Isabel Toledo, the Cuban-American designer who was revered by other designers for her ability to combine precise geometric construction with extreme grace — but who was known to most of the public as the creator of the dress Michelle Obama wore in the 2009 inaugural parade — died on Monday at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 59.

The cause was breast cancer, her husband, the artist Ruben Toledo, said.

“I knew that what I wore to my husband’s first inauguration would go down in history,” Mrs. Obama wrote in an email, “so I wanted something that would not only live up to the moment, but would also stand up to the freezing cold of that January day.

“With her incredible creativity and masterful talent, Isabel designed a beautiful lemongrass outfit that I just loved,” she continued. “She more than met the moment — for that day and for all of history.”

Uninterested in the limelight or in logos, Ms. Toledo was a rarity in the modern fashion world. Devoted to fashion as a craft and an expression of self and embedded in the Downtown New York art scene, she was a throwback to a time before the designer became the creative director . She toiled away in a picturesque loft in Midtown Manhattan with Mr. Toledo, her partner since high school, dipping into the worlds of art, dance and theater for the sheer joy of aesthetic collaboration. They hung out with Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the like.