POLKcast: John Fynn’s fabulous fascinators

Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2013 by Polk Newsroom

POLKcast Episode

Key:

MF: Madison Fantozzi

LB: Leah Bartholomay

JF: John Fynn

JF:

Bec

ause, I always wanted to do something that would make people

—

you know

—

look

like you’re crazy!

[Theme Music]

MF:

Welcome back to POLKcast! Polk State’s podcast! I’m your Host Madison Fantozzi!

LB:

And I’m your Co

–

host, Leah Bartholomay!

JF:

[Laughs]

MF:

’re here today with John Fynn. Most people know him for his mentorship and his

passion for advising Polk State’s Students. He has served as an academic advisor and

works with TRO Student Support Services that provide resources to underrepresented

students.

Most recently he has developed Polk State’s Louis Stokes Alliances for

Minority Participation program

which is better known as LSAMP here on Campus. And it

is part of the Central Florida STEM Alliance. That’s

—

that’s

a National Science

Foundation partnersh

ip under LSAMP.

And s

o, the goal is to broaden participation of

underrepresented minorities in science technology, engineering and mathematics

—

but

some people might not

know that Fynn is also a collector of African

–

mask and clothes

and he’s exhibited

his

pieces here at Polk State in the art galleries. But you guys might

not

—

might

also not know that he makes his own pieces

—

specifically hats and

fascinators! So

welcome to

the show thanks for being here today!

JF:

Thank you!

MF:

So, you brought some of your hats here today. What do you think about that Leah?

Which one’s your favorite?

LB:

Oh my gosh, the

y’re

awesome

—

they’re

—

the

y’re

really awesome!

The

y’re

five hats on

displ

ay with five mannequin heads. Which they all have names!

JF:

Yeah.

LB:

Am I correct?

MF:

Yeah, tell us

—

tell us their names?

JF:

I have Shakisha, I have Karen, I have Dot, I have

—

Twent

and I also have Stacey.

LB:

That is awesome!

MF:

Do they each kind of have their own style, or is there a specific hat that goes with each

of their personalities?

JF:

Not really, but we just laugh about it. Like

—

like family and I we’ll

just laugh about it

—

like we just put on

—

I remember one of the times

—

hakisha’s neck got broken.

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

[Laughs]

Because

—

ou know

—

one of my little nephews was playing with

—

mannequin and broke it, so we had to bandage her neck and you know things like

—

LB:

Aww.

JF:

So, we just give them names.

LB:

Shakisha has a

little glue.

JF:

[Laughs] A little glue on it.

LB:

Oh, t

hat’s funny! Yeah, they’re really great! There’s like a

—

There’s

—

I don’t want to say

ribbons, but there

—

there beautiful one’s sort of like a top hat

sort of fashion, another

has some feathers, and there all very unique and different,

shapes and sizes. The

y’re

really neat!

MF:

Lots of orange and pink, is that for summer?

JF:

Yeah, it’s for summer. Summer is more like orange

—

you know

—

the pastel co

lors

—

orange, the

—

lilacs

—

the cresha, like cerise, which is another color, is more like a

reddish

—

this thing and the blushes

is stuff

like that

—

those are the colors

for the

summer.

MF:

Really cool! So, tell us how you got into the art of making hats?

The

—

Millinery is something I’ve

—

liked, I’ve always been fascinated about hats, because

my mom is an avid hat wearer. As a kid she used to wear hats to

unctions. She did a lot

—

she went to a lot of weddings. We did not understand how we

—

in schools some

our friends will be like “I’ve never been to a wedding.” and I’m like “How come you’ve

not been to a wedding!” because we use to go weddings almost every Saturday. Like in

the summer, my mom will get invites for weddings, and she would not repeat a hat

. So,

we were like for Mother’s Day, for Christmas stuff, we’re buying her hats. And in

London

—

the place you could buy a hat was really

—

nice was like John Lowers or

Debenhams and they were expensive. So, as I was growing up in my teen years, I used

to walk

by the malls of stuff and just look at these hats

—

in the Windows and

just

—

was

so fascinated with the mannequins with the hats on. And I just keep looking,

and

just

keep

, and just keep

looking and I said

, “Y

ou know what

I’m going to start making hats.

”

, what I did was got books and started reading on hat making

—

and

—

if I go to the

library, I’ll do my school work and then I’ll just take a book on Millinery and just be

reading and look at the p

ictures

and do some sketches and stuff. So, in 1998

—

I think

tha

t was just after I

—

finished

—

my undergrad, and

—

my next

–

door neighbor was having

a wedding. And my mom was like “I have to go to this wedding and have to look like

—

want to dress more than the

—

bride’s

—

mom.”

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

So, I was like “

Well what are you going to do?” You know

she said

she needs to get a

big hat. And I said “Okay, I’m going to do my first hat for you then.” So, I worked

—

I read

about it, and I got this a

—

it was a lilac hat and it had all these feathers around the hat,

d when we

—

my mom wore that hat, it was like out of this world. She just came out of

the car and people thought she was the

—

Groom’s mom

—

actually and

—

LB:

So, it worked!

JF:

She was like “No!” [Laughs] She’s not

you know,

and but she was

—

she was

—

because

she

was

like really invited because we were close to

—

the Groom

We’re going

to sit at

the very front. So, she walked up there and ever since that time, it gave me the

confidence to do

—

more hats. I said, “Well I did it!” And

I don’t’

—

I have not been

trained

, a

nd so

just thought

, “

Okay, t

hat’s cool

I could do it next time

!”

and

then

started working with her, like doing different hats for her.

LB:

That is great!

JF:

Yeah!

LB:

Does she still have your very first hat?

JF:

She does! She Does! Yeah

—

She has a

—

she

has a

whole

—

bunch of hats. Like she has a

closet of hats. And most of the time her friends and family members

would

—

when

going to an event,

would go to her

house to pick up

hat.

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

Even when she’s not there.

You know

—

MF:

Wow.

JF:

hey be like “

Okay, c

an we go in and can we ask her

how

’s this thing to

—

help

—

open

your

closet, so we can pick out a hat?” and she be like “Okay, send me the picture. Let

me see which on you picked

and bring it back after.”

LB:

[Laughs] So, she can mar

k it down in Inventory!

JF:

[Laughs] Yeah, so she can mark it down

—

you can say that

—

Yeah this is

—

this was taken

back. Yeah, she has lot of hats.

MF:

How many hats have you made in your time, since you’ve been making hats?

JF:

I was thinking of it on the w

ay here, and I said

, “You know,

I can’t even count

, bec

ause

have made so many hats.

”

I’ll probably say over 1,000.

MF:

Wow!

LB:

Woah!

JF:

Yes, because I did

—

2016

—

(2015)

actually did a show

—

Greensboro

—

in North

Carolina, which was

—

a church event

—

which

is Cool

—

teach of our lord Jesus Christ,

and they had an event and I took like 17 boxes of hats. U

–

Haul boxes, so you see the

height like the shipping boxes had 17 boxes of that shipped to

—

Greensboro.

MF:

Wow.

JF:

Each of the them had about 20 pieces in it. So, that was a lot of hats and I was just

thinking about that and

then

look

—

I was

look

ing

at 2016 and I did one in Orlando, in

Southern Women show and so, I’m like

“

I’ve lost count of it

!”

Actually,

when I look at

some of our pictures. I’m like “Oh, I’ve made this years ago, I’ve forgotten about this

hat.” You know.

MF:

[Laughs]

JF:

So,

just

—

you

just make

—

you

keep making it all the time.

LB:

That’s great!

JF:

Yeah!

MF:

What inspires the look of your hats?

JM:

My hats our very heavily British inspired. You know

London is the

—

they wear hats like

basically

—

they

—

they

make the pomp and glory look like out of this world. And we’ve all

seen it with the Royal weddings that came

—

in 2011 and this one that came up

recently Meghan

Merkle.

—

Markle

so that was like

—

they

—

they wear hats! And now

they t

urned it into

more like the fascinat

ors,

and it’s eas

ier

to make the fascinators. Very

easy to make fascinators and so

—

fascinators

is just ideas. What you can put together

that will look real fancy. That will look like out of this world. You want to go there with a

showstopper. You want to go

and

everybody’s looking at you. I remember one of the

times my

—

mom, my sisters

and I

have

twin sisters, and went to a friend’s wedding

in Delaware. So, she just

—

we walked in there like

—

we drove, and they were

—

taking

your car from you, like Valet parking and everything. So, we just got out of the car and

they all had hats, but my sister was driv

ing and had a hat that was like out of this world

with

feathers and everything.

The when

she got out of the car, the Valet came and

cameras were just all over her

—

hich is you know

—

I was like

“What is going

…” and

the Groom was standing

at the

top

—

and this table is

laughing, saying, “Oh my

goodness

hese are our friends

hese

are not even part of the

bridal part

”

You know,

because they thought

—

LB:

[Laugh]

JF:

And they were just taking pictures all over, and we have so many of those pictures. So

, I

just said you know

“A hat makes a big difference.”

f you put on a hat know all heads

will start turning, just because you’re wearing a hat.

LB:

Right!

JF:

But i

f everybody walks around in the same kind of clothes

and

they look at you and be

like oka

y just another person, but a hat, I think

—

that why we always say

, “W

e make

showstopper pieces.

”

ere

—

you

actually stop and look at you and say, “Okay this is

—

this is nice!”

MF:

Tell us

about

the process of making a hat

—

form start to finish. What materials

do you

use and things like that?

JF:

The different types of hats that

—

we ma

e. The Summer hats are easier to make,

because a summer hats are usually made with

—

bananas straw, sinamay, the pieces that

you’

ve seen here are made with sinamay, because they are summer hats.

And sinamay

—

is like

—

originally from

—

the Philippines. So, we get that fiber from the Philippines.

It’s very malleable, it’s easy to

—

you know

—

use and bend and everything, and some of

them a

re stiff

ened

and others are not stiffened. But like to make the large hat

over

there

—

like that one over there. That particular hat

a friend of mine, wa

nts

—

going to

use it for

—

a function next week

nd she wanted me to do a similar hat that Oprah

wore

—

t the Royal wedding

—

by Stella McCartney

So, this is

—

complete replica of

that hat.

LB:

Oh, neat!

JF:

What

—

you start with

—

first

, y

ou have to have your Hat blocks. Hat blocks are really

expensive.

MF:

Yeah

JF:

Yeah, the H

at blocks expensive. They run you anything from like £325 which is like $500

for a block. And

—

so first you have to have your hat blocks. You cover the hat blocks

with

cling film

, or foil

aluminum foil. Then you get your material

—

the sinamay material.

You

usually cut them on the bias.

Cutting them on the bias means you

—

you

cut at an

angle, like a

–

degree angle,

that can be flexible to move. And you

—

some people will

do it like one layer or two layers. I usually do three layers of the sinamay to make it

—

durable.

And then you put it in

—

lukewarm water, and if it stiffened

—

you already have it

stiffened, you can still put a little bit of

—

glue. You take one

—

for every

one pot of glue

you put

four

pot of water and then you put in the water

and then you mix

it up

the

—

sinamay

—

then you pull it over the block and then you pin them. Pinning is

another

—

it’s

—

it’s

a tedious job

ike you pin the hat into the shape of the block.

If I’m in a rush, I’ll just get a

—

hairdryer

—

and start blowing it over the materials

—

so like

it dries quickly. If I’m not in a rush, I’ll just leave it.

MF:

–

hmm.

JF:

So, most of the times I’ll have hats

—

hats that have been blocked sitting in my area

where I work and just leave them over there for

—

a couple days to dry. Then I

’ll

take out

the pins, I’ll get an iron

—

and iron the hat o

—

the block and remove it.

Once you

take it off the block you’re going to

—

usually that will be maybe the crown

—

a hat is a

crown and a brim. So, you do the brim and t

hen you do the crown as well.

And then you have to put

—

Millinery

–

wire

—

around the base of the hat to give it that

shape, for the shape to stay in shape. Usually when you take it off the block it’s already

in the shape. And

—

you put the wire on and you join

the brim to

—

you join the

—

crown

to the brim, and after that you sew that. Sometimes, I hand

–

stich most of my hats.

LB:

Wow!

JF:

I just sit down and hand

–

stich them, but you can use a Sewing

–

machine, I have a Sewing

–

machine that I use as well.

MF:

–

hmm.

JF:

And after that is done

—

I’ll just

—

leave it for little bit. Put the

—

wire

—

the

—

the

brim

—

your

other

—

the crown, you should put like a ribbon

—

you know

—

around it so that

—

you don’t have any grease or anything like

—

you know. So, you put that on and then

I’ll

have

—

I’ll decide what I’m going to decorate it with. What you are going to adorn it with,

it could be flowers, I usually make my own flowers as well.

LB:

Wow!

JF:

I make my hand

–

flowers and it could be feathers, it could be parrot

—

it could be

—

cock

–

fea

thers, it could be

—

different type of things that you want to. People do like crazy

hats, you can do a hat and decide, I’m going to put matchboxes on the hat, I’m going to

put like birds or something

—

you know. You can do different things. You know it’s real

for Royal

–

ascot and for

—

the horse racing event. You can do those crazy stuff. But for

weddings and stuff

, you can

—

you’re doing more like, what I have done here with the

feathers. So, after that can you just decorate, and this can be done just like I sai

d, you

can actually do a hat in a day. If

your

—

somebody wants a hat, I can do it within a day

for you. Usually I’ll just block my hats and leave them, and when it’s ready I’ll just take

my time and do it.

LB:

Yeah.

JF:

Yeah.

LB:

What’s your favorite par

t? Is it making

—

like forming the shape of the hat or do you like

the decorating part? Where you actually get to put interesting

—

your twist?

JF:

Actually, I

’ll

—

like both of them in a way. Because when you block the hat and it comes

out

—

and you see

—

like this just simple material that you pulled over, and all of a

sudden, it’s got this shape. And you start pulling the crown to the brim

—

you know, and

you start pulling it together, and you see, oh it’s coming out nice

—

it’s shaping up

—

you

kno

LB:

Yeah.

JF:

But I love the very part is decorating.

LB:

Yeah.

JF:

Because you

—

you

—

you

can

—

most of the time the final product would’ve tended

around several times. Because you might put a flower here, oh, this doesn’t look good,

let me put it here

—

you

know

—

you keep tending things around. But I love the

decorating.

LB:

Right.

MF:

Well, you mentioned some crazy hats that you’ve made. What would you say is the

most crazy, outlandish

showshop

—

topping one that you’ve made?

JF:

Actually, I did one

—

I did one

for my sister, one of my twin sisters and my sister and I

had a wedding on the 30

—

December

—

2016.

And b

ecause they

wore

all

these

different hats,

we’re

like “What are we going to do to

—

because people are going to be

looking at us and

they

know I make h

ats and what’s it going to be like?” So

—

she said,

“John, I just want this crazy hat with all these feathers and everything, and every color.”

I said, “How am I going to put every…” She said, I just want this rainbow of colors.”

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

So, I made this, it’s a red base, it was like a fascinator, but it was a red base and it had

different feathers at different angles and when the wedding was a St. Paul’s here in

Winter Haven. And when she got out of the car

—

there was a guy that was driving

and

stop, because the twins were walking together and the other one also had a very nice

big bowler hat with feathers as well. And the guy stopped them

and said,

“if I don’t take

a picture of this hat and show it to my wife and just say to her. She

will s

end me back

the church to take a picture of you guys.”

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

—

she

—

took that picture and that was one of the favorite hats and when that went of

Facebook and people were like, “Oh, my goodness John! What is this?” You know

—

LB:

[Laughs] That’s

great!

JF:

So, I

—

I’ve

done some pieces that

—

so many hats that are my favorite, so many hats.

But

I think one of the

—

the

hats that I really

—

apart from that particular showstopper,

there are so many showstoppers that I’ve done, but I love making hats f

or my mom,

because she wears it real well.

LB:

Yeah

JF:

She does, she wears it real, real well. So, she

—

she

never makes a mistake when she

wears a hat.

MF:

That’s awesome!

LB:

Did that start for her when she was young?

JF:

Yes, because

—

you know

—

she grew up in era where going to church you had to cover

your hair. And so

to cover your hair,

there was

other people used scarfs, but people

who were

like middle

–

class

would

wear the h

ats

the bonnets and

—

you know

—

little

things like

—

so she’s always

orn

hats as she was growing up. Because every Sunday

you had to cover your hair. And so, to cover your hair, you go to church and you know

—

cover it in school and all that kind of thing. So,

she always had to

—

always

have

something on her hair, and I think that is what inspired her and that is what inspired us

as well

—

to do it

MF:

Do you sell your hats? How do people get a hat from you?

JF:

I use to have like

—

I have a website

—

that is under construction now. Because I

just didn’t have time, most of the time to do these hats, sometimes you get busy. But

people

—

always

—

would either email me and say, “Okay, John I want a hat.” I’ll be like,

“Okay, let me send you a

couple of pictures of ones that I’ve made.” and usually when I

make a collection

—

every year I’ll make two different collections. I’ll make a Spring

–

Summer Collection and

then

I’ll make a Fall Collection. The Fall Collection is usually the

felts and the

—

fab

ric

—

you know

—

things. And then

—

I put it on Facebook. So, through

Facebook people will be just

—

calling me, “Oh, can I get this hat in different colors?” You

know, so that’s the way I do it, and I do sell some of the hats too. But I do go for

—

Hat

–

shows, like

I’ll go for

—

the Southern Women Show, the

y do

one in Orlando every

[Everyone laughs]

JF:

Because of these

—

stream of hats

—

you know

—

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

And I said, “No, you’re not going to go on the website and start looking at the helmster”

But they just liked everything, and they were very surprised, that

—

like all the things

that I do, what time do you have to do, to do these hats.

LB:

Right!

JF:

ut I tell people, I said, “As a milliner the best time to work

—

is late at night. When it’s

quiet

—

peaceful

—

then you start making your designs.” You just sit down

—

and it

happens most of the time, my family would go to bed, and I’ll be

—

sitting down and

they’l

l be like, “Oh, you just gathe

red material! What are you going to do next?” And I

said, “When you wake up, you’ll see it.” So, when they wake up in the morning, they go

and look at

—

they’re like, “Oh, my goodness! Yeah, you did it!” And you know

—

that’s

—

that

’s

—

and that’s a nice thing about it, because that’s the time

—

that you get things

done

—

very well. You don’t want no

—

people bothering you

—

LB:

You’re like

—

JF:

You just want to sit quietly and just do what you have to do.

LB:

You’re like

the Santa of hats!

JF:

[Laughs]

LB:

Happens at night

—

JF:

At night, and when

—

LB:

You wake up and it’s there!

JF:

You wake up and it’s there!

LB:

[Laughs]

JF:

That

—

I love that! Actually, that’s what I like to do. [Laughs]

LB:

That’

s awesome! Well, thank you so much

—

JF:

Thank you so much for having me!

LB:

For coming in today! It’s been really

—

really awesome!

MF:

Yeah, thank you!

JF:

It’s also been really awesome talking to you guys!

And

—

thank you!

LB:

Have a Polktastic day!

JF:

u too! [Laughs]

[Theme Music]