Donna Ricco Is Michelle Obama’s “The View” Dress Designer

Although Donna Ricco has been a successful designer for years, it took Michelle Obama’s wearing one of Donna’s $148 off-the-rack dresses on “The View” to make her famous. Now the dress has sold out in stores across the country!Donna Ricco is a fashion designer who was been given a sudden boost to fame when Michelle Obama stepped onto the set of “The View” in a cool, black-and-white, high-waisted print dress designed by Ricco. Obama looked so fetching that droves of viewers immediately decided they must have that dress! The dress sells for $148 in White House/Black Market boutiques. After its “The View” debut, it sold out. When asked, Ricco said they’re making more as fast as they can, and that they should be back in the stores by September. Probably not fast enough for the ladies who want to dress like Michelle Obama. I’ve seen the dress at other internet sites for less than $148.

Meredith Viera interviewed Donna Ricco:“I’m very happy. I’m very surprised. I had no idea she would be wearing this dress,” Ricco told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Friday in New York. “But it’s sort of a natural happening for me, because I’ve been designing dresses a long time. We ship a lot of dresses to the stores, and I’m happy that Michelle chose this dress to wear on ‘The View.’ “I put a lot of time and effort into making these dresses fit a lot of American woman. I think to be able to go into the store, for Michelle to find the dress, try it on, love it, and to be able to just wear it, speaks to what I’m doing every day.” . . .

“A dress is a great choice for her to wear,” Ricco told Vieira. “No one else is wearing dresses in the campaign. I think it gives her kind of an edge. Women want to feel feminine; they want to look pretty. Wearing a dress, especially this one, is I think a very powerful image and it can help her stand out from the crowd.”

Donna Ricco specializes in designing dresses. She opened her own dress company twenty years ago and is helping a new generation of women learn to love the feminine look of dresses. Donna grew up in the Midwest and taught herself to sew when she was a teenager. She says:“I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a fashion designer. I wasn’t making clothes for my Barbie at age 3 or reading Vogue or anything. I did it for my own pleasure and because I was good at it.”

She spent three years at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee working on a Fine Arts degree, and then moved to the fashion department of Mount Mary College. Her enjoyment of sewing for herself, along with her artistic talent and training led her to move to New York with her husband who was to become her business partner. Since that time they’ve had three children, and Donna Ricco and her husband have developed a successful dress design compapny.