Michelle Smith (fashion designer)

Born in 1972 or 1973, Michelle Smith grew up in Connecticut, New Jersey and Ohio, the daughter of a factory plant manager father and stay-at-home mother.

[2] While at FIT, Smith had a retail job at an Hermès boutique and, writing a letter to the president of the brand, managed to secure an internship with the company in Paris where she was the first American employee.

[2] While there, she had another internship with the haute couture studio of Christian Dior where her job was to illustrate gowns in watercolor: one copy for the client, one for the archives.

[2] Smith's colorful, patterned designs were an immediate success and Milly met the sales goal in three months;[2] the line became profitable within a year.

While it's designer driven, it's rooted in American sportswear and with cocktail dresses priced at $850 or so, it falls into the fashion category of affordable luxury: aspirational, but not impossible.

[9] Obama was also pictured wearing a striped Milly top on January 17, 2017, her last birthday in the White House, taking a final walk through the building in the Administration's last days.

[2] The new line is more casual than Milly—a response, Smith said, to the new emphasis on comfort during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was little use for office or special occasion wear—but uses upscale materials and details.