Erika was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where her career has always been rooted in creativity, fashion, and design. She began her career with an internship at Jeffrey, Atlanta and New York’s iconic luxury fashion boutique. Working alongside designers and fashion houses including Marni and Jason Wu, she quickly realized her passion for fashion could become a career in the creative industry.

She later moved to New York City to intern in the fashion closet at ELLE magazine, where she created storyboards for Creative Director Joe Zee and assisted Fashion Editor Kate Lanphear on the magazine’s 25 Years of Beauty feature for the October 2010 issue.