BYHALIA, Miss — With every stitch and every feather, Jena Vinzetta Johnson carefully handcrafts her one-of-a-kind church-derby hats.
"I would like to say we're the rock and roll of derby hats," Vinzetta Johnson said. "Over the past 13 years, we have shipped out tens of thousands of hats."
Depending on how tall the order, it can take hours, or in some cases days, to bring one of her custom creations to life.
"The detailing can be time consuming. You're shaping, cutting, trimming every feather in the hat. I mean, there's a lot of feathers in these hats," she said. "That's probably my signature look, is an explosion of feathers, which is interesting because my name means 'small bird.'"
Her team of four is hard at work with orders flocking in for the Kentucky Derby. It'll be hard to miss one of her pieces, frequently making appearances on the Kentucky Derby website.
"They're making hats now that we will have ready for the next derby, so we prepare a long way out," she said.
All these vibrant colors in her workshop are the light at the end of a dark tunnel Vinzetta's traveled through for years, with symptoms of an inner-ear infection called Meniere's Disease starting as a baby.
"I started having surgeries when I was nine months old. It got very debilitating to the point where I was totally bedridden. When I had my son in 2001, I almost died. I had to have an emergency hysterectomy," she said.
The curtain came down as a traveling opera singer, and without any business background, she used her head to mastermind a successful career as a milliner.
"This business sort of saved me in a lot of ways, and so I'm able to use it to help others," she said.
Her creations have even caught the eye of Hollywood. She created a hat for actress Taraji P. Henson's character "Cookie" on hit show "Empire."
"I have worked with celebrities and TV shows, but I just love them all. They're all really special to me, so I can't say that one is more important than the other," she said.
No two hats are the same; she tailor-makes each one so that each customer feels uniquely special.
"It feels like a calling, so it's strange, I know," she said. "It's just hats, right?"
The most expensive hat Vinzetta ever sold was $2500, but they start at $100.
Vinzetta has made hats for the derby for years but has never been there herself until now. She'll be attending for the first time on the Kentucky Derby's 150th year.