What about those headpieces you're known for…?
In 2012 I moved back to NYC after 6 years mostly in the UK. I quickly discovered the underground arts scene and fell madly in love with it. People were going to events they had produced themselves, wearing art and costumes they had assembled sometimes that day, and basically celebrating life in the most joyful, beautiful ways I’d ever seen. It was like a Lady Gaga music video. I saw a few people wearing otherworldly headpieces and realized that I could take the sewing, sculpting, design and fine art skills I had and use them to create the wildest things in my imagination, because here was a for real stage for these creations, and new friends I could wear them around. That was the end of 2012.
By spring 2014, I was known as the woman who wore freshly made show-stopping headpieces to every party, handmade for the occasion. It was so fun. People started asking me for their own custom pieces. I realized I had a talent for weaving aspects of someone's personality, or personal inspirations, into their custom headpieces. It was like making a unique crown just for that own person's empowered sovereign higher self. But of course sometimes I was just making whatever inspired me that week - like the black lace mask in the image for this post, worn by Julia Fox most recently. I made my crowns for performers, brides and grooms, festival-goers, black tie galas, Halloween and NYE masquerades, circus shows, Broadway shows, burning man, etc. They're so special, and yes, I still make them.
But they just don't pay the bills. Ah, capitalism. Not always so friendly to whimsical artists. They're not scalable. I tried taking a few to India, when I was there for a wedding 3 years ago, to see if they could help me produce them and save my fingers and eyes some strain (it's very detailed meticulous work). "No ma'am we cannot. This is impossible. Maybe if you go to Jaipur and teach some jewelry makers there for a month" said my tailor friend in Udaipur. As of yet I haven't been able to take a month to go to Jaipur and assemble my team of artisans. ;)
That's okay. I kind of want them to remain collector's items that I make for my own creative expression on the side while designing clothes. They're truly exquisite and I can't really explain where they come from, sometimes I literally have a vision or a dream of what wants to be made, and then later I'll learn that the vision is actually from some old cultural tradition...it's spooky stuff like that.
There's a bit of friction in my creativity at the moment because the clothes are about half n half - half luxury basics that I totally stand behind and wear in my own life, but not really things that go with headpieces - and then the rest of the designs you could definitely pair with a headpiece, but I'm reaching out to people who don't know me through my headpiece work. I guess the headpieces might look a little freaky or otherworldly if you happen to find me through my linen cargo pants, lol.
Anyway, YES, headpieces forever! And yay new clothing line! Making garments to go with my headpieces when I went out was what got my clothing design skills noticed and I look forward to bringing them more into alignment while also appealing to a broader audience. The golden thread that connects them is a love of elevating the inner goddess in every woman and giving her the perfect wardrobe to feel more expressed in every area of life. That's why I do what I do. Word!