Erica Monet'

Fashion Designer, Erica Monet' Durousseau was born on December 11, 1979 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 1997, after graduating from high school, attended Grambling State University on an athletic scholarship, and graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and Broadcasting in 2001. It was in college that she discovered her keen eye for fashion and styling, joining a modeling troupe and helping to design fashion shows on campus. She developed a love for art and began painting and sculpting. Much of Durousseau’s inspiration was cultivated through travel to Austrailia, Fiji, England, Belize, Honduras and several parts of South America. Grabbing ideas from different cultures and experiences, her creativity in fashion began displaying freedom, chaos and undefined trends. She began designing and sewing women’s clothing in 2007, after her mother gifted her a machine. In 2012 she developed her first clothing company, E.M.aculate Couture, debuting her first collection in New Orleans Fashion Week in 2013. Maison Monet’, her current fashion company and line operates from a small fashion studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, creating unique, one of a kind fashion pieces for a growing clientele list, and corporate venders throughout the U.S. Erica gained notoriety on New Orleans after being selected from a hefty pool of candidates to compete with other new designers in the Top Design Competition in 2013. Shorty after she was recruited and selected as a resident artist with RAW Artists, an independent national arts organization providing resources and exposure to artists to help with advancing their creative careers within the first 10 years. Her career continued when she expanded into pageant wear and costume construction after designing pieces for Miss America Plus contestants. She was then hired by Collins Avenue Entertainment to create and construct costumes for the national Lifetime Network series “Dance Moms”, exposing her design talent to over 11 million viewers nationwide. Her work in the movie industry then expanded with her experience, with Durousseau working on several film sets in the growing face of film production in New Orleans. Durousseau has since been a permanent face in design in New Orleans, creating unique clothing designs for a growing clientele list, wholesaling designs to local boutiques and participating in large scale fashion shows throughout the region. She has since expanded to menswear, with the development of a mens line scheduled be released in the fall of 2016. She is a New Orleans Fashion Week Veteran and her work has been featured in Art+Design New Orleans Magazine, Ebony Magazine and currently published online in several lifestyle and fashion related sites. Erica currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana with her dog, Cookie. She has two sisters, Raghan Durousseau and Wendy F. Jones.