Mastering a craft isn't fast, and it isn't supposed to be. Dana Estelle, the owner and hat maker behind BKMC, has spent over eight years proving that patience — not talent alone — is what actually gets you there.

Dana studied millinery after discovering it through fashion school, and now runs her own shop and studio in Rhinebeck, New York, after years of working out of shared studios in New York City. In this conversation, she and James talk about what it actually took to get to the point where opening her own storefront felt like "the easy part," the years of tearing apart unfinished work and starting over, and why she's learned to measure her own progress by picking up a hat she made years ago and noticing exactly how far her skill has come.

They get into pricing as a skill in itself — and the long, uncomfortable process of raising  ...