I’ve been wanting to go to the Jazz
Age Lawn Party on Governor’s Island for years. It started popping
up on the blogs of people who lived in or near the city, and of
course the coverage by Bill Cunningham in the Times, especially among
those who were really into vintage. But, like most things, every year
I would see pictures of and think next year! Next year I will go!
And then I didn't.
I especially always wanted to because
generally the second set of summer dates falls the weekend after my
birthday and it always seemed like the perfect birthday activity.
Never did though, always kind of chickened out because I wasn’t
sure what to wear or how to get downstate in some delicate outfit,
plus I always waited until almost the last minute and then tickets
were sold out anyway.
But this year, 2016, this year I turned
30. Somehow it seemed even more fitting given that I would be saying
goodbye to my twenties (something I was vaguely dreading but now that
it has happened I kind of like, don’t care?). Plus I mean, that’s
a big birthday right? So over the winter I plunked down the money,
got two tickets, and we ended up making a weekend of it (because I
didn’t know which Jazz-Age garment I wanted to wear I brought
several in a garment bag and somehow that didn’t seem like a good
idea to be lugging around the city just for a day).
Dress: Laura's Vintage, Bag: From the now closed Reruns, Shoes: Nine West some years ago, Hat: Also a closed shop many years ago, Fan: picked up at the event because oh god, so hot!
I do feel like some of the popularity
around this event has waned, like now that it’s become a known even
less of the blogger types from the early days go, like a kind of
fashion event hipster attitude has sprung up around it, but then who
cares ugh all that kind of attitude is dumb anyway! And it was
fantastic.
I mean, it was also 111 degrees which
was kind of awful, I’ve never in my life sweat so much. So much
that my slip, that my mother hemmed so that it wouldn’t show under
the black netting of the dress I was wearing, stretched considerably
so by the time we got these photos the thing was totally visible at
the hemline. Which is fine, no one cares anyway.
The dress in question is one I grabbed
from Laura’s Vintage (of course, my favorite spot!) over the
winter. It’s not in impeccable shape, but a few stitches to keep it
together and some fusible interfacing made it relatively sturdy. I
didn’t want to wear something perfect because I knew, given a tear
or stain, I would be heartbroken and wonder for years why I wore such
a thing!
I was also on the fence because while
it is such in ideal print and color palette for late summer, it seems
everyone else shows up in breezy pastels. In the end though I was
totally thrilled with it and might even wear the whole get-up again,
maybe to our local speakeasy (we have one, it’s great, but they
don’t allow pictures ugh).
David was a real-deal true-blue trooper
and wore pants, which I can’t even imagine, and a long sleeve
button up with sleeves rolled. It hardly mattered that we were
drenched though, because everyone was.
And everyone was also incredibly nice!
We met so many really cheerful and wonderful people who helped with
finding the ferry, lending sunscreen, letting us sit on a blanket (we
didn’t bother bringing any), and a really lovely family gave us
their extra drink and meal tickets when they decided to leave early.
Despite the heat and my terrible shoe
choice (blisters the size of half-dollars on the soles of my poor
feet), it was incredibly fun and I’m already trying to work out how
to go in June without spending an arm and a leg and then some on
hotels and transportation!
Anyway it was kind of a dream. It’s
far enough away now that I can’t remember what the heat felt like,
and I can’t wait to go again!
