Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Harris.
Courtney, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Being a fashion designer has always been something that I’ve known I’ve wanted to do and embrace since I was a little girl. I started by asking my mom ‘how do I sew,’ and she goes ‘well you take two pieces of fabric together and you stitch one straight line. She told me just that one sentence and I took off with the idea of being able to create anything I could imagine. I began to rip apart clothes and put them back together and buy fabric here and there at garage sales, goodwill, and that’s where the journey started and I have not been able to let it go.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being a fashion designer has not been an easy road. I’ve been so artistically creative my entire life and that’s not something that’s accepted by society easily. You know, you hear the stories growing up about “starving artist” and how making art isn’t a career that would be secure enough to put food on the table, provide for me, etc. So, I begin to believe that honestly, I know my parents wanted me to go to college, and I know that they wanted me to make something big out of my life. So I struggle with the fact of disappointing my parents and struggling to do what I was truly passionate about and trying to figure out how to make that my main source of income so I can enjoy what I do for the rest of my life until retirement.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am currently the owner of an LLC called: Couture Style House. I consider myself a mini Business mogul, and a fierce boss babe because I truly see the business side of everything and apply my creativity to each business venture. I do not limit myself or put myself in a box, having the “I can accomplish anything I set my mind to” mentality has shaped my lifestyle and my approaching to loving vs. surviving. So, that being said, Couture Style House operates a few companies. Of course, I am continuously adding more to Couture Style House LLC. As of right now, I am working on Derrière Lingerie & Intimates fast fashion brand. Couture Style House also makes handmade couture for clothing, including gowns, custom designs, paintings, and much more. Lastly, we also have a business and marketing mentorship program designed to support and uplift women.
What were you like growing up?
What was I like growing up? Well, I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and I spent my first 9 1/2 years there. Then, Hurricane Katrina happens and that was one of the big heat first traumatic experiences that shaped my life and my family’s behavior. I mean being stuck on the roof with my family my aunt and my grandma, my uncle and my cousins, my mom and my stepdad and we were stranded for a few days and we finally got rescued via helicopter from the roof. After that, my parents drove maybe about 15 hours straight to Kansas City, Missouri and that’s where I finished elementary, middle school and high school. So, once I was old enough to understand how it was growing up, I look back and think wow like we were struggling in New Orleans then Hurricane Katrina was like a blessing in disguise almost because once we move to Kansas City a.k.a. Blue Springs Missouri is the suburb that we resided in..Education became better opportunities came better for work for my parents everything just lifts it in a sense everything got better, so I’m super grateful for my upbringing in New Orleans and realizing how poverty has stricken that city was and moving to another one in the middle of my adolescence and just flourishing from there on, it was very awakening. So really. I couldn’t answer that question of how I was a kid because it’s just kind of all of a blur to me because I’ve had so many traumatic experiences as a child my brain was never shaped like a child, does that make any sense? My therapist always tells me that I truly never had a childhood in my brain (my mentality) because I’ve had to grow up in a very, very young age being able to adjust to different environments and understand the catastrophic situations that occurred during my childhood. I just I don’t, I don’t know I truly don’t know how I was as a child I’ve always just been like this.
Contact Info:
- Website: Shopderriere.com
- Phone: 979-399-9508
- Email: info@shopderriere.com
- Instagram: @shopderriere
- Facebook: Facebook.com/shopderriere
Image Credit:
Devonte Clark
@studio1876photography
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