This Renaissance woman and her daughters
have found ways to make vintage things super chic.
Kim Smith is the matriarch of the clan. She was born in New Jersey but was raised in Hancock, Maine and the Provence region of France. Her warm smile, strong hands and lilting voice offer clues to her background as a world traveler, professional chef, lifelong horsewoman and now, upcycling artist. She and her husband, Peter, a retired farrier, arrived in Ocala for good 13 years ago.
The couple have a son, Travis, 43, who is still in Maine. Daughter Miranda Smith, 41, with her husband, Marco, spends part of each year in Ocala with her StallDash Equine Concierge business; and daughter Colby De Sales, 34, lives nearby with her husband, Chris, and their son Arthur, and helps her mother on the farm.
Smith says of their Ocala connection, that when Colby was being homeschooled in high school, the family would “load up the RV and her horse would get shipped down and we would winter here and had a group of friends.” Their extended family ran two restaurants in Maine and they had a food truck they would bring south “for the horse community.”
It was 13 years ago that Kim found the farmhouse on social media.
“And I told my husband I was moving,” she says firmly, with a hint of a grin.
Kim explains that the farm originally spanned 100 acres and was one of the largest in the area at the time, which she surmises was a century ago.
“Some German brothers, when they came here from the war, they obviously needed to work, they needed the money, so it was a functioning farm,” she shares. “I know they used to take their horse and carriage along Germantown Road to go to church, which is over by the Roberts quarter horse farm. That’s a hike. I spoke with one of the great nephews and he said he remembers stories of them living with a dirt floor, so that’s a ways back.”
She does not know the complete history of who lived in the house over time, but “before us was a very cool artist couple who painted the blues and did all the cool things and had the milk house as an art studio.”
The grounds were also the site, for about four years, where Kim and her family would host intimate dinners under the Vintage Farm Company 1848 brand.
“We thought it was interesting how this original farm was a homestead out of necessity and over the years, it was used by other creative people who were creating art, but also the original homesteaders were creating things like food and dairy products,” Colby notes. “And we grew up in the kitchen and the restaurant industry so once my mom moved on to this property, she was cooking and sharing that with the community and that was kind of her creative outlet. And then when COVID happened, everything changed but we still needed a creative outlet and I think this farm, it really nurtures creative people; it just has that kind of energy.”
Since the chefs are no longer hosting their famous dinner parties, “We just flipped the page to sewing,” Kim offers.
When Miranda says she can’t remember a time in their lives when sewing was evident, Kim pipes up to say, “Well, I think I glue-gunned somebody’s christening gown.”
The Milk House Studio brand was born out of her creative itch, but also in homage to “slow fashion.”
“I didn’t realize the impact that fast fashion has on the environment, on women, their hormones,” she shares. “All the synthetic fibers are hormone blockers—polyester, spandex, are all plastic, so you’re leaching more plastic, which is already bad, and there’s so many women Colby’s age who are having hormonal issues. So, we started sourcing slow fashion—linen, cotton, leather.”
“Just yesterday, I was working in the mulch and Colby calls and says, ‘I’m shopping, can you put these two scarves together and make me a shirt?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ve never done this before.”
With that, Colby stands to model the stunning new blouse her mother has crafted for her.
Kim says they all are always on the look for classic brands, such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Ann Taylor, “because they would have used the real material and those things are still there, they’re not melting or wearing out.”
After Kim, an avid player with The Villages Polo Club, made a hand painted vintage denim shirt with the word POLO on it and wore it to a chukker, she came back with an order for nine more.
“Those will be on shirts for a team prize for polo in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, so that’s cool,” she says.
Among the ways they upcycle fashions is to blend fabrics. For example, Kim bought a tie-dyed cotton shower curtain and is using panels from it as insets onto the backs of denim jackets and in other ways. She also adds touches of lace, buttons and other adornments, hand paints and uses ink stamps.
“Most upcyclers never sewed before, she adds, so there really aren’t any rules. I put stuff on the mannequin and leave it there and then I change it, then leave it there and then I send a photo to Colby and Miranda,” she explains about her creative process. “The first shirt I did, I sent it to my sister. She went on a world cruise and there was a picture of my shirt in Instanbul and other locales and she shared them with some friends in a jewelry group and they all wanted shirts or jackets.”
Kim and company also offer “smalls” through the Milk House Studio, which are antique items, pottery items that often are signed by the artist and more.
“People should be able to afford nice things that have some meaning, so we offer them for $15 or $20,” Kim states. “In thrifting in a thoughtful way, I call it dopamine décor”
She also notes that among the treasures in her home are a collection of wall hangings of French women in “city costumes” that were part of the décor in her grandmother’s restaurant in Provence.
“There are certain things that you end up with that just make you happy to look at; it keeps things calm,” she offers. “Colby’s house has stuff from my mother’s three houses or my two houses.”
Find Milk House Studio at fb.com/profile.php?id=61571180677083
