'Hope Design' founder turns college project into clothing company with positive message
BOSTON - When Devon Hollaway started his clothing company "Hope Design", it was actually just a college thesis project.
"I thought, 'How do I make fashion a positive statement? How do I make fashion something that has a positive effect on my surroundings?" Hollaway told WBZ-TV.
His most common T-shirt design is what his company is named after. Having the word "Hope" on the front and "Hope is stronger than fear" on the back.
"Seeing people light up every time, I'm like yes, that's why we do it," he said.
"It was trying to find a way to intermingle fashion with positive sayings and things that were intertwined with my childhood and things that came from the neighborhood like 'It takes a village'," he said. That's a slogan on another one of his pieces.
He wanted to create street style clothing that people could proudly wear. After his initial college project, friends and family saw the extra pieces lying around and wanted some for themselves. Then came the requests for many more and Hope Design was born.
"It was surreal. Seeing the way people gravitated towards it was awesome," he said.
Devon first started by selling his designs at Nubian Square's market with just "Roxbury", "Dorchester" or "Mattapan" on them. He said people were proud to see their neighborhoods on the pieces. He soon realized that he could expand his positive messaging to more people.
"I realized over time that the messaging that I wanted to convey and inspire in the community and bring people together was far bigger than just Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan," he said.
Now you might've seen his recent designs at the Seaport holiday pop-up event "Snowport." He sells them at pop-up events around Boston and now California.
"Seeing it impact people in different ways is super awesome for me. I love that. People I don't know or don't know their background, seeing them light up at markets is incredible," he explained.
His family fully supports his business and even helps out when needed. In the beginning of the business, they started a community initiative through the brand, to give back. They've provided backpacks for students, free haircuts and more.
"Anything giving back to the community and representing Roxbury, representing the city in a positive way, they've always been fully behind," Devon said.
He comes out with six to eight collections every year that launch online and that you can find at pop-ups in Boston and Los Angeles.
