I am an experimental milliner and community activist based in Hackey. My own millinery practice over the past decade has involved the creation of futuristic and cutting-edge hats, headwear and masks. I also work as an industry milliner for large scale film productions. For the past two years I have been coordinating arts work with Extinction Rebellion and am now involved with community-based racial and social justice movements in East London, running arts workshops in the community and at actions. 

 

My interest in creativity and the arts stems from my upbringing in China, a controlling environment in which any form of individual expression was quashed. I learned the importance of creativity as a form of resistance. I was drawn to millinery as a particularly ‘pure’ form of expression, which enabled me to create headpieces based on abstract forms using a mix of traditional and experimental materials.  

 

I work regularly with Justin Smith, an established milliner who shares my desire to push the limits of millinery. Together we have worked on a number of film productions - Star Wars VIII and IX, and Maleficent. On these films we were able to blend traditional couture millinery skills with unorthodox design.