Michelle Smith of MILLY Shows Collection at MJ&M Event

 
The third annual MJ&M event was held in April with an event-filled weekend of food, golf, fashion and philanthropy. The 2015 charity helps numerous local organizations such as the Rise School of Austin, Dell Children’s Hospital, CureDuchene, HartGift, just keep livin’ Foundation.
“Grades improve, they graduate, the kids are not in gangs and try to be better human beings”, said event host Camila Alves McConaughey .

Sheryl Prince, a student from an east Austin school, shared her experience about the Gratitude Circle to the luncheon attendees at the Moody Theatre. “It taught me to be a team player and taught me to trust and respect myself. I now trust myself to make the right eating habits.   I learned to make smoothies and we do that with my family now on every Friday.”
Camila has enjoyed building the fashion component for the Mj&M event because who doesn’t love a good fashion show, and she does such a great job getting fashion headliners to Austin!   “Bringing this high fashion to Austin, and have women experience that in their hometown is so wonderful”, Camila added.
Previously, designers Lela Rose and Badgley Mischka have shown collections to a packed house at Neiman Marcus. This year, the event was moved to the W Hotel to accommodate a much larger crowd enjoying the Spring collection from Milly by Michelle Smith.
Michelle was approached about a year ago by Nieman Marcus and after some research about the MJ&M organization she was pleased that it benefitted children and was something she wanted to be involved with. “As a mother of two small children helping children in need is near and dear to my heart”, Smith said.

I have personally seen the Milly collections come down the runway at Fashion Week in New York and Smith’s creativity makes for an amazing collection every time. “Every collection is very personal to me and I am always anticipating what is next and searching for something new”, Smith added.
Gathering fabric swatches from Paris is where her amazing creativity begins and inspiration for Michelle is as random as her creative collections. An art exhibit a movie or even the neon signs of Austin could start the creative juices gowing. This was the first time for Michelle to visit Austin so maybe we’ll  see a glimpse of Austin for her Spring 2016 collection.
Michelle’s Spring 2015 collection by inspired by artist John Baldessari. She pushed her creative spirit with this collection and tried to look forward with the new pieces rather than rehash looks from the past.
The Austin crowd enjoyed seeing the Spring collection full of color, whimsical prints and elegant white. She also collaborated with DesigNation for a limited edition Milly collection available in Kohl’s stores now.  PHOTOS HERE!
More than two million dollars was raised at this year’s successful MJ&M event to benefit children in the Austin area.
Photos and text:  Cheryl Bemis