Sisters show how to wear a hat at Central Park Conservancy 2026 lunch
THe Central Park Conservancy Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon, which benefits Central Park, has become known as “that Hat Lunch.” The post Sisters show how to wear a hat at Central Park Conservancy 2026 lunch appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
Black News 
Mother’s Day is when one wears a red or white flower in tribute to the queens who gave us birth, be they living (red) or dead (white). On Easter Sunday, we put on new clothes and wear our best, in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who died to redeem our manifold sins.
Many traditional highlights in the year of the Black community are derived from ceremonial festivities taken from the Christian calendar. One particular element that was a feature of such occasions was once typical of all women, regardless of faith. Essential to beauty in the past, to being well-dressed, was donning magnificent hats. The focus of Michael Cunningham’s and Craig Marberry’s splendid book “Crowns,” today, this is a practice reserved almost exclusively for African American women.
Over time, an exception in New York has become the annual Central Park Conservancy Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon, which benefits Central Park. Held in the park’s Conservatory Gardens, it has become known as “that Hat Lunch.”
Why? The name comes from the now de rigueur conceit that all attendees wear their finest headgear, often extravagant confections created specially for the occasion. The ritual extends from well before the time of the first Conservancy Lunch, back in 1983. By then, as now, most — men and women alike — went about bare-headed.
Blessed with some of history’s best millinery masters, Blacks have always known how essential proper hats can be to looking great. Yet, the story of Mildred Blount’s rise to acclaim is a trajectory unfamiliar to even many African Americans. She was brilliant and unsurprisingly, even when unknown, Blount’s skilled efforts brought her white employer riches and renown.
Michael Henry Adams photos
Tiffany Burkett and Jade Magnus Ogunnaike. 
Harlem’s other well-known Karen Phillips. 
Mildred Blount, who did hats for high society weddings Black (A’Lelia Walker’s daughter Mae Robinson and white (GloriaVanderbilt), also designed for Hollywood films like “Gone With the Wind.” (Public domain photo) 
With philanthropist par excellence Jean Shafiroff. 
Deirdre Stanley and Melissa Murray. 
With Harlem’s lovely Linda Haile. 
Newly elected Co-Chairs Darice Fadeyi and Kimberly Ayers Shariff. 
Tomi Aregbesola be-wreathed in blue butterflies. 
Andrea Frazier, the pink of perfection. 
Board member of Women’s Committee of Central Park Conservancy Robin Bell-Stevens is director and executive producer of Jazzmobile 
Lisa LaLonde wore orange and pink hat. 
Tai Mendoza, Nyssa Lee, and Lola Temple. 
Ashly Mims in flower-sprigged confection. 
Circa 1947: Harlem milliner, Boston native Willard Winter, living on Hamilton Terrace, started out participating in regular fashion shows held at Rose Morgan’s House of Beauty on 125th Street, previously the Joe Louis Bar and Grill. (Public domain photo)
A native of Eden, North Carolina (1907), Blount moved in with family members after her parents died. Attending New York public schools, she dreamed of becoming an interpretive and ballet dancer, as well as a costume designer. In pursuit of these goals, she attended Hunter College and Cooper Union. After completing school, she worked for the John-Frederics hat firm from the time of its inception. She served at the Manhattan salon for 10 years, and was assigned to open their Los Angeles branch in 1939.
Going on her own in 1943, Blount proceeded from success to success. A colleague of hers was my late friend, the wonderful Willard Winter, who came to New York from Boston in the late 1930s to design the most smashing hats. He started by showing his designs at Rose Morgan’s House of Beauty on 125th Street.
Today, Harlem’s hat heritage is elegantly supplied by the FlameKeeper’s Hat Club haberdashery and Hats by Bunn. Most notable of all area hat designers, however, is Evetta Petty of Harlem’s Heaven Hat Boutique. Supplying hats for notables like Patti LaBelle and Star Jones, represented in the grandstand of the Kentucky Derby and on Ladies Day at Royal Ascot in the Royal Enclosure for some time now, Petty has also been responsible for several striking numbers to be seen at that Hat Lunch.
Nowadays, more and more women of color are joining the elite who work tirelessly to fund maintaining the park. In addition to long-time supporters like Robin Bell Steven (Jazzmobile) and Erana M. Stennett (director of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa), Darcie Fadeyi has recently joined this undertaking as a co-chair.
I, for one, am overjoyed because, from now on, there’s a new and wonderful venue for Black women to wear amazing hats and show the world how it’s done.
The post Sisters show how to wear a hat at Central Park Conservancy 2026 lunch appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
