EVENT
Easter Parade in New York
21 April 2019 by Ellen Colón Lugo
It might look like Carnival on Fifth but to the Milliners Guild and hat loving folk around the world it’s the New York City annual Easter Parade. Established in the mid-nineteenth century, the Easter Parade is a fashion and social tradition that began as a post-church stroll up Fifth Avenue to show off your new duds and admire the floral arrangements in the great Gothic churches that lined the Avenue.
Every year at 10 a.m. the Avenue is closed to street traffic and the wonder begins as hordes of tourists and hat mavens from around the world transform in a burst of colour and fanciful headgear. Some of their Easter bonnets often seem determined to compete with the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Those rooted in couture staunchly hold forth alongside a costume brigade of humorous, hysterical and downright over-the-top concoctions.
If it’s ever been imagined it will definitely show up sooner or later at the Easter Parade in New York City.
Where New York dressmakers and milliners used to line Fifth Avenue sketching the latest in millinery finery, now TV/digital press voraciously snap every head in sight. Upper crust New Yorkers began the annual Parade decades ago as a genteel saunter where they could visit with friends and dine in local popular eateries. By the 1940s there were millions on the street hoping to hobnob with the rich and famous as even Hollywood stars came to promote their latest pictures. Steeped in religious, social and folkloric roots, the very basis of Easter stems from the concept of rebirth and resurrection after winter doldrums. New clothing was a part of the celebration and Easter became New Hat Day.
As part of the American way, Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan have written songs about it. Judy Garland and Fred Astaire were in a movie about it. Churches on Easter Sunday are still packed with parishioners all along Fifth Avenue but the genetics of the Easter Parade have changed through the decades.
12 | the hat magazine #81
The 1800s brought out the wealthy. The 1940s brought out the middle class. Now creativity elbows out the fashionable, but it remains a glorious way to celebrate Easter and hats whether they be fine examples of handwrought couture or architectural statements leaning more towards the ridiculous than the sublime.
For more than 10 years the Milliners Guild has been meeting just outside the heavy wooden doors of St. Pat’s on Easter Sunday and although dear Mr. Bill Cunningham is no longer with us snapping pictures for the New York Times, there are photographers and bloggers from everywhere come to record the splash of joyous enthusiasm so evident everywhere. Easter Sunday is a magical moment and Fifth Avenue in New York City is the place to be. The Guild presents the face of couture and handmade millinery in the midst of more plastic eggs and bunnies than you can count, but no matter. It’s all about whatever hats. It’s a day to revel in wonder whether you be there for the spectacle or there for the history.
More information
www.millinersguild.org
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