INTRODUCING HEATHER HUEY BODY BRAIDS - EXCLUSIVELY AT IDLM Heather Huey is back with a new round of IDLM exclusive designs, but this time with a marked change in product and purpose. Now available in our Gallery are five of Heather's innovative body braids - eye catching harness-style accessories that reweave the fur felt of her millinery into a much different statement. These exciting styles are being offered as part of our signature charity project, meaning that 50% of all sales will go to Designers Against AIDS. Heather's couture headpieces have been pulled by stylists Alex White, Camilla Nickerson, Karl Templer, Lori Goldstein, Ludivine Poiblanc, Nicola Formichetti, Patti Wilson, and Tabitha Simmons. Huey has collaborated with designers Joanna Mastroianni, Siki Im, Christian Siriano, and Thuy for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Bryant Park. Her designs have been photographed by Steven Meisel and Steven Klein for Vogue Italia; Mario Sorrenti for W magazine; Mert & Marcus for Interview; Miguel Reveriego and Greg Kadel for Numéro France; Ellen von Unwerth for VMan; Terry Richardson for Purple Fashion; and Tom Munro for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue Italia. Heather currently lives and works in New York City. IDLM Your work has a dramatic and fetishy quality. It uses a lot of black and evokes a lot of romantic and dark imagery. Can you explain that magic world that your creations hail from? HEATHER HUEY True, I’ve always enjoyed the idea of being lost in romantic daydreams- but at the same time my work approach is driven by an unrelenting obsessiveness and focus. I think that duality shaped my sense of what I appreciate as beautiful and impactful. IDLM Hand making something is a rare skill these days, and it really connects you with a garment. What's that process like, of working so meticulously with your hands? How did you learn that skill? HH There's just something satisfying and meditative about building with your hands. I’ve enjoyed it my whole life-- from drawing silly pictures and making arts & crafts projects when I was little to studying visual arts and architecture in college and now creating headpieces and body accessories. It has to do with a sort of familiarity... IDLM Your hats are more like art. If you could curate a show, which artists (living or dead) would you include? HH It would be difficult to put the artists I admire all in the same show, but these have all been important to me: surrealists Man Ray & Salvador Dali; sculptors Alberto Giacometti & Henry Moore; photographers Edward Weston, Paolo Roversi, Tim Walker & Nick Knight; abstract painters Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman & Jackson Pollock; quiet scenic painters Edward Hopper, Gustave Caillebotte & Vilhelm Hammershoi; portrait painter John Singer Sargent; landscape painter J. Turner; painters Caravaggio, Edgar Degas & Pablo Picasso IDLM Who is your style soulmate? or enemy? HH soulmate- Yohji Yamamoto. enemy- my secret ;) IDLM At what age did you have your first hat? It clearly made an impact! HH -I was too young to remember, but my mother put me in pretty little dresses with matching baby bonnets. In middle school I went through a wool beret-wearing phase and around that time I started paying attention to hats as a fashion statement. IDLM Your pieces have a certain glamour and bravado; Who is your ideal customer or muse? HH The confident man or woman. IDLM Fill in the blanks: If my life were a film it would be The Dark Horse, never will i ever find it acceptable to wear an ugly hat. If I were a superhero my name would be The Black Moth, and my super powers would be flying and invisibility. photo of heather huey shot by billy kidd