Now in its seventh year, the Parkways Foundation's garden party, a fund-raiser for the Chicago park district, is commonly referred to as the "hat luncheon." And at this year's iteration, which took place on Thursday in Grant Park's new Tiffany & Company Foundation Celebration Garden, guests followed the dress code that gave the event its nickname. Some 650 attendees included a man sporting a Tiffany-blue boater hat and a woman crowned with a mock Tiffany necklace box. Other guests wore hats pieced together with silk roses or colorful feathers, and Denise Stefan, the Parkways Foundation's chairman, topped her head with a blue bird's nest holding a jewel-studded egg and a fake white bird.
"[Local milliner] John Koch has kind of become part of the brand of this party," said Brenda Palm, the foundation's executive director. "He designs these kooky slash glamorous slash imaginative hats, and he's done so for years for this event. Once our guests know the luncheon's theme, a lot of them call him up right away. He starts designing months out."
If the theme of this year's luncheon wasn't apparent from the plethora of Tiffany-blue hats, the decor helped make it known with silky blue linens, flower arrangements spilling out of silver bowls, and raffle tickets that took the form of bow-tied jewelry boxes. Apart from raising funds, the afternoon was intended to celebrate the newly completed renovation of Grant Park's south rose garden, which was made possible by a $1.25 million grant from the jewelry store. "In the past, we've done a Latin garden theme and a Japanese garden theme," Palm said. "But this year we wanted to celebrate the tremendous gift that Tiffany & Company gave to the city."
For the past several years, the garden party has taken place in June. But this year "the construction fences around the garden literally came down on the Tuesday [before the event]," Palm said. "We wanted to use the luncheon as a kind of inauguration of the new space, so we decided to push it back. And also, September is the most perfect month in Chicago, weather-wise, and gardens are typically at their peak this time of year." While she's not sure if the event will keep its new date or move back to June in the future, Palm said that the extra two months allotted to this year's planning process proved beneficial.
"Pushing the event back gave us more time to build up anticipation, and it gave us more time to fund-raise," she said. While last year's event raked in $300,000, Thursday's luncheon raised closer to $500,000. Palm said the increased take resulted from a slightly larger guest list—this year's luncheon saw about 30 more attendees than last year's. Tickets started at $225 each. She also said that guests seemed "more inclined to give at higher levels" because the luncheon raised funds for the restoration of Buckingham Fountain, which is part of the Chicago park district. "People are just connected to preserving the fountain. It's such a historic icon," she said. "And perhaps people are just realizing that they want to be at this party."
