About
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Every Story Is Still Being Woven
Where it Began
Dear Friends, Supporters, and Fellow Creatives...
Hello, I’m Carise Harper - creative soul, designer, content creator, and proud owner of Style by Carise LLC. Welcome. I’m truly so glad you’re here.
If you were to ask me when my creative journey began, I wouldn’t be able to give you a particular year or a defining moment. As far back as I can remember, I was always making something. I saw potential in ordinary things - fabric, ribbon, beads, buttons, clay, wood, thread. I could look at something as simple as a piece of denim and imagine what else it could become. As a little girl, I turned old jeans into pillows. I altered clothes to fit my tiny frame. I collected things simply because I could already see their potential. Creating wasn't a hobby I discovered later in life. It was simply the way I naturally moved through the world.
Even shopping was sometimes a creative exercise. I would pick something up and immediately begin imagining how I would change it-the fabric, the shape, the details, the way it could be made better or made more like me. Looking back, I suppose I wasn't really shopping at all. I was conducting unpaid product development. Lol. I even remember almost being late to prom, because I was cutting a slit in my dress. Ha.
Eventually, I found myself studying the very things I had been instinctively drawn to since childhood. I earned my bachelor's degree in Fashion Merchandising, studying textiles, apparel, merchandising, construction, design, and all of the details that transform an idea into something tangible. My education gave language and structure to what my hands already seemed to understand. It taught me to appreciate not only how something looks, but why it works-the fabric, the construction, the proportions, the materials, the presentation, and the experience of the person who ultimately receives it.
What Was Woven Before Me
Some of my most important creative education happened long before college.
It was woven into my family.
Creativity runs deep through the women and generations who came before me. One of my grandmothers designed drapery. Another built a life in fashion retail. My great-grandmother spent more than fifty years sewing and crafting jewelry. They each expressed themselves differently, but they shared something I recognize deeply in myself: they knew how to take what they had and make something meaningful from it. Their creativity wasn't simply something they did in their spare time. It was part of how they lived, worked, solved problems, expressed themselves, and built lives.
I carry pieces of each of them with me.
Maybe that is why I have always loved the transformation of ordinary materials. There is something beautiful about watching fabric become a bag, a few strands of thread become structure, or a small design detail become the thing someone remembers most. I love the parts of craftsmanship that aren't always immediately visible-the texture of a material, the weight of it in your hand, the way a seam comes together, the unexpected detail tucked inside, the little surprise that someone discovers only after they begin using something. Those details matter to me because they are evidence of intention.
From Making to Meaning
Over the years, that love of making has grown into something much bigger than I could have imagined as a little girl with a pair of old jeans.
And over the years, that love of making has grown into something much bigger than I could have imagined as a little girl with a pair of old jeans.
Style by Carise began with handmade earring accessories, but the vision continued to evolve as I did. Today, Style by Carise LLC is a creative house where e-commerce and media come together. Through The Carise Collective, I create designed goods rooted in craftsmanship, thoughtful details, and a love for beautiful things. Through Media, I explore the other side of my creativity through modeling, acting, content creation, storytelling, education, and Creative Carise TV. The mediums may change, but the heart behind all of it remains the same: I want to create, I want to tell stories, and I want to make something meaningful from all the gifts I have been given.
This is the foundation of Style by Carise, LLC.
The Season That Changed Everything
But there was a season when I wasn't sure if I would ever create the way I once had.
I experienced a serious hand injury that nearly severed my thumb and left me unable to create by hand for more than a year. And that happened during one of the hardest seasons of my life. During that same season, I lost all four of my grandparents and, later, experienced the deepest heartbreak of my life-the loss of my father, Robin.
That particular loss nearly destroyed me, but I knew I had to keep going for them and for him.
There was grief everywhere.
And then there was stillness.
For someone who had always understood the world through making, suddenly not being able to use my hands the way I once had was difficult to explain. I had to sit with questions about identity, purpose, and what remains when the thing you have always known yourself to do is suddenly taken away.
I didn't have all the answers. What I did have was faith.
In the stillness, I began to understand that perhaps my creativity was never meant to be the entirety of my identity. It was a gift, yes-but maybe the gift had a deeper purpose than simply making things. Maybe it was also a way to connect me to the people who came before me, a way to tell stories, a way to heal, a way to encourage someone else, and a way to remind me that restoration is possible.
What My Hands Taught Me
When I was finally able to create again, I didn't see my hands the same way. I saw them as a privilege. I saw the women in my family in them-their creativity, their strength, and their perseverance. I saw everything I had survived, too. Even today, when I create a new product, I’m reminded of just how far I’ve come. When you purchase a handmade design from me, you’re receiving something created by hands that have been through a lot-hands that I now create with, even though I can fully feel only nine of my fingers.
And still, I create.
That is the perseverance I inherited from the women who came before me: to keep going, keep creating, and make something beautiful with what I have - even through pain.
And I see God in the process-the ultimate Creator, the One who has a way of taking unexpected pieces and still creating something beautiful. That changed the way I think about beauty.
At Style by Carise, I've always believed that beautiful things don't have to be perfect. Some of the most meaningful parts of our lives are shaped through change, patience, resilience, and time. Sometimes the things that have been repaired, rebuilt, or changed become the very things that make our stories beautiful. Maybe that's why I feel so connected to things made by hand.
Becoming
There are loose threads. There are unexpected turns. There are seasons when we can't see what something is becoming because we're standing too close to it. There are moments when a piece seems completely out of place, only to discover later that it was part of the design all along.
That is why faith, resilience, purpose, and legacy are more than words to me. They are values I watched being lived.
My mother lives them. My father lived them. My grandparents and the generations before them lived them. Their lives taught me that these aren't simply words you talk about; they're values you practice. I wouldn't be who I am today, or have the courage to keep creating, rebuilding, and moving forward, if they hadn't shown me what it means to persevere. So when I create now, I am not simply making something new. I am carrying something forward.
I am honoring the hands that taught me. I am honoring the seasons that shaped me. And I am allowing myself to become the woman and creative that I am still growing into. Because Style by Carise has always been about more than things. It is about becoming.
It is about growing, dreaming, creating, and stepping into new seasons while carrying the pieces of what shaped you. It is about creating beautiful things with intention and allowing those things to become part of someone's everyday life-a bag carried to work, an accessory worn on a special day, or something that eventually becomes connected to a memory.
That is the kind of relationship I want people to have with the things I create. I want them to feel thoughtful. I want them to feel personal. I want the craftsmanship to matter. I want there to be details you notice immediately and details you discover later. Most of all, I want there to be a story behind them.
Because I believe we are all carrying stories.
Still Being Woven
A single thread can seem insignificant on its own. Give it time. Give it direction. Give it tension, patience, and intention. Eventually, those individual threads begin to create something larger than themselves.
Life works much the same way. One moment connects to another, one season leads into the next, and the people and experiences we encounter leave their threads behind. Some change us through joy, others through loss, but through all of it, God continues to weave.
Piece by piece, season by season, I’m still being woven right along with it.
That is the heart of Style by Carise: craftsmanship with intention, creativity with purpose, and style with a story behind it. It is a continuation of a legacy built on faith, resilience, creativity, and the belief that something beautiful can emerge from ordinary materials, unexpected seasons, and unfinished stories.
We may not always see the pattern - or the finished product - but that doesn't mean it isn't taking shape. You don't have to have everything figured out or be perfect. I used to think that. Sometimes, you simply have to keep going and trust that the pieces are coming together.
One stitch. One thread. One season at a time.
Every story is still being woven.
And I'm so glad you're here to be part of mine.
With love and creativity,
Carise Harper
Founder, Designer & Creative Director
Style by Carise LLC
P.S. — There’s more to the story.
If you'd like to meet the woman behind the brand, continue reading my featured article Behind the Brand: Meet Carise. It takes you a little deeper into the journey-the experiences, unexpected opportunities, creative seasons, and people who have helped shape the woman I am today, including some unforgettable chapters involving Debbie Allen, Anne Hathaway, Tyler Perry Studios, and more.
[Continue Reading: Behind the brand? →]