Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Catherine Edouard taught herself to sew at the age of 13 by designing a dress for herself from one of her father’s old shirts.  She spent her teenage years honing her sewing and design skills, and is a graduate of Haiti’s Verona Alta Costura School of Fashion.  One of her early creative business efforts was founding The Lion Art Craft in Haiti, which reused old metal drums, recycled bottles to design native art pieces. Lion Art Craft had successful business associations in Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, St. Martin and the Netherlands.

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Catherine emigrated to the U.S. in 1993 and furthered her studies at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).  She founded HIMANE Clothing Designs in 1998, and in its early years the company focused on custom-designed wedding dresses, pattern and sample making.  In 2002, needing a carry bag, Catherine dug a long forgotten, broken umbrella from the bottom of her closet and designed her first upcycled tote.  The repurposed umbrella totes were so successful that HIMANE SUSTAINABLE CONCEPT DESIGNS was born, focusing on fashion upcycling: transforming discarded umbrellas and other types of materials into handbags, duffels, totes, clutches, jackets, household items, even wedding gowns and little black cocktail dresses.

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Catherine has been featured in Forbes, Oprah, Viv and France Amerique magazines, The New York Daily News, Crain’s Business NY, Ecouterre, Earth 911, and has been interviewed by WNYC radio, CNN International, MSNBC and NBC, WPIX 11, BCAT, Brazil TV, ZDF German TV, Globe & Mail Canada and others. (Please see our Press page for links to these and other publicity).  She has given recycling workshops in Iceland, Greenland, and Haiti and will soon be expanding into Scandinavia.  She is especially passionate about teaching fun recycling and upcycling techniques to school children.  She is the proud recipient of a Special Recognition Award for “Innovative and Exceptional Creativity” from the European Union Women Inventors & Innovators Network (EUWIIN), awarded to her in Reykjavik in 2011.