Check Out De’Vaughn Mills’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to De’Vaughn Mills.

Hi De’Vaughn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Complex Season is a Community Based Clothing Brand originally based out of Washington, DC. My mission with every piece I release is to create conversational starters and pieces that tell stories. Pieces that take you back to a certain time period, giving you a nostalgic feeling. And pieces that pay homage and give people that inspire me their flowers. While at the same time bettering underprivileged communities through scholarships, toy drives, food drives, mentorship, etc.

July 3rd, 2013 I officially launched my brand “Complex Fashion”. “Complex” derived from how most people I encountered viewed my flashy personal style growing up. I can remember being looked at weird for wearing certain things that later became “trendy” down the line.

The change from Complex Fashion to Complex Season was made a few years later due to not wanting to place limitations on my brand. The vision and end all be all is way bigger than just “Fashion” hence to why it was replaced. The word Fashion is also super generic to me and it’s absolutely nothing generic about what we have going on. When you think of something Complex you think of something that’s out of the box and unique so it stuck with me through the years.

My biggest inspiration for starting my brand is easily my family. Growing up, I helped build and design my Mother’s Hair Salon, “The Hair Studio” in Washington, DC. From a young age, I saw a hustler take an ugly property and turn it into a beautiful place for men and women to vibe out. Making a way out of no way! I told myself once I found my niche, I’d bring the same energy to my creative endeavors. My mother is the goat but I also gained a big part of my creativity from my pops. I can remember being in Elementary & Middle School, having school projects and he would take random things from the house and build life-sized projects from scratch. It’s really one of those things you’d just have to see to understand. He also would draw cartoon characters on my sister’s wall growing up, so he’s always had an eye for Art. He’s also the reason I pay homage to a lot of music artists. Growing up he would play Prince, Micheal Jackson, Jazz, 70’s and 80’s R&B, Tupac, etc. and dissect every part of a song. His attention to detail is crazy till this day. My sister and grandparents are also creatives, business savvy, and cutthroat, so having them in my corner just adds to the equation.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Comparing myself and my work to others was going to be the downfall of my brand. Not only does it take away from your moment, it drains you mentally and you always feel like you’re not doing enough. I was always looking at what was happening for other brands around me and it caused me to get down on my product and lose sight of my own goals. Almost to the point where I announced in 2015, I was closing down my brand and shifting gears. Giving up. Folding. Having a support system and people that aren’t yes men around me definitely helped me shake through the mental breakdowns and continue to flourish. Being an entrepreneur ain’t for the weak.

Who else deserves credit – have you had mentors, supporters, cheerleaders, advocates, clients or teammates that have played a big role in your success or the success of the business? If so –who are they and what role did they plan / how did they help.
It’s so many people I can credit but it easily starts with my support system. None of what I do is even possible without my supporters that believe in what I’m doing with Complex Season! My supporters come from different backgrounds, races, even different countries. They play the biggest role in engaging with my content, purchasing my designs which help me continue to give back, repost/share my content, giving me feedback or ideas for future designs, being apart of my marketing rollouts, etc!

What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
The world is changing and is as innovative as it’s ever been due to social media and technology. With that being said I have plans to simplify things with my brand and making it more accessible through creating my own app. Also, with collaboration being important in the growth of brands in general, I’m looking to create merch for Sports figures, major companies, and the Music Industry to contribute to there marketing efforts. Monkey see monkey do world so I won’t speak on some of the other things in the works for me. Tune in. 🥂

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: complexseason.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/complexseason/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/complexseason?lang=en

Image Credits:
@rhymeskeme.__ @espnnba