Master milliner transforms silent battle against depression into wearable art

COLLEGE PARK, Georgia — Inside his College Park studio, Otis Damón gently wets and steams a piece of fabric known in the trade as a "hood," preparing to shape it over a wooden block.

To the fashion world and Hollywood, Damón is a master milliner whose striking, bespoke designs crown icons such as Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, and Ne-Yo, regularly appearing on the big screen.

For Damón, his shop is far more than a business. It is a lifeline.

"I call this place my sanctuary. It's not just a studio," Damón said. "I call this my art therapy."

Damón's journey to high fashion began during a period of deep isolation. Since he was 6 years old, he had carried an unnameable weight.

"Back then, I didn't know what it was," Damón said. "I didn't know I was depressed or dealing with depression. As a grown-up in church, everything's spirit, and I thought it was, you know, that."

He turned to a teacher at school for help.

"I confided in her that I was contemplating suicide that summer before my 10th-grade year, and she instructed me to come to her class every day on my lunch, and she taught me how to sew, so I started making clothes first," he said.

Sitting at the machine, the steady hum and physical rhythm began to quiet the darkness.

"It was the rhythm of using my hands and hearing the machine, putting things together," he said. "It just gave me a peace. So some of my best works came out of my darkest times, honestly."

Each of his head-turning headpieces takes nearly three days to complete, hand-shaped over traditional wooden molds to create one-of-a-kind silhouettes from towering, avant-garde crowns reminiscent of Erykah Badu's signature style to reimagined, Southern "church lady" hats.

While his craft transformed a silent battle into celebrated wearable art, Damon is open about the fact that healing is an ongoing journey. In addition to the therapeutic outlet of design, he receives medical treatment for depression.

"I still struggle," Damon said. "I just learned how to life surf with it."

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