true artisans of hat making lived. So she saved up enough money and traveled to the banks of the Thames to start learning the century's old craft from the masters. She studied under several prominent hat crafters, including socialite Milner Rose Curry who made hats for the British Royal Family and Queen Mother. When her studies in London were finished, she followed a couple designer friends that she had made to Paris where she helped them produce their runway shows during Paris Fashion Week. "People started to see my hats in the shows and began recognizing who I was." She remembers with a big excited smile on her face as if it had just happened yesterday. "When I finally left Europe and came back to Los Angeles, things just kind of opened up for me. I started working in the film industry with a lady by the name of Rita Riggs who became like a mother to me and taught me all about costume design, picking colors, matching my hats to wardrobe, and the ins and outs of the television and film industry." (Smith is referring legendary costume designer Rita Riggs who worked with such Hollywood legends as Alfred Hitchcock on "Psycho" and "The Birds," Norman Lear on his television sitcoms "All In The Family" and "The Jeffersons," and had over one thousand television and film credits to her name and several prestigious awards when she passed away in 2017).
Smith gets very sentimental as she looks back on her journey through the Millinery world. "I was (Continued)
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