Seven Minutes with Heidi Merrick

Seven Minutes With Heidi Merrick via. Elle.com

Heidi Merrick traded in styling and New York City for Santa Barbara beaches and designing her own collection about four years ago. We asked her what she'd want a girl to know about her as a person before buying her clothes.

I grew up surfing in Santa Barbara.
Heidi's surfing roots are so ingrained in her aesthetic that it's impossible for her to even articulate how much it plays into her collection. "I've lived in London and New York, but I just wanted to get back to that lifestyle from my childhood."

In fact, her dad's a surfboard shaper, and she likes to think of her business like his. "No matter how big he gets, he still shapes everything by hand...I like to run my studio like that, like an atelier. I'll always make the dresses and sew them and make the patterns and drape the fabric; it's so good for my mind, and kind of how I stay normal.

I'm really into geeky fantasy stuff.

A lot of Heidi's inspiration comes from traveling, but she seriously loves Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. "I can't help but think about that stuff with almost everything I do, like "Does this look like a storm trooper?!"

I have a fantasty of running a Parisian house when I'm 50. }
We asked if she was perfectly satisfied running her own business, or if she ever thought about moving in another direction. Heidi sounds perfectly content for now, but she admitted to the occasional dream of moving to Paris, running an esteemed house and sending her daughter to the Sorbonne (the daughter that was born six months ago). She's even teaching her French!

*all images Heidi Merrick and Elle.com