LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Buyers were on the final stretch at Surprise Lily Boutique on Wednesday, as they looked for a floral flourish to top their Churchill Downs outfit. It was the first day of May—and the last day of Derby hat making for milliner Braidi Huecker of Frances B Hats.
The earliest customer came to add some extra color to her sister's blue fascinator. Comparing orange and pink against the dress the sister would wear, Huecker hummed thoughtfully.
She had dozens to choose from. Her toolbox, flocked with every color of the rainbow, hearkens back to the derby-famous Dee's which sold the colorful feathers for 50 years.
Chanler Lightfoot bought feathers for his grandfather's ten-gallon hat.
"My grandfather never got up here for Derby. He had Alzheimer's," Lightfoot said. "And passed away and so it's kinda cool to take a piece of him with me to the track."
For Huecker, putting heirloom hats on people regularly raises their spirits.
"Your face changes," she said. "You see yourself differently. You see yourself like the way other people see you all the time."
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A little color up top brings out the color within, a blue Hugging in front of a mirror, Michelle Mimms cheered, "I'm so happy!"
Her blue flower fascinator with custom silver embellishment, ready for Louisville local Michelle Mimms's first Thurby.
"It was beautiful at first, but now it's amazing," Mimms said.
Though the amazement of it all surprised the milliner, who's also an OB-GYN, because of the way working with patients helped fuel her new passion.
"Being their biggest cheerleader was my favorite thing to do. Tell people that they can do it when they think they can't. That they are beautiful when they think they aren't," Huecker said.
Through each carefully placed petal, she hopes it'll help people bloom.
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