“Passion Fuels Purpose” From Lunch Money to Legacy: A Conversation with Simone Michelle

There are some people who always seem destined to create.

Not because they have a five-year plan or because they always knew exactly where they were headed. But because if you trace the story back far enough, the signs were always there.

For Simone Michelle, it started with thread.

Long before the swimwear collections, Carnival costumes, bridal gowns, handmade bags, and the growing community of women who proudly wear her designs across the Caribbean, there was a little girl sitting beside her mother, learning how things were made.

"My mother used to sew our prep school uniforms and make aprons," Simone told me. "I was always right there beside her. She'd have me cutting threads, screen-printing, helping wherever I could."

At the time, she thought she wanted to be a hairdresser. She'd sit behind her mother pretending to wash and style her hair. Sewing came so naturally, perhaps she couldn’t even consider it as a career just yet. Then somewhere between making doll clothes, experimenting with old denim, and turning scraps of fabric into pencil cases, and bags, something clicked.

By high school, she was saving lunch money to buy fabric, and taking custom orders from classmates.

A friend asked for a beach bag. Another wanted one in different colours. 

Then came the headbands. School House-coloured accessories selling for $200 each around school.

"I went home rich that first day," she laughed. "I thought, hold on... this could be a thing."

Soon, MISIM was born.

Inspired by a nickname her father had given her years earlier, Simone initially branded her creations as "miSim."

"My dad used to call me Miss Sim," she laughed. "I would puff-paint M-I-S-I-M onto the bags and that's where it all began."

Over time, the name evolved. What began as Miss Sim became MISIM, a cleaner, more streamlined version that would eventually grow into the swimwear brand many people know and love.

Today, MISIM Swim sits within the wider By Simone Michelle brand, an umbrella that reflects the full scope of her creative work, from custom design to handbags, resortwear, and future collections still taking shape.

What started as a way to earn a little extra lunch money quietly became the foundation for a career spanning two decades.

Though, the path wasn't always straightforward, as is with most creative careers.

Like many Jamaican creatives, Simone found herself navigating the gap between talent and legitimacy. Fashion was always there, but convincing people, and sometimes herself, that creativity could become a serious profession was another challenge entirely.

"It was hard to be seen as anything other than an artist or a hobbyist," she admitted.

She studied Events Management at UTech while continuing to make bags and custom pieces on the side. The turning point came near the end of university when she entered Heineken's Be Inspired competition. She won (no surprise there). 

And crazily enough, the prize included an opportunity to open Collection MoDA?! What a full circle moment to now be a MoDA Maker in Locale?! With her designs on a regional stage, this was a moment that shifted everything!

"That was probably when I realised this could actually be my career."

It was also around that time that she began experiencing one of the realities many Jamaican designers know all too well: access.

Access to materials. Access to manufacturing. Access to the resources needed to scale.

She remembers travelling to Florida with her mother to source fabric for the first time and realising just how much existed beyond what was available locally.

"It was a blessing and a curse," she laughed. "Because now I knew what was out there."

Twenty years later, that challenge remains familiar for many designers across the region. Jamaica is full of creativity, craftsmanship, and ideas. Building the systems needed to support that creativity at scale is often the harder part.

We speak often about Brand Jamaica, celebrating Jamaican talent at home, and when it reaches the world stage, but far less attention is paid to what happens behind the scenes.

Many of the local designers helping to shape that identity are still navigating limited access to materials, manufacturing support, specialised training, and funding opportunities. The talent has never been the issue.

As our creative industries continue to grow, there is a real opportunity for greater investment in the infrastructure, training, and manufacturing behind them… To create the conditions that allow designers, makers, pattern cutters, seamstresses, manufacturers, and creative entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses right here at home.

Yet somehow, Simone kept going.

The swimwear came next.

Custom pieces gradually evolved into a fabulous brand, and today, MISIM Swim has become one of the most recognisable parts of the BySimoneMichelle portfolio. 

This season marks another major chapter, with international production now in place and plans for wider distribution across the Caribbean and beyond.

"My goal has always been to figure out production so I can focus on growth," she explained. "Hotels, distribution, eventually larger retailers. That's always been the vision."

And swimwear and Carnival coincided!

For many Caribbean women, Carnival design sits in a category all its own. Part fashion, part engineering, part storytelling.

Simone's first major break came in 2016 when she was invited to design a full section for Crop Over in Barbados.

"I had never even been to Barbados before," she said. And there she was, seeing her costume design on a big stage!

That opportunity would become one of the defining moments of her career, introducing her work to a wider Caribbean audience and establishing her as a costume designer in the region.

Even now, the feeling hasn't changed.

Nearly a decade later, Carnival remains one of the most significant parts of her creative practice. In addition to designing for Crop Over in Barbados, Simone has executed custom designs for return clients year after year for Jamaica Carnival, spending the last two years officially designing a section for Xodus, Jamaica's largest Carnival band. She’s created costumes for Jamaica, Cayman, and Canada.

There’s something special about that kind of recognition. Caribbean Carnival is one of the region's most visible cultural exports, and behind every section, every colour story, every feather and gemstone is a designer trusted to bring a vision to life. Opportunities like these are a reminder that Jamaican and Caribbean creatives are more than capable of producing work at an international standard. 

For Simone, it also means something more personal.

Each year, she gets to step onto the road and see thousands of people wearing designs that once existed only as late-night sketches, and samples.

"I want to cry every time," she said when asked what it's like seeing people wear her work.

The answer came instantly.

Every costume crossing the stage. Every photograph. Every woman choosing her design. 

"It's crazy to me. You immediately forget all the blood, sweat, tears and trauma." We laughed. 

And I think that's what makes Carnival different. Unlike a runway show or a photoshoot, these designs come to life in real time. They dance. They move. They become part of people's memories. For a designer, there can't be many greater rewards than watching your work come alive in your own backyard.

Of all the things we spoke about, though, I kept coming back to the bags.

Not because they're the biggest part of the business today, but because they're where the story began.

A few years ago, after spending years immersed in swimwear production, Simone found herself feeling disconnected from sewing altogether.

For a moment, she thought she had fallen out of love with it.

But what she eventually realised was much simpler.

She had to go back to where it all began. So she went back to making bags.

Back to experimenting. Back to creating with her hands. Back to the thing that first sparked her imagination all those years ago.

"People always say you should go back to your roots," she told me. "And honestly, I love it."

There's something so comforting about that.

In a world that constantly asks creatives to grow faster, produce more, and chase the next thing, Simone's story is a reminder that growth isn't always about moving forward.

Sometimes it's about returning to the place where everything started and seeing it with fresh eyes.

With a newly rebranded MISIM Swim, international production, and plans for wider distribution, Simone is thinking bigger than ever. Hotels across the region. New retail partnerships. Bigger goals pinned to vision boards and slowly becoming reality.

But this growth hasn't changed the way she thinks about consistency and creativity.

When I asked what advice she'd give someone hoping to turn their creative passion into a business, her answer wasn't about sales, marketing, or scaling. It was about remembering why you started.

"Keep at it," she said. "Make it a business if that's what you want to do, but don't forget the passion behind it. Don't forget why you love it."

It's advice she has spent twenty years living herself.

From handmade bags and headbands at school, to swimwear, Carnival costumes, and collections worn across the Caribbean, every chapter of the journey has been built on the same foundation: a genuine love for making things.

The most successful creative careers aren't always the ones built on chasing trends or opportunities. They're the ones built by people who keep showing up for their craft, year after year, even as it evolves.

Twenty years later, Simone Michelle is still doing exactly that.

Just on a bigger canvas now.

And we think that's what success looks like after all.