High tea may sound high falutin’, but high brow or low brow, it’s really a lot of fun—particularly if a gal gets gussied up and pulls a hat out of some dusty box hidden in a corner of her closet.
Dr. Carol Karamitsos did it the easy way: She borrowed a vintage straw number from the ’50s from her mom. Bedecked in vintage and accompanied by her friend Merrie Okie Goldin, Dr. K. came to high tea and a fashion show at the Veterans’ Memorial Hall on Sunday afternoon, May 22.
There were 175 or so ladies at the event, sponsored by Santa Maria’s Department of Recreation and Parks. About half of them took advantage of the opportunity to sport a favorite chapeau.
Patty Ellis of the Rec and Parks Department was shopping at Coldwater Creek in Santa Barbara. While she was conversing with the store manager, one thing led to another, and—boom—a brand-new event was born to benefit the department’s PLAY nonprofit fund.
PLAY (People for Leisure and Youth, Inc.) was established as a nonprofit entity in 1997 to raise funds to support the department’s projects and programs. PLAY pays for a free summer pool day at the Paul Nelson Aquatic Center and offers scholarships for department programs to low-income families. PLAY has raised more than $600,000 in the past 14 years.
Coldwater Creek brought a carload of its quality casual clothing to town for local models to wear at the tea. On the runway were the buoyant, breezy Liz Addamo and Etta Waterfield. Being able to see Etta’s very high-style, killer shoes was by itself worth the price of admission ($30 a ticket).
Event developer Patty Ellis was looking good in Coldwater Creek on the runway.
Marion Lavagnino, wife of new county supervisor Steve Lavagnino, was another who swept down the runway with panache.
The perfectly coiffed (and therefore hatless!) Sue Sword and Margaret Paden should have been models. They are synonymous with chic.
Kelly White O’Neill of the Discovery Museum and Sandra Dickerson, president of the United Way board, were one table over from the table I shared with Karen Cordary, her sister Sandy Hayes (who wore the cutest black lace gloves), and Nancy Stewart.
I swooned when I saw Laurie Tamura with a big, broad-brimmed number and a smile to match. Later, in the parking lot, she said, “The bar has been set. Next year, everyone will wear bigger and better hats.”
That’s what Rec and Parks is hoping. This was the first year for this event, which was extremely well received, partly because it was so well done. The department’s Wendy Hudson volunteered to do decorations. Clever girl! She collected a bevy of lovely teapots to use as centerpieces. She filled them with snapdragons and Gerber daisies.
Lucky ticket winners were allowed to choose whatever centerpiece they wanted—it was OK to raid another table.
Lauren Johnston and Bobbie Gilman of the Humane Society were two of the lucky winners.
VTC catered. Complementing the traditional tea sandwiches was a lovely variety of sweets. The Florentine cookies were wonderful, as were the lemon bars and scones, served with, again, the traditional clotted cream and lemon curd.
If you want to hobnob with Helen, you may contact her at helenthom232@yahoo.com.
This article appears in Jun 2-9, 2011.