Vaughntrepreneur

What caused me to begin the brand Vaughn de Heart was a highly improbable occurrence that took place in southern California.  What led up to that event began with a shirt that I had designed for fun during my senior year of college at Walla Walla University.  A small school located in the town of College Place in the state of Washington.  I was the President of a fraternity called Omicron Pi Sigma (OPS).  During my term, in the spring of 2008 I designed a t shirt for the fraternity (shown in the picture).  The thing I loved most about the design was the simplicity of it, and the fact that it did not say Walla Walla University, or Omicron Pi Sigma on it.  Then on May 22, 2009, one year ago today, I was visiting southern California.   My friend Ryan and I decided to visit to the Brea mall.  I was wearing my OPS t-shirt that I had designed over a year earlier.  While walking around the mall out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw someone else wearing the same OPS shirt.  The person I saw wearing it had a wife and kids, so I thought to myself, "there's no way he could be in the fraternity."  So Ryan and I followed him, I went past him and looked back and sure enough he was wearing the shirt I had designed.  I walked up to him and said, "Hey where did you get that shirt?"  He said, "I bought it at a thrift store."  I said, "Do you know where it is from, and what it is?"  He said, "No, I just liked the design, so I bought it."  While I was talking to him he realized that I was wearing the shirt as well, and I told him that I was the designer.  He told me his name was Nick, and that people ask him about the design all of the time and that he wears it whenever he can.

    After that meeting what I focused on was that Nick bought my shirt from a thrift store in Southern California when they were only sold in Washington, and was wearing it on the one and only day in our lifetimes that we would walk past each other.  On that day not only one of us, but both of us wearing the the same shirt.  The improbability stunned me, and it was more than enough to give me the courage to begin. The timing could not have been more perfect.  I had already picked out the name, Vaughn de Heart.  My full name is RoyLyn Le'Vaughan Palmer-Coleman, "Vaughn" came from my middle name, and "de Heart" meaning, "of heart" was derived from that always being what I have tried to exhibit.  In sports, school, and life, heart is what I have tried to exemplify.  So that even if I didn't win or succeed people could say that at least I showed a lot of heart.  Earlier that month I had purchased a laptop and design programs, and had already begun making designs.  I just needed something extra to push me over the edge to begin.  What I got was a shove over the edge.  Instead of feeling ridiculous for trying to create a brand, I now felt it would be ridiculous if I did not begin.  It is now a year later and I am launching my online store.  I am extremely grateful for all of the support I have received from boutiques, friends, and family.  Today marks another step in the life of Vaughn de Heart, the launch of the online store.  And there will be more to come.