Natalie Milligan — the creator and founder of local jewelry brand Millie the Label — is trading in buckeyes for seashells.
After graduating from Ohio State in the spring, Milligan moved to Miami, Florida and took her brand with her.
To celebrate the move, Milligan said she will be releasing a Millie the Label coastal collection — featuring turquoise pendants and seashell charms, which will be available in gold and silver — on Aug. 1 via the brand’s website.
Milligan said inspiration for the brand struck at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She said she was looking for a creative outlet and discovered a way to make her love for jewelry and crafting into a business.
“It started just for me and for fun. I’ve always loved entrepreneurship and crafting. In sixth grade I made the Duct Tape wallets — you know, when those were huge — and sold them,” Milligan said. “I always loved jewelry but I wasn’t seeing the pieces that I wanted to buy — and not the quality I wanted to buy either — so I was like, I feel like I could just make this myself, and with COVID it was just a great creative outlet.”
Milligan said she started the business after creating a few clay jewelry pieces she posted about and sold through her Snapchat account.
“I felt like I was being super annoying, like the people who had me on Snapchat because they just wanted to be my friend were just seeing constant jewelry stuff,” Milligan said. “I wasn’t really using my Instagram so I transformed it into Natalie’s Jewelry — which is what I called it at the time.”
When autumn of 2020 rolled around and Milligan was preparing to begin her first year at Ohio State, she said she knew she had to find a way to continue the business while in school.
“I lived in Baker West and I don’t think there was a kitchen at all — and I needed an oven to heat the clay — so I was like, okay, how do I keep doing this,” Milligan said. “I just found some bulk charms on Etsy and it was perfect for me. I would get sea shell charms and make necklaces and earrings.”
Milligan — who was a business, administration and marketing major with a minor in fashion and retail studies — said she released the first-ever Millie the Label collection while studying abroad in Paris, France the summer after her second year at Ohio State.
“I needed money to be able to afford studying abroad, so I thought the best way to create hype around the brand and save money would be by creating a Paris-themed collection,” Milligan said. “[The collection] had a bunch of pearls and it was an almost entirely handmade collection which was very exciting.”
Shortly after, Milligan said she released a cottagecore collection — which was the first to include rings — followed by the Birthstone, New York City and men’s collections.
During her time at Ohio State, Milligan said she saw her business take off.
“I am so grateful to have been a part of a community that was so supportive of my business. The fashion school really just took me in and fostered my business and allowed me to grow,” Milligan said. “I went to so many of the [fashion and retail studies] speaker series events and did pop-ups and interviews, which was super helpful for my business.”
A large reason for the business’ success, Milligan said, has been Ava Figlar, a rising second-year in fashion and retail studies at Ohio State and Milligan’s first-ever intern.
Figlar said she has always had a passion for fashion and after seeing Milligan’s pieces at a fashion and retail studies women in business panel event she knew she wanted to be a part of Millie the Label in some way.
“I saw Natalie at quite a few events actually,” Figlar said. “One of the speakers at a Co Hatch event I attended — and that Natalie was a part of — had said she was glad to have interns to help out with things and Natalie had said she’d wished she had someone to help her and I interjected and said, ‘Well, I could be that someone for you.’”
Milligan said after having many lackluster internships she was determined to ensure Figlar got everything she wanted out of the experience.
“I was thinking back on my past internships and thinking that I didn’t really get that much out of them,” Milligan said. “I wanted to make sure that Ava had something that she could look back on and think about how much she learned and got out of this experience, so I let her design her own collection.”
Milligan said Figlar’s Affirmations collection — inspired by manifestation and featuring moons, stars and tarot card designs — quickly became a bestseller.
Figlar said she was glad Milligan gave her so much creative freedom in creating the collection.
“I felt like every piece that I curated, she gave me great feedback on it and yet she also liked everything I picked,” Figlar said. “It was nice not to have a veto on something that I felt passionate about.”
Milligan said another reason for the brand’s increasing success in the past few years is thanks to the local shops that have helped promote and sell Millie the Label products in their storefronts.
“I have had jewelry in a shop in my hometown called the Hive Collective for over three years,” Milligan said. “I just got into the Atomic Shop and within the first two days I had made over $200 so I had to go back after only being there for four days and restock everything which was so exciting.”
Marek Miller, the event coordinator for The Atmoic Shop, said he first came across Milligan and her brand in 2023 when she was a vendor at one of The Atomic Shop’s Atomic on High markets.
“Millie the Label has been on our radar ever since we first met Natalie last year,” Miller said. “We loved Natalie’s kind energy and her beautiful jewelry.”
About a year later, Miller said the shop reached out to Milligan in May 2024 about selling Millie the Label in The Atomic Shop’s storefront.
“The Atomic Shop is all about supporting local, small businesses,” Miller said. “We have a section in our store that is dedicated to showcasing local makers and artists for 90-day periods. When we had an opening for a local jewelry maker, we knew exactly who we wanted to ask.”
Miller said Milligan’s earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets will be available in The Atomic Shop — located at 3274 N. High St. in Clintonville, Ohio — for the rest of the summer.
“We are so glad we met Natalie and are so excited to see her business grow,” Miller said. “We are confident she is going to do amazing things.”
Along with the Hive Collective and The Atomic Shop, Milligan said Millie the Label products will be available at Red Giraffe Designs soon as well.
“I just reached out and said, ‘Hey, I know you sell other small business’ pieces, would you be interested in selling ours?’ and then she placed a wholesale order,” Milligan said. “I actually have never done wholesaling before so I’m kind of feeling it out with them which is so exciting.”
Milligan said after graduating in the spring she knew she wanted to move and after falling love with Miami, Florida during spring break she said she didn’t need more reasons than that to move.
“I had been to Florida a lot, growing up my family used to go a lot in the winter,” Milligan said. “This year for spring break I went to Miami for the first time though and I loved it.”
Milligan said she is excited to learn more about the local shops in Miami but is focusing on the brand’s online shop right now due to the move.
“I hope I will be able to continue to serve my customers in Columbus,” Milligan said. “When I move I am going to switch to free shipping.”
Milligan said the main reason she wanted to move her business to Florida was because she wanted to live somewhere that is warm all year long.
“The great thing is that in Florida they have year-round weather for markets,” Milligan said. “In Ohio, I only get to do markets for half of the year so I always push myself so hard to do every market and every pop-up every week and it can just be so exhausting.”
Milligan said she has also implemented a blog aspect to the brand, allowing customers and friends to write about something in the fashion world that they are interested in.
“The goal is to give women interested in fashion the opportunity to voice their opinions and share their writing to have a way to express themselves,” Milligan said. “It is so important to me to uplift women through my brand and I thought this was such a unique way to do that.”
To learn more about Millie the Label visit the brand’s website.
