De’Oryen Thornton

Who are you?

My Full name is De’Oryeon Thornton. Everybody knows me as D. I own a vintage store slash hype store in Waco, Texas. Go ahead and search the store name: Clasé Vintage and Goods. Just a  little ole Waco man, You know?

“Nothing is better than making your soul right…”

What are some challenges you’ve encountered since opening up a store one year ago? 

I would say trying to hit every audience and trying to be acceptable for every audience. Trying to find pieces that everybody is going to walk out with, finding the price point, and figuring out what people are willing to spend. I'm also not in an area with a lot of walking traffic, like had Magnolia, so I have to promote every single day on IG and by mouth, putting up flyers around the city. I would say that's the challenging thing, but other than that, it's pretty easy for me.

Clasé opened up in January of 2020, approximately 60 days before COVID-19 hit. What were your thoughts when that happened?

I was working so hard from the day I opened until then we closed for Corona. I was like, “Shit, this is the time for me to kind of find myself again and get back into nature.” I started eating healthy and being more healthy in general. I was able to just think without trying to be the front face of Instagram or trying to be at parties and seeing people and being real active. I was turning up, bro. I was trying to be the man that everybody wanted me to be. Being out on the scene, turning up, buying sections, just doing stupid stuff. So COVID kind of helped me just sit down and realize what life is. Everything is really just a distraction. It's really materialistic. Nothing is better than making your soul right. So that's what I kind of focused on. I started reading more and took the time to just think by myself without having a conversation with anybody else or being on my phone.

“We’re in the 21st century, anybody can take off. It's just all about how you do it and who you connect with in other cities…”

In what ways would you want your influence to shift the culture in Waco? 

Regarding fashion, art, and music, I really want to start showing people how things should be done as far as running campaigns for their art or their music. I wanna show Waco that even though you're from a small city, you can still take off. We got social media nowadays. We’re in the 21st century, anybody can take off. It's just all about how you do it and who you connect with in other cities. My goal is just to start bringing different influences into the city of Waco. Maybe I can in the future find a big open space or warehouse and start bringing people in and where we’re doing photo shoots, music videos, stuff like that.