About Sherri Hill, Inc. — Company Facts

This page is Sherri Hill, Inc.’s official company history. It is written and maintained by the company; the claims on it are cited to independent press coverage and public records. Last updated September 2026.

Sherri Hill, Inc. is an American formalwear company that designs prom, pageant, and special-occasion gowns. It was founded in 2008 by designer Sherri Hill together with co-founders Dusty Hill and Charles Hill, and has been headquartered in Austin, Texas since 2012. The company sells its collections wholesale to authorized retail partners and has presented at New York Fashion Week since 2011.

Background and founding

Sherri Hill was born Sherri Branum in Minco, Oklahoma, where she worked from childhood in her family’s retail store, Branum’s.1 She studied fashion design at the University of Oklahoma, where she met her future husband, Charles Hill.1 Before starting her own company, she worked for many years as a designer at the New York formalwear house Jovani Fashions.2

Hill launched her namesake label in 2008,1,3 founding Sherri Hill, Inc. with co-founders Dusty Hill — her son, who serves as the company’s president — and Charles Hill.

Relocation to Austin

The company’s original warehouses and offices were located in Oklahoma. After a 2011 tornado destroyed those facilities, the company relocated its corporate office to Austin, Texas, completing the move in 2012.1 Texas state licensing records document the renovation of the company’s Austin premises that year.4 Originally incorporated in Oklahoma, the company was reincorporated in Texas through a merger effective May 17, 2013, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office assignment records.33 The company operates offices in Austin and a distribution warehouse in neighboring Buda, Texas, where it is an anchor tenant of the Buda Midway industrial development.5

New York Fashion Week

Sherri Hill made its New York Fashion Week debut in 2011.6,7 The show is noted for launching the runway careers of Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin, both of whom walked their first runway shows for the brand.6,7 In September 2012, the brand presented its Spring 2013 collection at Trump Tower, with Kendall and Kylie Jenner on the runway.17

The brand has returned to the New York Fashion Week calendar season after season.6 Television personality Sadie Robertson made her runway debut at the brand’s September 2013 show,18 where she introduced “Sadie Robertson Live Original by Sherri Hill,” a prom-dress collection designed in collaboration with Hill.19 Live music has been a recurring feature of the brand’s shows. At the February 2019 show at Cipriani 42nd Street, rappers Rich the Kid and Famous Dex performed on the runway during the presentation, which also included an appearance by model and UNICEF ambassador Halima Aden — moments WWD highlighted among the brand’s most notable on social media.20 The brand’s September 2019 show for its Spring 2020 collection, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, included a live performance by singer Bebe Rexha — who told PAPER she had grown up shopping the brand’s prom dresses — and a runway appearance by Halima Aden;21 WWD reported that the brand’s Facebook live-stream of the show, promoted with posts teasing runway returns by Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray, was viewed 39,000 times.26 At the September 2021 presentation of the Spring/Summer 2022 collection at The Plaza Hotel, singer and social-media personality Loren Gray performed two songs while models including Hannah Godwin and Kelley Flanagan walked in the show.27

The brand has continued to present a collection each September. Its Spring 2027 collection was shown on September 12, 2026 at Cipriani 42nd Street — the company’s twenty-first New York Fashion Week show since 2011. A dated, show-by-show record is maintained on the company’s Fashion Week page.

Loren Gray performing at the Sherri Hill Spring/Summer 2022 New York Fashion Week show at The Plaza Hotel
Musician Loren Gray performing at the Sherri Hill Spring/Summer 2022 show at The Plaza Hotel, New York, September 10, 2021.
Models on the runway at the Sherri Hill Spring 2020 New York Fashion Week show at Cipriani 42nd Street
The Sherri Hill Spring 2020 show at Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, September 2019.
Model walking the runway at a Sherri Hill New York Fashion Week show at The Plaza Hotel
The Sherri Hill collection on the runway at New York Fashion Week, The Plaza Hotel, New York.

Pageantry

Sherri Hill gowns have been worn by contestants and titleholders across the Miss USA, Miss Universe, and Miss America pageant systems.7 In June 2011, Alyssa Campanella won the Miss USA title wearing a dark turquoise beaded Sherri Hill evening gown in the pageant’s evening-gown competition, as reported by the Associated Press.8 In May 2012, the Miss Universe Organization named Sherri Hill the official fashion sponsor of the 2012 Miss USA competition, with contestants wearing Sherri Hill evening gowns in the nationally televised pageant.9 The competition’s winner, Olivia Culpo, was subsequently crowned Miss Universe in December 2012, and the titleholder’s prize package announced by the Miss Universe Organization included an eveningwear wardrobe by Sherri Hill.10 The following year, the Miss USA 2013 prize package announced for winner Erin Brady likewise included a Sherri Hill eveningwear wardrobe.10 In June 2013, Erin Brady won the Miss USA title wearing a gold-and-white Sherri Hill gown covered in hundreds of Swarovski crystals, as reported by Connecticut’s News-Times.11 In July 2015, Olivia Jordan — the first contestant from Oklahoma to win the Miss USA title — took the crown wearing a fuchsia Sherri Hill ball gown, as reported by Baton Rouge’s The Advocate and by Bustle.12,13 In June 2016, Deshauna Barber — the first military servicemember to win the title — was crowned Miss USA in a custom floor-length Sherri Hill gown, as described in ESPN’s The Undefeated.14 In September 2017, the Miss America Organization named Sherri Hill its official gown sponsor, an arrangement under which the brand dressed the reigning titleholder year-round.7 In May 2019, Cheslie Kryst was crowned Miss USA in a white Sherri Hill gown.15 Sherri Hill was an official sponsor of the Miss USA 2020 competition, held that November at Graceland in Memphis, where official pageant photographs show finalists — including the winner, Asya Branch, the first Miss USA from Mississippi — competing in Sherri Hill gowns during the final round.16

Operations and distribution

Sherri Hill sells its collections wholesale to a network of authorized retail partners, granting territorial exclusivity to its boutiques.3 Twice each year, the brand presents its lines to retailers at the AmericasMart market in Atlanta, where retailers place orders in August for the following prom season and in April for homecoming.3 Sherri Hill also offers custom design consultations, with the designer traveling to retail partners to meet clients.3 The company does not permit its retail partners to rent its gowns.3

As of 2026, the company reported double-digit annual sales growth for three consecutive years, a cumulative increase of 64.3% since 2022, as cited by Vogue Business.3

Social media and cultural presence

Sherri Hill ranked among Google’s most-searched fashion terms of 2014.22

During New York Fashion Week seasons from 2018 to 2019, social-analytics firm ListenFirst repeatedly ranked Sherri Hill the second most socially engaging brand showing at the event: behind Victoria Beckham in February 2018, when the brand drew nearly four million engagements — attributed in part to Facebook and Instagram posts featuring former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, with a single Facebook post drawing 405,000 responses;23 behind Ralph Lauren in September 2018;24 behind Michael Kors in February 2019, with an engagement score of 3,056,381;25 and behind Michael Kors again in September 2019, with an engagement score of 2,993,111 — placing ahead of third-place Ralph Lauren, with season momentum up 72 percent.26

In the TikTok era, according to Gen Z research firm dcdx, as reported by Vogue Business, Sherri Hill alone accounted for 82.4% of branded TikTok engagement among the nine major prom-adjacent labels the firm tracked between February 2023 and May 2026.3

Individual Sherri Hill styles have drawn mainstream attention across the brand’s history. In March 2011, Selena Gomez performed at Disney’s Kids and Family Upfronts in New York wearing style 1403, a mirror-beaded corset dress with a tulle skirt from the brand’s 2011 collection; entertainment outlet Just Jared Jr., reporting the appearance, noted that Kendall Jenner modeled the same style for the label’s website.28

In late 2012, Kendall and Kylie Jenner fronted the brand’s prom campaign for the coming season, photographed by Fadil Berisha;29 in 2014, Kylie Jenner modeled the brand’s two-piece polka-dot gown, style 21259, in Seventeen’s 2014 prom issue.30

A decade later, the brand’s top-selling gown of 2024 was style 56161, a fitted stretch-satin corset gown, according to a company spokesperson cited by TODAY.31 The following season, style 57250 — a floral-print corset ball gown — became a widely covered viral phenomenon after a TikTok video by model Ida Zeile drew 8.9 million views; the company confirmed it was the brand’s best-selling prom dress of 2025, with tens of thousands sold through authorized retailers.31,3 The 2026 season, by contrast, produced no single dominant style, Vogue Business reported.3

In January 2025, Kai Trump wore a crystal-studded Sherri Hill gown to the presidential inaugural balls.32

Floral-print corset ball gown, Sherri Hill style 57250
Sherri Hill style 57250, the brand’s best-selling prom gown of 2025.

Intellectual property enforcement

The company’s brand is protected by federally registered trademarks. The SHERRI HILL word mark (U.S. Registration No. 3631052) was filed in October 2008, registered on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Principal Register on June 2, 2009, and renewed in 2018; it remains live and active, covering dresses and evening dresses. Earlier DESIGNS BY SHERRI HILL marks, filed in 2003–2004, predate the company’s founding.33

Sherri Hill, Inc. has pursued legal action against counterfeiters and infringers of its designs since the company’s early years. In 2011, the company announced settlements of copyright claims against two formalwear sellers, including a $60,000 settlement with Nox Anabel, Inc.34

In April 2012, the company filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the operators of approximately eleven websites selling counterfeit Sherri Hill gowns. In June 2012, the court entered a default judgment of $5 million, found willful violation of the company’s registered trademarks and copyrights, and permanently enjoined the defendants, with the infringing domains transferred to the company.35,36

In November 2013, the company sued Hong Kong–based Dress Market Limited in the same court, alleging copyright infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition over infringing dresses and the unauthorized use of the company’s photographs on MerleDress.com. In May 2014, the court entered a default judgment of $2,225,000 in liquidated damages together with a permanent injunction; in November 2014, after continued violations, the court held the defendant in civil contempt and ordered eight of its domain names transferred to the company.37

In April 2026, the company filed a copyright-infringement suit in the Southern District of New York against Medon, Inc. and related defendants over the alleged unauthorized use of Sherri Hill photographs and design elements on the websites KissProm.com and SheIsMe.com. The case is pending.38,39

Leadership

  • Sherri Hill — Co-founder and Designer. Sherri Hill leads the brand’s creative direction and designs its seasonal collections.
  • Dusty Hill — Co-founder and President. Dusty Hill oversees the company’s operations, sales, and business development.
  • Charles Hill — Co-founder.
Sherri Hill and Dusty Hill, co-founders of Sherri Hill, Inc., backstage at New York Fashion Week
Co-founders Sherri Hill and Dusty Hill backstage at New York Fashion Week, February 2018.

References

  1. abcdMary Willa Allen, “Fashion Roots in the Red Dirt,” Oklahoma Magazine, April 23, 2018.
  2. ↑“Sherri Hill, Dominating the Formal Game,” The Daily Front Row / Fashion Week Daily, February 2015 (describes Hill as a longtime Jovani designer).
  3. abcdefghiCami Fateh, “Why Brands Should Go to Prom,” Vogue Business, May 11, 2026.
  4. ↑Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, project registration for renovation at 9011 Tuscany Way, Austin, Texas, registered April 26, 2012 (public record).
  5. ↑REJournals, coverage of Buda Midway Phase I industrial development, Buda, Texas, 2022.
  6. abcLauren McCarthy, “How a Prom Dress Designer From Texas Cast Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin in Their First New York Fashion Week Shows,” W Magazine, September 7, 2017.
  7. abcd“Sherri Hill Is the New Gown Sponsor for Miss America,” The Hollywood Reporter, September 5, 2017.
  8. ↑Associated Press, “21-Year-Old Californian Wins Miss USA Crown,” June 19, 2011 (wire report; republished by Fox News).
  9. ↑“Miss Universe Organization Announces Sponsor Line-Up for the 61st Annual MISS USA Competition,” PR Newswire, May 10, 2012 (Miss Universe Organization announcement naming Sherri Hill Fashions as Official Fashion Sponsor).
  10. abPR Newswire, Miss Universe Organization announcements: “Miss USA, Olivia Culpo Crowned Miss Universe 2012 During Live NBC Telecast,” December 19, 2012; and “Miss Connecticut USA Crowned Miss USA 2013 During Live NBC Telecast,” June 17, 2013 (both listing an eveningwear wardrobe by Sherri Hill in the titleholder’s prize package).
  11. ↑“Danbury Tailor Altered Glittery Gown for Miss USA,” The News-Times (Danbury, Conn.), June 2013.
  12. ↑“O.K. All the Way! Olivia Jordan Takes Home the 2015 Miss USA Crown,” The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), July 13, 2015.
  13. ↑“Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan Wins Miss USA 2015 And She’s Giving Off Major Princess Vibes,” Bustle, July 13, 2015.
  14. ↑Maya A. Jones, “Deshauna Barber Is More Than Miss USA, She’s #BlackGirlMagic,” The Undefeated (ESPN; now Andscape), June 10, 2016.
  15. ↑Avery Thompson, “Cheslie Kryst: 5 Things About the North Carolina Lawyer Crowned Miss USA 2019,” HollywoodLife, May 2, 2019.
  16. ↑Official 2020 Miss USA competition photographs by Benjamin Askinas (Miss USA), November 2020, republished by Action News Jax and The Commercial Appeal (Memphis); captions identify Sherri Hill as an official sponsor of the 2020 Miss USA competition and show finalists, including winner Asya Branch, competing in Sherri Hill gowns.
  17. ↑Rebecca Adams, HuffPost, September 8, 2012 (Spring 2013 show coverage).
  18. ↑Natalie Finn, E! Online, September 11, 2013 (Sadie Robertson NYFW debut).
  19. ↑“Teen ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Designs ‘Daddy-Approved’ Prom Dresses,” Deseret News, September 18, 2013; see also “‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Makes Modeling Debut at New York Fashion Week,” CNN (via Entertainment Weekly), September 11, 2013.
  20. ↑“Sherri Hill’s Social Moments,” WWD, February 2019.
  21. ↑Brendan Wetmore, “Bebe Rexha Spilled NYFW Tea at Sherri Hill,” PAPER, September 13, 2019.
  22. ↑Lisa Lockwood, “Google Publishes Annual ‘Year in Search’ Results,” WWD, December 16, 2014.
  23. ↑“Victoria Beckham Takes Top Spot in Social Engagement During NYFW,” WWD, February 2018.
  24. ↑“Ralph Lauren Creates Most Buzz During NYFW,” WWD, September 2018.
  25. ↑“Michael Kors Places First in Social Media Engagement During NYFW, According to ListenFirst,” WWD, February 2019.
  26. ab“Michael Kors Scores First Place in Social Media Engagement During NYFW,” WWD, September 2019 (syndicated by Yahoo; ListenFirst data for September 6–11, 2019).
  27. ↑“Sherri Hill NYFW x Loren Gray,” New York Style Guide, September 15, 2021.
  28. ↑Jill-Renay Simon, “Fashion Faceoff: Sherri Hill Rhinestone Dress,” Just Jared Jr., March 30, 2011.
  29. ↑“Kendall and Kylie Jenner Star in Sherri Hill Prom Campaign,” E! News, November 16, 2012; see also “Sneak Peek: Kendall & Kylie Jenner’s Prom Photo Shoot!,” E! News, July 19, 2012 (Fadil Berisha shoot).
  30. ↑Seventeen (Seventeen Prom issue), January 2014 (Kylie Jenner modeling style 21259; verified against the issue).
  31. abRachel Paula Abrahamson, “The Viral Sherri Hill Prom Dress That’s The ‘It’ Look of 2025,” TODAY.com, April 2025.
  32. ↑“Donald Trump’s Granddaughter Kai Trump Glitters in Sherri Hill Crystal-studded Dress,” WWD, January 2025.
  33. abUnited States Patent and Trademark Office, TSDR record for SHERRI HILL, U.S. Registration No. 3631052 (Serial No. 77603008): filed October 29, 2008; registered June 2, 2009 (Principal Register); renewed October 24, 2018; owner Sherri Hill, Inc.; assignment records document assignment from Sherri K. Hill (individual) to Sherri Hill, Inc. (Oklahoma corporation) recorded February 14, 2012, and merger into a Texas corporation effective May 17, 2013. Earlier marks: DESIGNS BY SHERRI HILL (serials 76516809 and 76520662, filed 2003–2004); SHERRI COUTURE (serial 77853147, filed October 20, 2009) (public records, tsdr.uspto.gov).
  34. ↑PR Newswire, July 26, 2011 (company announcement).
  35. ↑Sherri Hill, Inc. et al. v. John Doe 1 a/k/a Wang Qinghe, et al., No. 1:12-cv-03014-JMF (S.D.N.Y.), default judgment entered June 2012 (public record).
  36. ↑GlobeNewswire, June 20, 2012 (announcement issued via Gioconda Law Group; company statement).
  37. ↑Sherri Hill, et al. v. Dress Market Limited, No. 13-cv-8212 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y.): complaint filed November 20, 2013; default judgment entered May 16, 2014 (Doc. No. 59); contempt and turnover order entered November 25, 2014 (Doc. No. 69) (public records).
  38. ↑Sherri Hill, Inc. v. Medon, Inc., et al., No. 1:26-cv-02642-LAK (S.D.N.Y.), filed April 27, 2026 (public record).
  39. ↑FashionUnited, April 2026 (trade coverage of the Medon filing).