I've been drawn to hats since I was a teenager, when I would spend hours searching thrift stores for vintage pieces. I was fascinated by their shapes, materials and the mysterious work behind them, and started collecting them long before I ever imagined making them myself.

Finding my creative medium was a little like being Goldilocks. I was looking for something that felt just right. I studied pattern design and explored clothing, took a short jewellery-making workshop, and spent time experimenting with sculpture and different materials.

I loved different things about each of them. Jewellery had the right sense of scale, but I wasn't drawn to working with hard metals and stones. In clothing, I loved draping and textiles, but not always the format itself. I wanted something more immediate and intuitive, something I could hold in my hands and shape directly.

Millinery turned out to be that medium.

It brought together the things I enjoyed most: textiles, colour, form, construction and sculpture, while allowing me to work directly with the object as it developed in my hands. I went on to study millinery alongside Canadian milliner Lucie Grégoire and launched Heirloom in 2015.

Over the years, my work has evolved from a more restrained, monochromatic aesthetic into a colourful and playful exploration of shape, material and proportion. I'm interested in hats that can be worn in different ways and that give people the freedom to make them their own.

I don't believe there is a right way to wear a hat. It can be subtle or expressive, part of an everyday outfit or the thing that brings the whole look together. For me, getting dressed is a creative act, and what we choose to wear can be another way of communicating who we are.

That philosophy also shapes how I make. Heirloom has intentionally remained a small-scale practice, with each piece designed and made in my Montréal studio. I favour thoughtful production, quality materials and, whenever possible, materials that are locally available.

I'm also interested in keeping this art form itself alive. Millinery has changed considerably with industrialization and the shift toward mass production, and some of its techniques and knowledge have become increasingly uncommon. I want to continue learning and practicing these traditions while finding ways to make them relevant to contemporary life.

This approach has led to some wonderful opportunities over the years. Heirloom's work has been presented by the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts as part of Thierry Mugler: Couturissime and by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal as part of Cheryl Sim's À la recherche d'Expo 67. I have also been nominated twice for the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards in the Accessory Designer of the Year category.

More than anything, I still enjoy the same things that drew me to millinery in the first place: working with my hands, experimenting with materials and making objects that people can use to express themselves. And sometimes, a hat is simply the cherry on top.