• Soraya Hernandez

  718-460-3159

  New York is tough on draperies. Dirty air seems to get around the edges of every window, quickly turning chic décor into gray dust rags. F.I.T. alumna Soraya Hernandez is a specialist in “interior couture.” Working in her Queens basement studio (at $45 per hour), she hand-stitches window treatments from scratch and handles tricky repairs like moth damage. But her special mastery is delicate cleaning—discoloration from fading, flood damage, or just grime. When it comes to the latter, she believes the fewer chemicals employed, the better, and starts each touch-up with a gentle vacuuming to test the textile’s strength and level of grime. Buyer’s tip: She says she’s found linen to be the most forgiving material, and when asked about her biggest challenge, she does not hesitate: “taffeta.”

From the 2009 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine