Carla Harrell born in Amite, Louisiana completed a dual degree Bachelors of Science degree in Medical Technology from Southern University and Louisiana State University. Her involvement in the fashion industry began in 2002 when an opportunity to design a logo for t-shirts for National Laboratory Week presented itself. The t-shirts were sold to hospitals in New Orleans to promote National Laboratory Week. After this experience she realized that designing the t-shirts was something that she really enjoyed. A friend inspired her to look into designing t-shirts with the use of rhinestones and she started Divursitee LLC. This eventually led to a meeting with a sales representative from Swarovski. Once she established an account with Swarovski and received her first order, she devised a more effective and efficient process for producing stunning t-shirts encrusted with rhinestones.
The next opportunity to design t-shirts presented itself with Prescriptive Cosmetics. Being a regular customer, she approached them about using her t-shirts to promote events such as the introduction of new cosmetic lines. After presenting the design, they accepted and the word began to spread throughout the store and throughout the city about her work. While becoming a marketing success, many other cosmetic lines such as YSL, Clinique, Christian Dior and MAC brand their name with Rhinestone T-shirts. It became such a success that it inspired all the cosmetic lines at Saks Fifth Avenue in New Orleans to wear Beauty Week in Rhinestones. Elizabeth Arden noticed that some of their competitors were experiencing marketing successes with the t-shirts. So an Account Executive from their Corporate Office contacted her to produce t-shirts for their White Diamond fragrance. The next project after that was with the Britney Spears Curious and her Fantasy fragrance collection. The t-shirts were sent to cities such as New York, Chicago, and Miami as promotional items.
Business was going so well and she decided to open a storefront. The renovations to the store were completed. The inauguration for the store had been scheduled four days after Hurricane Katrina and never got the chance to open. Along with the destruction of the store she was forced to relocate to Dallas, Texas and work under her website www.therhinestoneartist.com. Since moving to Dallas, she has been working on projects such as Mariah Carey’s M, Nordstrom’s Trend Show, the MOM Squad Organization, and more.