Socialites wore their finest fascinators, and unofficially honored Flaco the owl, at Central Park’s ‘hat lunch’
Socialites donned their finest fascinators, and raised $4.6 million, on Wednesday at the famed Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon, better known among the upper crust as “the hat lunch.”
Attendees are known for wearing some truly hype hats — and flowers, feathers, bows and beads bedecked the wild toppers this year.
Randi Zuckerberg — the entrepreneur sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — and her pal, Stila Cosmetics CEO Michelle Kluz, wore lids they said honored Flaco, the much-beloved, late owl who once resided in the Central Park Zoo.
Calling Flaco, “the celebrity fallen owl of Central Park,” the duo’s looks featured flowers and twigs on the brims with faux owls perched regally up top.
“It was a fun thing for me to try and track Flaco around Central Park, and we both live on the Upper West Side, so we wanted to honor him this year,” Kluz told us.
“His year of freedom,” they mused. “He brought so much joy to people.”
“I was like, thank you for doing the hard work of exterminating the city for us,” Zuckerberg added.
Flaco, a male Eurasian eagle-owl, famously escaped from the zoo after 12 years there when someone vandalized his cage at let him loose last year.
He then spent most of his time freely roaming the park, soaring over the city and roosting on the Upper West Side.
But there was an outpouring of grief in February when the bird flew into a building and didn’t make it.
Socialites at the chic event included Gillian Miniter, Serena Miniter, Elyse Newhouse, Muffie Potter Aston, Fe Fendi, Alexandra Lebenthal, designer Lela Rose, Margo Neaderlander, Katherine Gage Boulud, Enrica Arengi Bentivoglio and “Law & Order” star Stephanie March, among others.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who hits the event annually, didn’t wear a hat for the occasion, but sang the praises for the park.
“It’s another one on those events that could only take place here,” he told us. “Any place else would be a copy. The history is here, the diversity of people is here, and the location is here. There is no other place like Central Park.”
When asked which hat was his fave, he declined to say, instead politically quipping, “That I would not get trapped into.”
One unique fascinator spotted by Page Six looked like a wok filled with noodles.
Attendee Elizabeth R. Varet explained of the look, “I don’t like anyone taking me too seriously. When I bought it, my husband said, ‘What can I do to persuade you never to wear that hat?'”
