Gretchen is wearing a red silk dupioni dress with white polka dots. Her accessories include heart-shaped earrings from the early '80s and a red velour felt hat of her own design.
Gretchen is wearing an early ‘40s vintage dress. Her accessories include a vintage boater hat with tremblant cherries, vintage lacquered straw handbag, and replicas of ‘70s Woolworth shoes. These famous Woolworth shoes were, in fact, copies of ‘40s shoes.
Gretchen is wearing a '50s lilac colored silk faille dress with giant black buttons. Her accessories include a soft wool knit shrug with beaded sleeves, lattice peep toe shoes, and millinery violets in her hair.
Milliner Gretchen Fenston was born and raised in San Francisco. She moved to New York to study Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After graduating, she opened 'G,' a lingerie company. Intrigued by the allure of hats worn by 30s and 40s movie stars, she enrolled in FIT’s millinery program. Gretchen’s whimsical hat designs charmed friends and colleagues, who soon became customers. Gretchen garnered a Master’s degree in Museum Studies for Costume and Textiles from FIT, writing her master’s thesis on the millinery industry. She has won three milliner of the year “Milli” awards from the Headwear Information Bureau. Her hats can be found in the costume collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kent State University Museum and the Hermitage Museum in NJ. Gretchen’s hats have also appeared in The New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, The Village Voice and The Daily Sun. She and her hats are a favorite target of roving The New York TimesOn The Street photographer, Bill Cunningham. Gretchen has become a fixture at New York’s Fifth Avenue Easter Parade, which she attends yearly with a group of models sporting her latest headwear.
Special Thanks
Thank you to Pamela Griffiths, Hannah Birenz, Meredith Wisner, Dawn Lucas and all the ladies of the Condé Nast Archive for their ongoing support and counsel in all Gretchen Project matters.
Sarah Hartley is an actor, teaching artist, and jewelry designer living in New York City. It has been her pleasure to work with the eclectic group of incredibly charming and talented women, including Gretchen Fenston, at the Condé Nast Archive. Needless to say, she is ga ga for Gretchen!
Dan Flynn grew up in a very large family in Franklin, MA. He earned his BA at the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth in 2006. Dan is presently an animator for the award-winning production company, Soup2Nuts, based in Watertown, MA.