Aly Wolff-Mills: Yeah, I did start sewing very young. I think one of the first things I did was to sew something for my Barbie. And indeed yeah I was -- I was a big fan of Barbie, and in fact I think a lot of what I do is kind of let’s play Barbie still, except you know instead of dressing up a doll, I get to dress myself and other people, which is certainly a lot more amusing. You know, our feet bend and so do our elbows.

FF: Maybe they should make a post fallout glam Barbie for grownup girls.

Aly Wolff-Mills: Yes, exactly. But it certainly -- it certainly started very little. I would always steal my Mom’s fabric scraps that she would throw away. And so a lot of the dresses that I remember her wearing I actually remember my Barbie’s wearing a lot more clearly than I remember her wearing. You know I had the little pieces of fabric and would construct them into really interesting clothing -- I’d say probably pretty impractical. Mostly involving knots and things to hold it together. But I guess that’s really not too far away from some of the things that I’ve made recently.

FF: So what you started doing early has been the motif you’ve always been drawn to.

Aly Wolff-Mills: Oh most definitely. I mean it certainly continues to my life. The fact is when I was little I would spend more time getting the Barbies ready to play with than actually playing with them. So you know it’s kind of the same. You know, now I spend -- if I want to I can spend hours and hours getting ready, and then, you know, go out. But probably not quite in such extreme proportions as the whole Barbie thing.

FF: And when did you start sewing clothes for yourself or for your friends -- for non-dolls?

Aly Wolff-Mills: Let’s see; I’m trying to remember the first dress I made. I believe it was a recital dress for maybe about seventh grade. A recital I believe is what it was.

FF: And was it something, you know, out there, or was it a fairly traditional piece of clothing?

Aly Wolff-Mills: It was pretty simple. Just a sundress kind of thing; nothing very crazy. I do remember another dress I made for myself around that time. I remember I did make one peach, off the shoulder, little dress that I made by myself.

I’ve always kind of suffered from my good ideas, as I call them. The more I’ve grown up, the more my good ideas are good ideas, and I don’t see them as kind of the things that set me apart from other people in a negative way. For a long time my extreme creativity when it came to things like that would end up getting me teased a lot.

FF: And when did you start really expressing it completely? At what age were you when the big creativity stuff started happening?

Sippy straw bra, made from yellow clothesline. Black faux fur skirt.

Aly Wolff-Mills: It was probably the end of high school. And into college. I mean it was a big transition time for me. It’s when I moved to New York, and that made a big difference. So it certainly made things a lot easier.

FF: And were movements like gothic or any of those influential to you, or what would you say influenced you as far as your designing? Is it something that’s artistic? Is it something that’s cultural? What would you say moved you?

Aly Wolff-Mills: Well, I think it’s probably a combination of those sort of things; because I certainly have an eye for historical dress. And I’ve always been very, very attracted to certain periods of time, and the absolutely gorgeous detailed, meticulously beautiful ball gowns and things from anywhere from the 1890's to 1920's wear, all the way back to the seventeen hundreds, and Restoration kind of stuff.

So I’ve always been influenced by that kind of thing and I love historical clothing. And so that’s part of it. And then I guess the other part would have to do with the use of sub-culture, and just how open and crazy one can be with what one can wear.

But I wouldn’t necessarily point at all that to being goth or something like that.

FF: No.

Aly Wolff-Mills: I’ve never been very good at labeling myself, just because I’m always in transition, and I combine so many different elements all at the same time that I think it’s really hard to pigeonhole myself. Even when looking at a collection of the work that I do, it’s pretty diverse. I mean, some of it I can definitely say you can call goth, or you could call cyber or punk. But it all kind of spans the whole range of possibilities.

FF: And what else do you think you want to say about how you feel about what you do, and where it’s leading you. Not just in a practical sense, but I mean in a conceptual sense.

Aly Wolff-Mills: Well, conceptually I find that a lot of my personality goes into my outfits, so that they really do have a sense of humor and a sense of fun. And a sense of impracticality that’s just amazing; that most of my outfits, once they get worn out to a club, have some incredible flaw in them that I have to fix before the next time I wear them out.

Because, you know, they’re made out of such odd things that there’s always one bit or piece that just makes no sense. You know it’s like the most recent skirt with the black mesh grating on it. It’s triangled, and of course catches on fishnets. And so it needs to have the edges trimmed down just a little bit in order that it doesn’t completely get caught every time you walk by someone else.

That was the one thing that I learned last night; is that some other little edges need to be trimmed a little bit because, boy, they catch fishnets, and, boy, do people wear a lot of fishnets.

FF: You know I’ve been wearing fishnets on and off for ages. I just can’t resist them in all sorts of forms.

Aly Wolff-Mills: Oh, they’re fantastic.

FF: I know, they really are.

Aly Wolff-Mills: And the best part about them is that they take care of any body flaws. Like put fishnets on it, and they emphasize all the right things.

FF: I know.

Aly Wolff-Mills: And that’s the best part about them.

FF: And people really are drawn to them. I mean people’s eyes go right to them too.

Detail of hardware store corset. Nylon belts with plastic fasteners. Corset tied in back with electrical wire.

FF: Now, you’ve done commission work for people too, right?

Aly Wolff-Mills: Yes I have.

FF: How do you see the concept moving forward? I mean, I’m so sick of the whole millennium thing, but is there anything of that going into how you’re going to approach your future concept-wise, and also how you’re going to approach your career?

Aly Wolff-Mills: Well, of course, if we all die then I don’t have to worry about it.

FF: I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Aly Wolff-Mills: I think, you know, just in case. A nice way of looking at it, and then of course if everything goes all to hell and all machines are destroyed and there’s mass chaos and blood in the streets and all that sort of thing, well then of course you know my clothing is the only clothing to wear. That’s the sort of post fallout aspect of it.

FF: Right, exactly.

Aly Wolff-Mills: You know there’ll be great demand for it, I imagine, because you know I just can’t see anybody not wanting to wear subway grating on themselves. And as far as the practical aspect of where it’s going to take me, or what I’m going to do with it, I’m not sure. I can certainly see myself continuing to go down the sort of fetishy lines and attempt to sell to stores and market myself that way. I could even see it being more of just an offshoot of what I do, because it’s what I’m passionate about.

FF: Right, right. And do you -- do you have any interest in designing accessories?

Aly Wolff-Mills: I’ve always loved shoes. That’s for sure. And I dream about shoes more often than anything else. And some of the shoes that I’ve dreamed of are pretty amazing. So if I could actually design them that would be fantastic.

FF: That would be cool.