While accessories traditionally exist to enhance or inform a look, Ms. Lloyd’s headdresses take center stage. At first glance, milliner Ashley Lloyd’s pieces elicit thoughts of curiosity and wonder, but taking a closer look, it’s only fitting Ms. Lloyd’s attention to detail has brought her to where she is today.
From start to finish, Ashley Lloyd’s design process is seemingly natural and organic, giving each one-of-a-kind creation an air of non-commercialism and poise. Taking cues from the wearer, Ms. Lloyd strives to create pieces that will double as headdresses and sources of inspiration. It’s this intense connection Ms. Lloyd seems to innately create that has snagged her cameos in fashion presentations and magazine editorials, and produced a thriving business of customer commissions.
Whether it’s pieces of an ocean’s reef wrapped in tulle or feathers of a bird dangling from a stream of flowers, there’s something unpretentious about Ms. Lloyd’s hand-made creations that ‘blurs the lines between fashion and conceptual art’, says author Lesley Blume. Ms. Lloyd attempts to convey a message of rarity and exclusivity with every piece, which in turn, leaves onlookers doe-eyed, chills sprinting up and down their spines, and wanting more. Perhaps it’s her fusion of meticulous material choices and ethereal overtones that make Ms. Lloyd’s creations speak for themselves.
After time in art school in Maryland, Ms. Lloyd, 25, currently resides in New York and continues to work on her avant-garde collections, while collaborating with photographers, stylists, and designers on a variety of projects.
Portrait: Joanna Totolici
Art Direction : Vava Marevicheff-Ignatenko