March of the mad hatters
ACTRESS Stephanie March turned heads at the Central Park Hat Luncheon in an elegant number from Lock & Co Hatters, an official milliner for the royal family and a favorite of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. “I was in London a few weeks ago, for reasons in no way related to the royal wedding, unfortunately,” March said. “I bought it and now I have a place to wear it. It’s a very discreet place . . . They custom made this for me. The culture of wearing a hat in the UK is so different, I think they just assumed I’d be wearing it every Sunday to church. Fortunately, I can wear it here and drink rosé instead.” Of the anticipation for Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle on May 19, “Meghan and I both went to Northwestern and were theater majors. I like to think of her as a classmate even though I’m about 100 years older.” March added that she wasn’t fretting about the fashion faux pas of seeing three other women there wearing the same dress as her, “It’s New York! There’s a woman dressed as a margarita, she’s a friend, so we can’t be worried about the same dress.” Indeed, seated with trustee Gillian Miniter (who wore a colorful wild flower creation custom made by Eric Javits) was fashion designer Lela Rose, whose hat creatively combined the key cocktail ingredients: limes, salt, ice and tequila. Rose told Page Six, “I pick the dress and then get the hat to match, the dress is green, so I told my hat designer to make me a margarita. I came here by bike (without the hat on) and I can’t wait to ride home wearing it, with all the funny looks I’ll get going down Fifth Avenue.”