1989 – New York City
Carey Adina’s handbag designs are recognized as works of art, included in the permanent collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and have been exhibited in many museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. They were marketed by Neiman-Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and other major stores and fine boutiques worldwide. Carey Adina handbags were exported to Europe and Japan and regularly appeared on the stages of Broadway shows as well as on the pages of Vogue and other fashion publications. For many years, Carey generously contributed a percentage of the sales of handbags to Northwood’s Distinguished Women and to a scholarship fund at the University. Carey, herself, was featured in The New York Times and Cosmopolitan as a shining example of today’s successful young woman entrepreneur. Admitted to Harvard with advanced standing, she graduated with high honors in English Literature. Her thesis on T.S. Elliot won the prestigious Bowdoin Award for best thesis by an undergraduate in the university. Upon graduation she won a Rotary fellowship for a year of Dante Studies at the University of Florence. Concurrently she supported herself as a freelance writer for The Chicago Tribune and other periodicals. She later worked as staff on the business section of The New York Times and then as a reporter for The American Lawyer, but her dream of going into business for herself prevailed. Carey Adina Karmel is the wife of New York University professor of art Pepe Karmel, who recently co-curated the Jackson Pollock retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and is completing a book on Picasso and cubism. They have two children.
