AND ALL THAT
JAZZ
New York’s best-dressed flock biannually to the Jazz Age Lawn Party, a riot of big bands, chorus girls and sartorial ingenuity. WORDS LUCY WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS ROSE CALLAHAN
I
n the 21st century, there aren’t many places where an impeccably dressed stranger might ask if you’d like to join him to dance the Charleston. But then few places are like the biannual Jazz Age Lawn Party on New York City’s Governors Island. You’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d arrived in a time machine … but flappers and flaming youths are transported by modern-day ferry from Manhattan’s southernmost tip to an impressively authentic timewarp instigated by musician and bandleader Michael Arenella. There are no feather boas and fringed microdresses here (so 1950s), nor spats and trilbies (so Bugsy Malone); only the most authentic outfits fastidiously assembled by those who simply want to party like it’s 1929. Blankets, picnic baskets, crockery and freshly-cut flowers bed the dappled lawn, while guys and dolls line up for vintage photography, wet shaves, cocktails and food trucks. Now in its 14th year, the second Lawn Party this summer is August 24-25 – these photographs were taken in June – while Gilded Age diehards will be alert for Arenella’s 2020 dates: the 100th anniversary of Prohibition. jazzagelawnparty.com