Devon Lee Carlson’s Guide to a Super Cute Valentine’s Day
Get date night ready with the coolest girl on Instagram.
Devon Lee Carlson is probably one of the best examples of someone killing it as a multi-hyphenate. The 25-year-old California girl is perhaps best known as the co-creator of Wildflower Cases, a limited edition phone case brand she founded along with her mother and sister in 2012. On top of that, Carlson is a bonafide social media queen, boasting over 750k Instagram followers, being crowned “The Most Influential Shopping Influencer” by New York Magazine vertical The Strategist’s teen poll. She also manages a YouTube channel where fans can get a peek inside her world, and finds the time to model, having recently starred in Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2020 accessories campaign.
As fans will know, Devon has been dating Jesse Rutherford, lead singer of the rock band, The Neighbourhood, for quite a few years now. The pair recently collaborated with Marc Jacobs to design a limited-edition Valentine’s Day tee (which sold out in minutes), so it only seemed right to have one half of the couple dish on her favorite Valentine’s day memories, her plans for this V Day, as well as her date night essentials.
As we begin the interview, Devon shares that she’s fighting something of a cold at the moment, so her Valentine’s Day might be spent with her boyfriend playing nurse, which wouldn’t be a first since the pair actually dressed up as patient and nurse a few Halloweens ago. “It’s not new for us, but we love doing it” she laughs.
Devon and Jesse met in high school. “I was a freshman and he was a senior, but we grew up in the same town and were friends on Facebook,” she shares, explaining that they started talking after they both graduated. They bonded over not following the conventional post-high school route of college, as he was getting his band together, and she was working on Wildflower. The couple has an abundance of sweet V Day memories, having spent many of them in New York City and even Russia, as Jesse’s band was playing a concert there last year. On their first Valentine’s Day, Jesse set the bar high by gifting her a baby pink Chanel crossbody bag. “I was so surprised, I was like shaking. It was the first Chanel thing I ever owned.”
This year, they simply plan on spending the day together, as they’ve learned to not stress out over having the “perfect” Valentine’s Day. “It’s about like being together no matter what. So you kind of take out the stress of the big things start focusing on the little things.”
Next, I ask Devon about her date night favorites—her go-to date night outfit. “It’s so hard. Recently I’ve been into just like jeans, a fun heel, and just a t-shirt, cause I feel like it’s very comfortable but cute and timeless.” She’ll always switch up her phone case though because she loves a good mid-dinner bathroom mirror pic.
Her favorite phone case right now is Wildflower’s special Valentine’s Day case, which drops today. It’s what she’s gifting her gal pals on V Day, and it has ladybugs and hearts that she found on an early 2000s shirt. The design has inspired a drive through she and Jesse did. “This ladybug was stuck on my rolled-out window, and it just sat there for so long. I was like ‘Oh my God this is crazy.’ It literally just rode through our car and all up Laurel Canyon and I was like I think we need to make a ladybug phone case,” says Carlson.
As for her date night essentials, Devon keeps it simple. In her bag, she carries Chanel’s Le Lift hand cream, which is “perfect for holding hands,” and a Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment lip balm, which keeps her lips perfectly tinted: “it’s a pinkish raspberry color, and it’s just so pretty and girly and you can kiss and not have to like go in the bathroom and reline your lips.” Her favorite perfume as of late is by Narciso Rodriguez because it’s what she used to wear when she and Jesse started dating and recently, he bought her a new bottle.
Next, Devon answered a few quickfire V Day themed questions.
Flowers or chocolates?
“Flowers, cause I’m picky with chocolate.”
Red or white?
“I get sleepy on red, but red.”
Red lip or fun eye?
“Fun eye. He won’t kiss me with red lipstick, he’s like ‘I don’t want to mess it up.’ It’s sweet.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
Photos by Lauren Leekley
