Michele used to work within the garment district, specifically in fashion. She explains that it was her responsibility to “create price lists and contact buyers and offer wholesale labels that are made in Italy and France, well-known labels.” After developing so much experience with handling inventory and making offers, she realized she could be doing all of this for herself and her own passions as opposed to just working for other businesses. At that point she decided to go full-time with her own company. 

The inspiration for her pieces and small business in general stem from various designers and business owners including Elsa Peretti, Alex Wu, and Linda Gates in addition to several of the powerful women within her own life who Michele says she would not be here without as it is ultimately “very inspiring to work with other people in the field and exchange ideas.”

In addition to creating jewelry, Michele also mentors two young women who are starting out in the jewelry industry as well. This experience as a mentor allows her to reflect on her own progress and how far she has been able to come as a designer as well as a business owner. She states, “ I’m looking back and sort of thinking ‘hey how this was me back in 2011’. So it’s great to see progress and great to also help others to progress.”

Unfortunately, just like many other small businesses, Michele’s business was drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a Queens native, she was located within the epicenter of the outbreak and decided to ultimately take advantage of the terrible circumstances by creating an essentials that everyone was in need at the time, Face masks.

The masks consists of four layers and offers reversible designs. Due to the fact that masks were in high demand, Michele was able to deliver masks to essential workers and their families, women’s shelters, hospital staff, healthcare workers, and first responders. In fact, Michele contributed so much that she was able to be listed as a PPE COVID-19 supplier. Despite the fact, that circumstances are improving more and more each day, Michele continues to get orders for her face masks. She was also able to sell more face masks to more groups of people by listing them on Amazon where sales were able to skyrocket as more and more people were shopping online due to the inability to shop in person.