Leah J. Miller made her name as a personal designer and custom outfitter to MLB, NBA and NFL families with the launch of Bella Artistry. Known affectionately throughout the professional sports industries as "The Diamond Duchess", she has been custom tailoring and embellishing the official jerseys and wardrobes of ballers' significant others and children with Swarovski crystals since 1999.

Well known as the official trailblazer of the jersey-studding trend in the pro sports arena, every high maintenance player's wife or girlfriend knows the Diamond Duchess will make her a star. Copycats have come and gone with low-end replicas, but no one ever comes close to matching the custom hand-made workmanship or innovation of the always over-the-top designs she creates every single day. Not only does she add crystals to the jerseys, but she redesigns them...they are cut to the bodies of those who own them, transformed into dresses or tunics or jackets, advertising their daddy, husband or boyfriend, trimmed in imported lace, leather, chinchilla, you fill in the blank...only the sky is the limit. Her artistic integrity, aesthetic eye, and the quality of her hand-made pieces is unparalleled in the industry, and she has the clientele to prove it.

Just a mere fraction of her professional athlete list includes wives of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, and Coach Eddie Jordan of the NBA; in MLB, Johnny Damon, Dontrell Willis, Ron Mahay and CC Sabathia; and Randy Moss, Bill Belichick, Justin Tuck, Chris Snee, and Nick Mangold of the NFL.

Miller also designs a line of hip and glamorous Swarovski-studded accessories for the layperson, including double wrap belts, leather cuffs, bow-ties, pet collars and leashes, kids' clothing and baby items. Outside of the sports' arena, her celebrity clientele includes Kelly Ripa, jeweler Judith Ripka, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck of the View. She has even captured the attention of the ultimate domestic diva, Martha Stewart, who featured her on her blog when she spotted a guest at Diddy's 40th birthday party at the Plaza wearing Miller's custom-studded bowtie. Her designs have been featured in the 2008, 2009, and 2010 HBO Hard Knocks football training camp special as well as the Washington Post, and the Diamond Duchess will make her debut as a Costume Designer this Fall for the ABC-TV drama Ghostbreakers.

Leah is a wife, and the young mother of two beautiful children. A true artist, she earned a BA in Studio Arts with a dual minor in Fine Arts and Meteorology from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to launching Bella Artistry, she ran a hugely successful decorative painting company in Chicago called The Vivid Brush, which specialized in painting murals on cathedral ceilings and catered primarily to local businessmen and professional athletes. Her husband, Jim Miller, was an NFL quarterback for 13 years, and is now a sportscaster and radio personality for Sirius NFL Radio, a sports analyst for Comcast Sportsnet TV in Chicago for the Bears Post Game Live show, is Color Commentator for MSU Football radio broadcasts, and hosts the weekly postgame call-in show for MSU.

Photos by Erin Drallos,

Photographer Extraordinaire

 www.footprintsphotography.com

Leah J. Miller has a B. A. from the University of Pittsburgh in Painting and Sculpting, with a dual minor in Fine Arts and Geology/Meteorology (Leah said she still doesn't know how that combo came about, but said she likes to paint happy scenes on cloudy days.)  She lived in Chicago for five years, where she ran a successful mural and furniture painting company, which catered to professional athletes, international professionals and businesses.  After her first child, Leah decided to streamline her business so that she could be close to her family.  Bella Artistry is operated out of her home in Michigan, where she resides with her husband Jim, a Sportscaster and former NFL Quarterback, and her most precious creations, Sophia and Emmanuel.