Black Celebrity Fashion Designer × Stylist
New York City fashion designer and entrepreneur Jevaughn Williams, better known as Mugzy McFly, has made his childhood dream come true with Signed By McFly. Bronx-based fashion guru has worked with celebrities like Maino, Doja Cat and Post Malone and was chosen to enter the GRAMMY Awards this year. He owns pop-up shops to highlight BIPOC’s independent designers in the area of fashion and is a source of knowledge on everything related to style and current affairs.
Born and raised in The Bronx, Mugzy grew up with a great deal of inspiration and flare for fashion. At the age of 13, he was able to experience his first steps with creative design and began designing his first clothes so that he could combine them with his favorite sneakers. Between 2011-2012 he started creating his own fashion brand and in 2013, he launched it. The design he started with was graphic t-shirts. With no outside financial backing, Mugzy started the brand from scratch, managing all aspects of the business himself, from production and finance to hosting fashion events. This knowledge inspired him to create his own brand tagline: “More Dreams, Less Dream.” Since inception, he has expanded the collection to include exclusive designs for both genders.
In this interview, Mugzy tells us about the design of some of his famous garments, such as the jackets and sneakers of this last season, which have been successful. For these items, the color palette he uses the most is based on his experience. He comments that he has never wanted to be as garish as a rainbow, but he considers that he lives in New York, the city of fashion, which is why he gives relevance to the orange and blue colors linked to the city’s events throughout the year, and in spring they are even more so. Due to his Caribbean and African origins, he also likes to use reddish and green hues, although he confirms that for him gray ‘It’s like a high taste level to me.’
The New York designer has only been in this industry for nine years, and seeing that he is talked about in different media makes him feel very proud since he considers that it is very difficult for young African designers from the diaspora to progress in creating successful designs. That is why everything he designs is based on his experience. Regarding this, incredibly during the pandemic his brand has been able to survive and even he affirms that it has been the best time to design, travel and connect more with the world of fashion and his clientele. As a result of the pandemic, Mugzy has realized that people’s preferences have changed. He adds that they prefer the comfort, quality, and sustainability, as well as bright colors. He supports the idea that the trend is ‘extremely fashionable but comfortable.’ He also tells us that the trend in the Bronx District is going to be a little different from the rest. He believes that the most prominent color palette will be earth tones and that fashion pants will be shorts in which he is working on redesigning them. Apart from this, Mugzy is immersed in the culture of sneakers and considers that these are the basis of a comfortable and good outfit.
A very important piece of advice he gives to emerging designers and young creatives is not to design for money, but to design from your own creativity with the current trend of clothing being asexual. In addition, he adds that, from his experience, a general mistake is listening to people too much, so it is important to have your own clear ideas and choose the right moment to launch them in the search for perfection and success.
Finally, the future steps of the designer and businessman are to try to give visibility to his brand through different events and to maintain professional contacts with those celebrations and the making of videos with the purpose of giving visibility to his designs.
Article: Andrea Esteban, Vaughn Lowery
Watch him on 360TV.
Listen to his 360 MAG Podcast.
As seen in Essence Magazine.
Featured in The Bronx Magazine.
Shop Signed By McFly.
