Shopping with the Browns, the Family Behind DeeLux

Laila Freeman
2 hours ago
13 min read

From Cool Jerk to The Denim Bank to DeeLux, the Browns remain dedicated to the vintage fashion business, despite the pressure that comes with it.

The Brown family (from left: Dave, Dee, Justine, Chelsea) in front of DeeLux's entrance at Highland Park location in 2025. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Brown

2026 marks 24 years of DeeLux’s presence in Orange County, and 40 years of founders Dave and Denise (Dee) Brown’s time in the clothing business.

The buy/sell/trade store, DeeLux, has three locations across Southern California, including Old Towne Orange. There, shoppers will find leather boots, cutesy knickknacks, novel T-shirts and kind employees decked out in the coolest fashion.

Dee credits DeeLux’s success to the buyers who stay up-to-date on current trends.

“We’ve always felt we want an eclectic mix,” Dave said. “We want to try to appeal to the widest possible range of styles, so we try to encourage our buyers to not just buy for their own style.”

The Browns’ apparel ventures have been a labor of love … in more ways than one.

Dee and Dave met at Notre Dame High School in Riverside and started dating after graduation. Dee introduced Dave to thrift shopping. For her, thrifting started out as a hobby as she was on the lookout for vintage clothes and trinkets.

“I think we just kind of indulged our appreciation for old stuff,” Dave said.

Left, Dee and Dave Brown at their first vintage store, Cool Jerk, which opened in 1986. Right, Dee at Cool Jerk in the late '80s. Photos courtesy of Chelsea Brown

FROM AN OVERLOOKED HOBBY TO COOL JERK

Dave and Dee’s first clothing endeavor came four years into their marriage. It began as a small rented space in a Riverside antique store that fit a single iron pipe used as a rack for clothes. This would later expand into the small storefront, Cool Jerk, in 1986.

Dee mentioned how back then, the general perception about shopping at thrift stores wasn’t seen as cool and trendy like today. It was instead exclusively associated with low-income patrons.

“My mother had never been in a thrift store in her life, I don't think,” Dave said.

Then the rising popularity of MTV changed everything.

“Before MTV, if you wanted to know what your favorite rock stars and singers looked like, you'd be looking at magazines or album covers, but MTV introduced videos and all of a sudden, you could see exactly what your favorite bands looked like,” Dave said. “And everybody started really focusing on fashion more, because you had to look good on those videos, so there was a big ‘60s revival like The Monkees were back in Vogue and people started dressing a little wilder and a little more fun, I think. When we opened, it kind of tapped right into that whole revival, and then right after that was the rockabilly revival. So, we were very much into ‘50s style, and you could still find ‘50s clothes, which are pretty rare now.”

Those influenced by MTV came to the store looking for styles from the previous three decades.

“I remember at the time we would buy polyester shirts and disco fashions of the ‘70s because — remember this is the ‘80s, so we're picking from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s — whereas the older antique dealers would be aghast at having a polyester shirt in their store because the ‘70s was off limits for them,” Dave said. “That was just not cool (laughs), but we were trying to cater to a younger crowd, and it took us a long time to really build up business to where it made any money. I remember celebrating when our average sales reached a hundred dollars a day, at one point at Cool Jerk.”

For a time, Cool Jerk felt more like a hobby. The low rent of about $250 each month took the pressure off. Dee ran the store while Dave worked at a print shop full time. Then Dave saw the business potential. The writing was on the wall from the start since both Dee and Dave come from visionary families.

DeeLux’s website states that in the 1920s, “Our family emigrated from Michoacán and Guanajuato, Mexico and settled in Torrance, CA. They opened a tortilleria and grocery market, run for 30 years, paving the way for future generations of entrepreneurs.”

Dee’s grandparents had stores in their neighborhoods and her father had an appliance store. She said she always wanted to work for herself and had her own family as examples.

Dave’s father ran his own architect firm and recalls watching how his dad balanced his work life and home life, running a business by day, but still making it home for dinner every night.

HONORING THE PAST & PRESENT WITH DEELUX

Dee and Dave eventually closed Cool Jerk’s doors when Dee was pregnant with their second child. In 1990, the Browns met some friends who exported Levi’s merchandise to Japan, so as Chelsea was born, so was The Denim Bank.

The following years led to a shift.

“We started focusing on contemporary fashion because up to that point, we kind of thought old is good, new is bad,” Dave said. “And we didn't pay any attention to modern fashion, to tell you the truth, so at that point, we thought, ‘Well, the stronger model is to do vintage and contemporary.’”

The store model we now know as DeeLux came from this fashion transition, but the Browns didn’t quite have a name for it, and even opened the store without one at first in 2002.

The couple had a list of potential names that didn’t feel right. Then Denise remembered the story behind her nickname, Dee. When her brother was little, he couldn’t say, ‘Denise,’ so she started going by ‘Dee.’

The ‘Lux’ part of the name came from the ‘80s/‘90s trend of businesses having the word, ‘deluxe’ in the name.

“Like Deluxe Dry Cleaners,” Dave said. “Deluxe Nail Salon.”

“Yeah, we’re like a vintage name,” Dee laughed. “Associated with businesses like Deluxe Vacuum Cleaner or deluxe hair stuff. It was just a real generic name at the time.”

Dave describes working with his wife as “the easiest part of the business.” Dee said working with Dave has been “good” since they’ve naturally drifted into the aspects they excel at.

“I guess that's probably one of the main reasons we survived,” Dave said. “We do compliment each other. I'm more of the ‘yes man,’ she's more of the ‘no woman.’”

“I'm more cautious,” Dee added.

Justine and Chelsea Brown as the music duo, Summer Twins. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Brown

THE GOLDEN ERA & SUMMER TWINS

Running the business meant sacrifice, like not taking vacations when their daughters were younger, but Justine, 37, and Chelsea, 36, look back at the early days of DeeLux fondly.

“There was always really good music playing in the stores and starting at a really young age,” Justine said. “It kind of introduced us to music and fashion. Starting at age 5, we were just kind of probably soaking it all in and I feel really grateful for that aspect.”

While Chelsea and Justine are heavily involved now, they were always immersed in the family vocation. Their parents always took them to the store and the girls had fun being around their working folks.

“I just remember the age that I started being into clothing because there's this whole time where you're a kid and then you get to the point where you're like, ‘Oh yeah, I want to dress up. I want to wear clothes,’” Justine said. “For me, I think maybe it came a little bit later. I just remember a shift in just actually being interested in their business. I was pretty young – maybe a teenager.”

“I like that. I was gonna say, I don't know that we ever had a choice,” Chelsea laughed. “As far as being involved because we did grow up in it, they would pick us up from school and take us to the shop and we'd be in the back drawing on flyers and stuff while they were working – hanging out, running around, hiding in the rack. We grew up in the stores, but I started officially working for DeeLux when I was 18 and have been on and off since then.”

Now, Justine is Dee’s assistant and a buyer for the store’s gift department, and Chelsea is the executive assistant to Dave.

The first DeeLux store opened its doors in Costa Mesa and stayed there for about 10 years.

Chelsea coined this time as the “Golden Era of DeeLux.” The shop had a DIY vibe with fitting rooms made out of plywood and other materials. As she put it, “scrappy but in a charming way.”

The sisters reflected that the Costa Mesa location was the start of where the business is now. DeeLux was expanding into more vintage aesthetics and did well for a while there.

DeeLux sometimes hosted live performers outside the shop. Music has always been a major part of the DeeLux shopping experience, impacting Chelsea and Justine early on.

There was even a 50-disc CD player that blasted tunes throughout the store.

“Each staff member was allowed to put five burned CDs in,” Chelsea said. “So, we each had our own rotating CDs that we would put in and then it would shuffle them, but it would somehow kind of always end up playing the same song (laughs).”

From hearing the tunes playing in the store’s speakers, Justine became a Beck fan. The song, “Devil's Haircut,” especially stuck with her. Kraftwerk, Bjork, Radiohead, Luscious Jackson, The Black Keys and Santigold also had new fans in Justine and Chelsea.

Not only did the sisters’ early immersion in the business inspire their future involvement, but also their music endeavors. They played together as Summer Twins for 10 years, and the flexibility of working at DeeLux allowed them to tour. The pair played a lot in Orange County, at venues such as The Wayfarer (then, Detroit Bar), The Observatory, house shows and warehouses.

“DeeLux has always been a hub for people who want to express themselves through fashion, and people that are really creative in their expression and different artists and people that are into really cool music,” Chelsea said. “I think just growing up in that environment was really influential on both of us. We're also both musicians that write and record and release music and are into fashion but into fashion in a way where it’s not necessarily about the brand or the trend for me. Those are things we look for when we buy in at DeeLux, but for me it's more about just expression and having fun and how a piece of clothing makes me feel when I wear it.”

The sisters have since gone solo. Justine plays experimental pop music as Easy Love and her sister, Chelsea Rose, as she puts it, is currently in an alternative rock phase.

When the Costa Mesa location’s time came to an end, it was all hands on deck to clear out the space. All of the Browns worked together on the store’s final night, hanging out and eating pizza. The sisters’ friends were also there to take in the last moments.

Once all the clothing racks were removed, the Brown sisters and their friends began drawing on the concrete floor with Sharpies. Chelsea noted that they only did this because they knew the next tenant would cover it up anyway.

“We started writing and drawing funny things on the floor and talking smack on people that had given us bad Yelp reviews,” Chelsea said. “We were taking out our anger and writing about them on the concrete floor.”

“I knew you were gonna say that,” Justine chimed in. “That’s so funny.”

They both giggled, remembering this memory together.

“When I first started working there and I was 18, I feel like we both made friends – lifelong friends with the people that we worked with at the time that we're still friends with to this day,” Chelsea said. “And it’s awesome to see that culture still alive and that people make really great friends in the workplace that become lifelong friends.”

“It’s cool to see people forming relationships that they’re going to have for the rest of their lives,” Justine added. “And also seeing how the customers shape our business as well. They are the ones that are like the curators, in a sense, because they're bringing in the clothes. They loved these clothes they're giving. They're bringing them to us and then giving it a new life to someone else, and it’s just really cool to see people get excited like, ‘Oh, I sold this here.’ It feels very connected in that way. I just think it's a cool thought. They really shape the business and curate – even though the buyers are curating – they’re bringing in a lot of the creative parts of it.”

Left, the DeeLux store entrance at the Old Towne Orange location. Photo by Laila Freeman, Culture OC. Right, Dee and Dave Brown at the Orange location's five-year anniversary in 2023. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Brown

DEELUX THREADS ACROSS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

In 2013, the Browns opened the Claremont location together. Justine remembers the synergy of working as a family and the excitement of prepping the space for the new open.

“I remember the day before we opened, there was so much to be done that we were all running around, but there was no communication about who had to do what,” Chelsea said. “We all just knew what to do and we all just kind of jumped in and were just doing everything, and that was kind of cool.”

DeeLux also moved to Santa Ana for a time, but landing in the Orange Circle was always the goal. They envisioned the store among “some of the best vintage stores in Southern California,” as Dave put it. The dream became reality in 2018.

“That’s where we wanted to be,” Dee said. “That's where we felt comfortable. That was our vibe. It took a while to find the right building.”

The store’s foot traffic kept increasing until the city of Orange implemented its new paid parking in Old Towne. DeeLux’s owners mentioned they had a drop in sales once paid parking was enforced in the area.

The most recent store location was inspired by Justine and Chelsea’s move to Los Angeles in 2015. After commuting to the stores for so long, they decided to work in their neighborhood, Highland Park, which eventually led to their desire of opening a DeeLux store there.

The owner of the Lodge Room, the entertainment venue housed in a 1922 Masonic Lodge, helped the sisters find the location on North Figueroa Street. This DeeLux store opened last year.

“Chelsea worked with me to design the new store,” Dave said. “She's a good designer and has a good artistic sense, and she's also tapped into a lot of the network of people in Highland Park, so she was able to find a store designer to help us design the store. We kind of elevated our look a little bit with this store. Chelsea became the project manager for the whole build out.”

Dee chimed in, “She dealt with all the construction and things like that, and then our other team – regional managers – did a lot of the hiring and stuff like that, getting the store staffed. It was a team effort.”

Dee and Dave find Highland Park to be a fun neighborhood and are excited about Kristen Stewart purchasing the historic Highland Theatre, a few blocks away from DeeLux.

RETROSPECTION & SKETCHING DEELUX’S FUTURE

Reflecting on DeeLux’s highlights over the years, Dee’s has been creating a future for her children and Dave’s includes working with the younger generations.

“It's always inspiring to see somebody come in who’s new to this business and see them thrive and become a really great buyer, and then sometimes they’ll become a really great manager,” Dave said.

“And to see our team create new innovations that we never would’ve thought of. We now use probably a dozen different apps from Slack to NordPass and all the things that make modern digital life work seamlessly. We’re breaking in a new app. It’s called Waitwhile, for checking in sellers, and those are things that wouldn’t have come naturally to us probably, and seeing the whole culture kind of develop, not apart from us, but despite us, because the older you get, the more entrenched you get sometimes in your old ways of doing things. It’s been really fun for us to be able to be open to new ideas from our staff. It’s a constant influx of 20-something people, and they’re excited about clothes and they’re excited about the world and I think that keeps us thinking young too.”

There are many joyful and prideful moments the Browns have had in DeeLux’s history, but it’s not without its challenges.

“It’s felt to me sometimes like a lot of pressure just because I care so much about the business,” Justine said. “And that’s been like a little bit of a difficult adjustment with just trying to let go of a lot of things that I see that might need work (laughs) because I see everything and I’m learning to manage – just letting go and just kind of just focusing on what I’m doing. For my position, it’s been fun to get a little bit more freedom with the ordering of the gift shop because before, it was all Dee and I was helping her. I was assisting her and I’m still assisting, yet we're kind of both doing the same things. I’m doing more creative stuff as far as what we want to put in the store, so that’s been the fun side of it.”

Chelsea added, “It’s cool you mentioned that because I think I’m in a similar boat where I am now doing more of Dave's role – or our dad's role – which is at times very overwhelming, especially with the growth of the business and going to three locations and having regional managers and store managers and our buying managers, all these different departments. I think we have a staff of about 50 now, so it’s definitely overwhelming at times, but it’s also exciting to see the evolution of the business because we're always trying to change, to keep up and to be better and to adapt to the times and whatever’s happening and to adapt to the needs of our team and our staff and the people who shop there.”

Once again, the family is on the same page, continuously aiming to improve the customers’ shopping experience and stay current.

“Thrifting is so popular that everybody’s a lot more educated on what stuff’s worth and there’s a thousand places to sell your clothes now, either online or in person,” Dave said. “We feel like we have to always be fine tuning our operation to give our sellers and our shoppers the best experience.”

Dave and Dee’s biggest challenge has been giving more responsibility to their daughters, but they have faith in them.

“They know what they’re doing and we have to trust them to run things without micromanaging the business,” Dave said.

He went on to say that passing the torch to his girls is “pretty satisfying.”

Regarding the future of DeeLux, Justine hopes to build more relationships with local artists to get more artist-made merchandise in stores.

“We’re working on improvements for the experience of selling with us and making that easier and more efficient,” Chelsea said. “In the age of AI, we want to keep it a very human connection. We want to keep that alive in our stores and create more community within the stores. Especially in Highland Park, we set that one up where all the racks are on wheels so we can kind of have some flexibility in actual space to have some shows in there – some live music or some workshops or events. And like Justine said, it’s going to take a little extra work. It really depends on our capacity, but we want to keep the focus on community and connection and just having fun with fashion and clothes.”