Jacqueline
'JAX' Ryan is JAX•HATZ. Jax is a Fifth Generation San Franciscan.
As a child she remembers taking shopping trips with her Grandmother,
Mother and two older sisters every year in the Spring that began
by taking the N Judah streetcar downtown to Market and Powell;
a quick stop at Woolworths candy counter; a cable car ride up
to visit her great-uncle in his x-ray office at 450 Sutter;
then a few blocks west to The City of Paris and The Big "E"
to purchase Easter outfits... with the perfect bonnet of course!
Thus began her love affair with hats...
As early as
she can remember she has always been creating. She took a particular
interest in crafts projects; needlepoint embroidery, crocheting,
making greeting cards and even wallpapering the living room
by herself. At twelve she finally got the sewing lessons she
asked for (at the Singer store of course!) and designed and
sewed her first outfit - a cotton gingham halter top and white
bell bottoms - (hey, this was the 70's!) and topped it with
a matching gingham scarf she designed sans pattern; the first
JAX•HATZ!
Jax put
herself through art school in San Francisco where she learned
about color and design, all the while designing and dreaming
of hatz. She became a Visual Merchandiser (window trimmer) for
the Emporium until its untimely demise in 1996, which left her
career in limbo. This is where she likes to say that fate and
destiny intervened. At a friend's urging and insistence that
she should be selling her hatz and armed with the knowledge
that enthusiasm and a creative spirit could probably make up
for her lack of business acumen, she launched JAX•HATZ.
Since
its inception Jax has made many, many hatz - so many hatz she
thinks lined end to end they would reach the entire span of
the Golden Gate Bridge! With each hat is a story. It is the
story of the woman who wore the hat, the places she went and
the things that happened to her; perhaps because of THAT hat!
Today she pours the sum of her experiences into her original
designs and translates that into the handcrafted hatz she creates.
Since 1996 she has
designed and sold her hatz almost exclusively at art & wine
festivals and street fairs throughout the San Francisco Bay
Area, Southern California and Arizona. With so many customers
at those venues inquiring as to on-line sales, she felt compelled
to join the revolution. With this web-site she is opening up
her 'virtual store'! She feels infinitely blessed in life and
thanks you for visiting her world of hatz!
