We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Himels a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

This all started just sitting on a couch with a sewing needle and some floss. I made hand stitched pieces for a while just was a way to pass time. I didn’t watch television or anything. I would work my job then sew pieces. gradually I built up a nice collection and was asked to showcase them at a DIY music venue. As the shows were playing I had my little zone setup and people would come glance at my stuff at the time I had no clue what to price things at. I was just happy to get my pieces into peoples hands. By the end of the night almost everything sold out. I was amazed by this and decided to turn it into a business. Mattie my friend was who invited me to that event and knew I was making all these creations. I didn’t have any sort of agenda at the time. After seeing the way I could sell items I’ve created I decided I wanted to make this a legitimate operation. this all happened maybe 4 years ago? So after realizing I could sew pretty well what is another part of making clothing? that would be screen printing. I quit my job in construction and worked in a screen print shop. I wanted to learn how to print and be able to take that knowledge and apply it to my own brand. I worked there for 2 years and I learned so much and printed so many of my own clothing. I’ve always been the type to just learn how to do something completely on my own. So now I can print my own stuff and sew really cool pieces. at this point my mentors are pushing me to grow the business aspect of this. That is currently where I sit today. I have stepped away from printing my own pieces. my second family over at Allstars Ink in Denver take care of printed my shirts. I still do all my cut and sew pieces myself. I working on building and growing my website but most of my pieces sell as soon as I give a sneak peak on instagram so its been difficult to build inventory on my website.

Chris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a huge advocate for finding who you are and what you want to be on your own terms. For a long time I put myself in personas or I had to act a certain type of way to appease certain people. It took me a long time to really get comfortable being in my skin. I had to leave a lot of negative things in my past and really embrace the person I am. This all led me to creating clothing that allows me to feel comfortable in my own skin. I am a person in recovery. By shedding layers of my ego I was able to dive into my brand. I put everything I am into creating my pieces. They all stemmed from a severe depression in the beginning. From Hell With Love really came from the same place nightmares are created. now that I’m sober and clean I have found something in my life I am so passionate about. I am fortunate enough today to be able to make clothing everyday. None of this would be possible if I didn’t get sober and work a program of recovery. I do my best to carry the torch for the younger generations, pass down my knowledge to anyone who wants to start a brand, I just try and help people make the best of their time on this earth. It’s very easy to sit around and suffer over and over. but when you put that aside and grow and nurture something like building a brand or being a artist over time you start to see things pay off. I try and motivate others to do what they have always wanted to do. I had nothing in my addictive addition so the least I can do is try and help other people live out their dreams.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve seen a lot of brands start and stop and eventually fall off. I don’t want to put this much time into something and eventually it becomes nothing. So I just create something everyday that is related to my brand. which for the most part this is very easy to do because there are so many cogs to maintaining a business. I think making sure you stay connected on social media is the biggest part that shows people who support what you do your very active and constantly creating which is nice to see.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

setting expectations. I used to stress so hard about social media and sales and stuff like that. I really had to remember why i started doing this in the first place. It’s just a way for me to meditate as I create these pieces I’m just in the zone. This was a couple years ago but once I let go of my high expectations and created out of love i felt much more at peace with myself and my actions

Contact Info:

• Website: ilovefromhell.world
• Instagram: from.h6ll.with.love