Born and raised in Los Angeles, Naima Smith has housed the desire to create walking art for as long as she can remember. After highschool she attended The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, in 2000 where she groomed her gift and studied Fashion Design and Menswear. As she grew wiser and more passionate she returned to Los Angeles and by 2004 she began to style and contribute accordingly to events, groups and up and coming celebrities, like T-Hustle and Leela James.

In 2010, she was hired by her church choir, Voices of Destiny to design and style them for the largest church choir competition in America, Verizon's How Sweet the Sound Gospel Experience. Leading them with originality, consistency and unity, not only did the choir become the national winners of the competition, but the attire of the choir was talked about for months to come and Naima was given more opportunity to show her God given gift.

​Since then, Naima has continued to flourish by starting her own bowtie line under the name Uko&Smith; a tribute to her bestfriend Ubong Jabari Uko who passed away from AIDS in 2009. She currently is working as a personal stylist and bowtie designer in Los Angeles and hopes one day to start a charity granting funds to those fighting a the deadly virus that kills our generation today. ​