Heather Overton is washing glitter off her hands at the kitchen sink. A brightly colored bra, with its cups coated in shimmering color, sits on a nearby chair, drying. Decorative crystals and gems glisten across the table likes drops of dew.
BELL FECT
“Creative chaos takes over,” Overton offers as an explanation. “I clean my studio once a week and then, within one hour, it’s back to this.”
harness with attached dragon wings. And a recurring theme of hand-cut leaves and feathers mounted like scales to bra cups, which Overton predicts will be popular this season. She calls it “fairy armor.” There are also costumes for unicorns, mermaids, dragon queens — any creature to channel one’s magical side. None of it stays in stock long. Just months after deciding to make Fairy Light Couture her bread and butter, Overton was selling out of inventory. She was even approached by several larger companies offering wholesale deals.
Everywhere you look, something is sparkling — including Overton’s smile. The designer’s quaint home is both happy place and work space for her costume boutique business, Fairy Light Couture.
“It was both terrifying and exhilarating,” she admits. “I had to seriously ground myself to reflect on the fact that I was choosing to make fairy wings for a living. The fantasy market is a very niche industry, so I knew that I had to completely commit. Once I stepped off that cliff, it was clear that I had made the right choice.”
“As children, my sister and I were always getting into our massively eclectic costume collection,” says the 27-yearold Nags Head native. “We would put on spontaneous backyard fashion shows with our mom. My imagination and gravitation toward fancy textiles just never went away — though it’s definitely evolved.”
While Halloween is a busy time, the bulk of her clients are in the festival and rave scene. Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals with a psychedelic vibe take place all around the country — often in the desert — and fans want to show up dressed to impress and inspire. Last August, she got an Instagram request from one very high-profile participant.
Over the years, the whimsical tutus of girlhood gave way to “Hey girl, your stuff is amaze! Do you have any time to bedazzled, bustier style tops and accompanying fairy wings make something for me for Burning Man?” that accentuate and celebrate the female form. When Overton left It was the heiress herself, Paris home to travel everywhere from Hilton. The model and former Alaska to Thailand, she brought “It’s a very niche reality star — commonly referred her hobby of making fantasy to as the “Kim Kardashian of industry, so I knew that costumes with her. It began the early 2000s” — is now the to grow into a small, mobile I had to completely number-one female DJ in the business with the help of social world. commit.” media marketing and Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade “I absolutely freaked out,” says items. Overton. “I put my phone down, walked straight out the door, and “I would get commissions and I’d be making them in the went for a really long walk. I came back probably an hour or back of trucks, packaging things at a Starbucks, trying to get so later and calmly said, ‘Yeah, of course! What would you them shipped out,” she laughs. like?’” Last March, Overton moved home to commit to her dream of being a “full-time fairy artist.” The work soon consumed her life — and her space — but the heart of it is a single room filled with psychedelic-looking materials. Drawers labeled “sequins,” “feathers,” and “rhinestones.” Yards of iridescent fabrics. Her current favorite is called “vegan holographic leather,” which looks like a piece of silvery vinyl that got dipped in a rainbow. An entire length of wall is hung with an impressive inventory of bra tops, headdresses, and fairy wings — which are her best-selling, signature items. “Some pieces convey compassion, they’re lighthearted,” she explains, pointing to a purple top with an intricate butterfly wing applique. “Other pieces are a little more edgy.” She holds up one covered in what appear to be feathers cut from a metallic gold fabric. Den of iridescence. Photo: Chris Bickford
“This one is a Phoenix. You have to go through some crap before you can rise above the ashes!” There is a bustier entwined with green vines — inspired by a bout with poison ivy. Decorative chains forming a sort of
Overton ended up making 22 pieces, doing a little research on her celebrity client in the process. “I think she’s very much aware of her influence,” she says, admiringly. “She’s really trying to encourage women in the business field to be powerful and follow their passions.” While a passion for dressing up as fantasy characters might seem like escapism, Heather’s not trying to avoid our world — she’s trying to improve it. She seeks out environmentally friendly materials and uses her growing social media base to send positive messages like “believe in yourself” and “be kind to people no matter what.” Overton hopes the same sense of wonder and empowerment touches anyone that dons her one-of-a-kind creations. And that’s important work. “I think a lot of what helped my business to be successful was that it wasn’t just to make money, it was to do something authentic,” she says. “I’ve always heard that you’ll know what you’re meant to do because it will take over your life, and that’s exactly what happened.” — Hannah West milepost 43