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.
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.