Nice Kicks: Prior to pursuing fashion school, how was your time in the military?
Devlin Braswell: It was great and my career was amazing. I got an award for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Hurricane Katrina I would have never got to meet my first daughter who passed away. When Katrina happened, we were moved to California from Mississippi. If were still in Mississippi she would’ve been stillborn and I would’ve never been able to meet her. Even in the negativity of Hurricane Katrina and losing my daughter, I still was able to get almost a whole year with her that I wouldn’t have got to get if it wasn’t for the storm.
After my daughter had passed away, I was in New York alone and had to deal with the worst thing a person could go through and had no family to help me through it. I actually started writing and doing music and I made it pretty far. I turned down two record deals because I felt like they wanted me to make music that I didn’t want to make. I wanted to make positive music and not glorify negative things like drug dealing and partying. I always gave my music away for free on the internet, but I also performed in Time Square for thousands of people. I did what I was supposed to with music and I left it to go hard with customs and really begin my creative flow.
Nice Kicks: Between your daughter and your heart for the homeless, it appears you pour a lot of passion into your life and your career.
Devlin Braswell: The whole thing with giving back started with my younger sister posting a video on Facebook. At the time, I was a little burned out. I’m a one man factory and I have two daughters now. She posted this video called “I’m Not a Bum, I’m a Human Being.” It really touched me because I walk by lots of homeless people on the way to school. When I was in the military I drove so I was more isolated from that. When I saw it again, it hurt me to see people going through that. You really can’t judge anybody until you walk in their shoes. I don’t judge anybody for why they’re there, but I still let them know that I see them. Giving back to them inspires me because you’re never to big to forget where you are. You should never feel like you’re better than somebody because you’re a little more lucky than that person, and I’ve always been that way. What people don’t know is that they’re doing way more for me than I could ever do for them. Every time I help them it helps me. It’s healing my heart.
My heart has been broken since my daughter died. When that happened it really affected me so bad and made me so angry inside. That wasn’t who I am and I wasn’t raised to be an angry person. Nothing I can do can bring my daughter back, so when I am able to help it’s part of my daughter. I don’t make New Years Resolutions, but every time I stop to see my daughter I make a graveside promise. I told her that I will be the best human being that I can possibly be for you. In your honor, your dad is going to do what he can do to change people and change perspective on negativity. That’s what I am doing and I am happy. I just had the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had in my life. The last few years I didn’t have a Thanksgiving because I was in the military. This Thanksgiving, I fed over 60 homeless people on my own. I didn’t even eat this Thanksgiving and it was the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had! That feeling that they give me, I can’t buy that. It’s a high that no drugs can give you, it’s just a feeling of knowing you’re doing something positive.
Nice Kicks: That’s deep and very admirable. Switching gears to your custom work, the amount of customs and customizers has certainly grown in recent years. What do you focus on to make your work stand out?
Devlin Braswell: I don’t want this to sound the wrong way, but it’s not that hard to stand out in the crowd because it’s a lot of people doing the same exact thing. I’ll look at what everybody is doing, because I’m a fan of pretty much everybody who customizes because it’s art and it’s also competition, and I’ll ask myself what I can do differently. I like to use different materials. Most recon artists use leather lamb lining because it’s luxury, but lamb is not expensive, it’s cheap. Some cotton and silk cost more than lamb. I get my own fabrics made, I design them, I have a graphic artist bring my idea to life, and then I send it to my fabric makers and have it made on either leather, cotton, 3M or glow in the dark. Right now I’m trying to print on top of 3M fabric so I can have pictures on top and be more creative. What puts me in a different category is I’m pretty much the only artist that prints my own fabric. I think Chef does, too.
Not only have I been customizing since ’97, but my mother is a seamstress and a designer so I’ve been picking fabrics for her since I was 6 years old. At 6, my mother was sending me to fabric stores to buy fabric with swatches. I would take the train to Manhattan or different parts of Brooklyn to pick up the fabrics that she needed.
