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

Tabarious, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

Deve Apparel, founded By Tabarious Deveontay Evans, is a brand created as a form of luxury art, with the mission that all individuals are able to express themselves through our brand’s luxury apparel. Deve is more than a name. We believe that as a brand who states itself as luxury art; the art starts from within. With that being said, some things you are born with and it’s not everything that makes you happy, so by will, you have to get it. The idea is to create a legacy that will bring my community together. So by will, I will!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Since I was younger, I’ve always told my relatives I wanted to be a fashion designer. I did not know anything about fashion nor did I know how to design any type of apparel. Although for some reason I would always say “I want to be a fashion designer”. As age started to catch up with my mind, I noticed myself starting to dress so well that popularity in high school was no issue for me; almost everything I put on was exclusive and different. After leaving high school and moving on to college, being a fashion designer was not on my mind anymore, football was my main focus. I finally came to realize that football was not my God-given talent. In the time following, I lost motivation in college due to the fact that I couldn’t play football any more. I decided to get my CDLs, but it only lasted a year. No, that wasn’t the wave I wanted to surf either. I began to trade in the stock market and lost a lot more than I gained. Fast forward 2022, I did not know this would be the year that my dreams would become reality. I did not know where to start. All there is to say is God! The name of my brand comes from the first four letters of my middle name which is Deveontay. Next I had to develop a nice powerful meaning behind the name which would move the brand. So I came up with “By Will I Will Get It.” The reasoning behind this title comes from the mindset I developed while living in Mississippi. As a Mississippi native, sometimes it seems impossible to get support doing something positive. Honestly, that is a challenge that many people fail to triumph over. I refuse to be one of those individuals that let a positive opportunity go to waste because of what someone else thinks about it. I will get it! When I use the phrase “it”, I’m referring to success, gratitude, respect, love, and genuine hearted people to be around to support this fabulous brand. After, it was the task to come up with a logo. I must say the only thing I knew for a fact was Louis Vuitton has always been my favorite designer. So me having a cartoon logo was a no, I wanted a more classy, casual, clean look. I’m not knocking the cartoon. Just had a more cogent vision. So I kept it simple and just used a circle. Which to me is very unique. The color waves are not too crazy. I aspire to be nationwide someday. The first collection that was exposed to the world took place on the 14th of June, 2022 on a Facebook post. The collection sold out within two weeks! Amazed wasn’t the word! I felt staggered! Since that day, it has been a pleasure to influence others with my apparel.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The best advice I could give at managing a team is not being too controlling and actually considering other options from people that’s on your team. We are all God’s children ,but we all have different gifts. Therefore we all think differently. The phrase “Teamwork makes the dream work”, was not something someone just stated and did not stand on. For example in my first photo shoot I had five individuals come out and the only thing I did was bring the drip and they didn’t slip! They completely nailed it. No assigned pose, nor outfits. Even the photographer was great and it was his first time shooting a clothing line.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When it comes to resilience, I’ve fallen down plenty of times in my 23 years of living. I can’t take any credit at all, the only thing I could say is “BUT GOD.” For me, this quote means, through all adversity, setbacks, stand-ups, let downs, disloyalty, trials and tribulations, I’m forever covered and protected by God. At the age of 19, my second semester of college in March 2018, I had my first car accident that took place in Jonestown,MS. The accident was a complete disaster. The vehicle that I owned at the time was a 2004 black Ford Explorer. I must admit that there was a huge amount of joy and pride that came behind that vehicle. The reason being is because my dad gave me the truck ,and if you know my father he’s tight-handed. The truck meant a lot to me,as well as it did to him. In this accident the truck rolled over 4 times, smashing more pressure on the driver side than it did on the passenger side, with that being said it’s amazing me or the passenger are still alive today! Not to mention,neither one of us had on safety belts, and there was also not one scratch from this disaster. That’s right no one got hurt or bruised so yeah, but God! On December 16, 2019, I graduated college and celebrated my 21st birthday. At the time, I still didn’t have a new vehicle but I had a couple relatives come pick me up so we could celebrate my accomplishments ,as well as, my birthday. Strange thing happened, right before opening the door to get in the car with my relatives, a vision showed in my head of the house my people stayed in ruined. In this vision, couches were turned over, curtains were torn, and blood was on the floors. This vision shook me up badly, but hey it was my twenty-first birthday and I had just accomplished a huge milestone so what the heck, let’s go party! Long story short, my night ended with a gun to my face, seeing my cousin leaking a lot of blood and being transported to a hospital an hour and ten minutes away from where this accident took place. I’m so grateful that no one had to plan for a funeral that night. I must say the level of protection over my life surpasses unreal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deveapparel.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/deve_apparel?igshid=NDk5N2NlZjQ=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BighomieEvans?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Jacrisciah Thornton, Breanna Spencer, Jamiah Mckenny, Chemauria Rishon Allen, and Marcus House Jr. Photographer: Markevius Williams