I’m Chandra Michaels. Since 2005, Sugarluxe has been the platform I created to design, consult and write about women, leadership, brand building, customer psychology, and what it means to stay yourself in an era that tries to drown you out.
MEET SUGARLUXE FOUNDER
CHANDRA MICHAELS
ARTIST | BRAND CONSULTANT | WRITER
Chandra Michaels
sugarluxe founder
I feel honored that something I made found a place on someone’s wall. That a woman chose my work as a gift for someone she loved.
I suppose anyone who sells anything today could say that.
But what I first created for women back in 2005 was so personal to me – and it was received as being so personal to them – that it created a kind of connection that felt unlike anything that existed at the time.
the common thread
Social media made it easy to perform that kind of connectedness later. But I had the privilege of building in a moment when we were just learning how to form real relationships with people we had never met and might not ever meet.
The women who found Sugarluxe in those early years didn’t follow a brand. They found something that recognized them.
I think that’s still the most important thing I’ve ever made.
Need a short bio for press or introductions? You can find it at the bottom of this page.
Then something happened that changed my life forever.
Why Austin, Texas?
Younger me was drawn to Austin because of the music. Wait, scratch that. It was the musicians. And every other creative I encountered here that made me feel like I found my home.
I went to the University of Texas to study psychology and English.
Since I was a child, I was fascinated by human behavior. On a summer vacation when I was 6, I got in so much trouble when my mom discovered I was reading a book about serial killers that I had been hiding behind a Hello Kitty coloring book. I’ve always wanted to understand why people do what they do.
I enrolled into UT at 18 years old, never anticipating how all that would unfold.
But in my first month at school, something happened that changed EVERYTHING. What happened was so brutal, my dean pleaded with me to take time off. I refused – instead, I made the dean’s list.
Ambition is not how I would describe it. It was simply that I was determined to be more than what had happened to me.
That knowledge has never left and it built the foundation for everything else I would ever do.
20+
Years
Personal branding for women - built on human psychology, not trend cycles.
2,000+
Stores
Target · Z Gallerie · Anthropologie · Bed Bath & Beyond · Boutiques Worldwide
25+
Years Writing
Writing for women about identity, visibility, and being known for the right things.
Est.
2005
Sugarluxe. America's Sweet Art. Austin, Texas.
The Artist
America’s Sweet Art
Before Etsy. Before Instagram. Before LinkedIn. What started as a few paintings rooted in how I imagine myself became a brand that connected with women all over the world who could also see themselves in my art, too.
I understand deeply the desire to connect, to be seen, to belong – these things don’t change for us. The platforms change. The tools change. But the foundation that Sugarluxe was built on remains the same 20+ years later.
Going Against the Grain
Within two years, Sugarluxe had been featured in publications around the world.
I was commissioned alongside Shepard Fairey – of Obey Giant and Obama Hope poster fame – to paint a room at the famous Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco.
My work became a top-selling downloadable wallpaper on AT&T, I was the only female artist among five international artists selected to design for cult favorite Bong Spirit Vodka. I launched multiple collections through Z Gallerie – where my work was featured in window displays nationwide – plus, Target, Anthropologie, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
And before I knew it, celebrities took Sugarluxe to the next level.
Every magazine had Miley Cyrus. Every photo had my art. Not one of them had my name. So I made sure the search results did.
WHEN NO ONE KNOWS YOUR NAME
After designing for the CMT Awards, my work found a new audience. Tweens.
Miley Cyrus had just made her much-publicized move from Nashville to Los Angeles. She was everywhere – magazines, Entertainment Tonight, interviews shot in her new home. And in nearly every one of those images, she was sitting in front of my Fabulous wall art.
No article or TV interview ever mentioned my name. Not one.
But her fans started searching. And these were actual search queries from that time:
- “Where can I find the hot pink Fabulous picture in Miley Cyrus’s bedroom?”
- “Who made the poster that says Fabulous in Miley Cyrus’s house?”
- “How do I decorate my bedroom like Miley Cyrus?”
YOU HAVE TO BE THE ANSWER THEY’RE LOOKING FOR
I made sure Sugarluxe was always the answer they (or their moms) found.
I structured this deal without exclusivity – which meant I could sell reproductions of the same work her fans were already looking for.
The searches became traffic.
The traffic became sales.
The sales became proof that knowing how to be found is as valuable as the work itself.
The Writer
pretty propaganda
When I was asked to be part of the Propaganda World Art Tour – alongside well-known graffiti artists and male-dominated anarchist designers – someone asked how a woman who makes girly art fits in a world like that.
I said I’ve always made pretty propaganda.
It was meant as sarcasm.
But it was also true. Peace, kindness, the power of women seeing themselves clearly – it’s run through everything I’ve done.
Pretty was just the delivery system. And like any good propaganda, the goal was to get the message out.
That’s the writer in me
I’ve been writing for women for over 25 years – through Sugarluxe, through corporate assignments, through communities I built – not because I can draw but because I could draw people in who shared in my belief that women can be anything we want to be.
The illustrations got me in the door. The words were always the point.
What Others Have Said
"What makes Chandra Michaels so remarkable is her rare combination of creativity, strategy, tenacity and vision. To most she is known as a determined artist, but to me she is also a fearless entrepreneur."
Bill Fields - Former CEO, Walmart Stores
"Some of the most powerful marketing lessons I've learned haven't come from a book, guru, or webinar. They've come from Chandra Michaels. She has successfully connected to fans around the globe with an amazing spirit of community, devotion and authenticity."
Mark Schaefer - Bestselling Author, Return on Influence
"Chandra Michaels is the art dynamo behind Sugarluxe...She is down-to-earth and practically the hardest working woman in Austin."
University of Texas Longhorns - Alcalde Alumni Magazine
"Having created a global demand for her work, she is still one of Austin's perkiest cheerleaders."
Beth Lambert - The StyleList, Hometown Hero Series
Short Bio – For Press Use
Chandra Michaels is an Austin-based artist, brand consultant, and writer who founded Sugarluxe – America’s Sweet Art™ – on Valentine’s Day 2005. Over two decades she built a nationally recognized art brand – earning retail placement through Z Gallerie, Target, Anthropologie, and Bed Bath & Beyond, press in People, InStyle, MIT Technology Review, and CMT, and a loyal community of women who found something in her work that recognized them.
She began her career in corporate training through a subsidiary of American Airlines – developing curriculum and leading instructors for reservation sales programs across multiple codeshare partners. She later moved into marketing and led a team of fifty people – almost entirely women – growing a division’s monthly collections from $2M to $20M. She has written for women for 25 years – about identity, visibility, and what it means to be known for the right things.
Chandra now works with women leaders and entrepreneurs as a brand consultant, helping them protect and articulate the voice that makes their work irreplaceable. She is based in Austin, Texas, where she has lived since she was eighteen – and where she is raising her twins, her greatest masterpiece.
Work With Chandra Michaels
If you've been building long enough to have something worth protecting - and the world isn't seeing it the way you do - that's exactly where I start.
See How I Work With Women Leaders