greet you, someone is going to speak to you.”

Bizzy, 22, a triplet with Riq and their sister, agreed. ​“There will be some customers that maybe had a bad day, and then they come in here, and they tell us what’s going on with them, and as they’re leaving, they’re like ​‘I feel better now.’ Retail therapy for real.” 

“We are in the business to make money for sure, but everything is not about a profit,” Rock said. 

Hence, the ​“W.O.R.L.D.” in the shop’s name.

“It’s our trademark,” he said. ​“It’s short for ​‘We Own da Right to Live our Dreams.’ We see what we do and what we bring in urban fashion as a way to help inspire people to get after that.” 

Rock’s passion for retail began with the display windows at Chambers Army & Navy while he was growing up in Mount Vernon, NY. 

“They were always captivating and I’d go in a lot, even though I couldn’t afford anything,” he said. ​“But I knew this is the business I wanted to be in, and I kind of spoke that into reality.” He worked at a retail clothing store, then got into sales, parlaying his experience into a position as buyer for Seven Fox clothing store in Waterbury. 

It was when Seven Fox moved to Massachusetts, and asked Rock to continue working with them, that he decided to forge a path of his own, opening Rock’s World on Orange and Chapel. 

When the pandemic hit, Rock had moved on to a business that specialized in personalized shopping for people. There was an opportunity to be an operations manager at an Amazon warehouse doing supply chain management. He took it. It was an education. 

“I was managing 75 to 100 associates a night, and we would regularly ship out 15,000 to 20,000 packages,” he recalled. ​“It showed me the power of e‑commerce.” Before, he said, ​“I had to rely on the community to keep my doors open. Now I saw the potential to ship not only to states but around the globe.”

In the summer of 2021, Rock saw an empty storefront in the stretch between Orchard and Sperry streets. 

“The rest is history,” he said. 

According to Gorilla Lemonade​’s Kristen Threatt, a regular customer, DA’W.O.R.L.D. stands out for its premium quality and fashion-forward trends. ​“They have it all before anyone else does,” he said, citing Stacked jeans.

“We introduced them two years ago when no one knew what they was, now it’s the hottest jeans, that’s what everyone wants,” Bizzy said. 

“I go to a lot of trade shows, so I see the season ahead of time, I see the samples that the world won’t see,” Rock said, standing in front of a wall with an array of baseball shirts from the Negro Leagues. 

There’s another way the shop is forward-looking. ​“All three of us are buyers,” Rock said. ​“So we have the advantage of two generations. Their fathers were my peers as a customer base, and now they’re coming in with their sons, so Riq and Bizzy are building their relationships and their customer bases.”

Working with his sons has another benefit. ​“We’re family-owned and ‑operated, and we’re also father and sons, and our customers see that,” he said. ​“They see a unity here, not us beefing with each other. We are one chord, one harmony, and we translate that to our customers.”

To that end, he makes a point of keeping the lines of communication open. ​“The fashion part is easy for them because they live it, but they are still learning the business part,” he said. ​“Everything I’m dealing with, overhead, profit and loss statements, taxes, we talk, we converse.”

For Rock, ​“that’s all showing them what they can do in business and in the community, and also showing them as business partners their worth,” he said. ​“I always say a job is cool, but a lot of people won’t pay your worth or understand your worth.”

“See this?” Riq asked, gesturing at a T‑shirt with a slogan that read LOYALTY HONOR RESPECT. ​“That’s Tenaciti, a designer brand, premium goods, super-nice stuff. We introduced this to the city, all positive messages.”

For Bizzy, ​“fashion is a way for people to express their personality, and for us, we not only sell it, we live it, this is us,” he said. ​“This is us trying to do right by our community.”

To that end, DA’W.O.R.L.D, which is just a short walk from Yale’s campus, has become a destination spot particularly for the university’s football and crew teams, Rock said.

“Every year they bring new guys in,” he said, adding that the store extends a 10 percent discount to college students in the area, including Southern Connecticut State University and the University of New Haven. 

Last summer, DA’W.O.R.L.D. was the first New Haven store to partner with Sillable, an online app launched by three Yale students to make it easier to shop locally.

“There’s a little bit of a disconnect between Yale and the larger New Haven community … we felt like the Sillable app would be like a little bridging gap,” Rock said.

“We are all about fostering better connections between everyone, in our community and in the larger community,” he added. ​“That’s everything.”