There’s nothing more inspiring to me than to see someone turn their life around and work hard to accomplish their goals and for that reason I decided to get to know a little bit more about recently signed IMG model, Deion Smith.
Deion grew up in South Central LA and came to NY on a whim to start his modeling career and has been on the grind ever since. I’ve known him for quite some time now and to see this tatted up wild child grow in his career has been nothing short of motivational.
Check out my brief interview with Deion below and get to know him beyond the surface.
What track describes your life the most right now?
J Cole -A tale of 2 Citiez
What artist do you listen to when you need a little dose of motivation?
Tory Lanez
How did you get into modeling?
I had been working with a friends brand down in Georgia doing a few shoots,never took it serious and then one day my nieces boyfriend moved in and was like “you should be a model I’m going to send your pictures over”and the following day I was on a plane to NY and signed my first modeling contract.
Up until now what has been the most memorable moment in your modeling career ?
My most memorable moment would have to be doing my first show exclusive for Givenchy in Paris -by far the best show and best time in Paris. It had nothing to do with the show or parties it had to do more so with the fact that a kid from the ghetto streets of South Central LA is in Paris walking for one of the biggest brands and by far one of the greatest Creative Directors in the game Riccardo Tisci.
If you weren’t modeling, what would you see yourself doing?
Honestly I would probably be dead or in jail. Modeling saved my life and changed it for the better, my life made a full 180 turn and it’s never been the same since.
What are 3 words you would use to describe yourself?
Grateful,Blessed and Talented.
How would you describe your sense of style?
My sense of style is weird,like I’m the type of person to wear a fur coat with shorts and Gucci flip flops in the summer if I’m in that mood or wanna clown around or I can switch it up and and wear a suit or put on some street wear it honestly depends on the day so I would say overall my style is super versatile and being so involved in the fashion world I don’t really ever want to spend so much time thinking about what to wear.
Do you have any favorite streetwear brands you like to rock?
Right now being that I work with Kith so regularly shooting for them I’m a big fan and on top of that I have my own clothing line GUUDLUKIN that I’m pushing for and trying to get into the hands of others giving people the basic essentials.
What inspires you?
Where I grew up inspires me, just being from a place where kids don’t even live past 16 inspires me to do so much better and be grateful that I’m able to do and have done all of these great things in such a short period of time. Some people will never experience things I have and that’s my inspiration to do it for the people that can’t.
How many tattoos do you have?! Do you want more?
I stopped counting my tattoos around the number of 25 over 7 years ago.I started really young when I was 13 so I’ve been collecting for a while and I’m definitely planning on getting more.
What motto do you live by?
“A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory “from the movie Unbroken-I have it Tattooed on my neck.
Be sure to follow Deion on IG to see what he’s up to next!
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