OCEAN CITY — The Curran family of Atlantic City, veterans of decades of fashion parades, put on a unified front in their green and black outfits. Jersey girl Lila Philion, visiting from Florida, was colorful from head to toe, starting with the plastic eggs clipped into her hair.
They were among a crowd of snazzy dressers who came out for the Easter Sunday Fashion Stroll at the Music Pier on the Ocean City boardwalk.
A large crowd gathered at noon to listen and sing along with the Philly Keys, dueling pianos and vocalists who played a range of popular songs. Many stayed to watch the Fashion Stroll at 1 p.m.
Some of the stroll categories were chock-a-block with entrants, but some, like the teen male, had only one — Michael Szymczak of Marlton, who was pulled from the audience but happily showed off his colorful Crocs footwear.
Aleigha Montgomery of Levittown, Pa., in a pretty blue dress, was awarded the best-dressed teen girl.
Earning the award for best-dressed woman was Philion, now living in Orlando, Fla. She was all-Easter from the plastic eggs in her hair to a colorful egg-patterned jumpsuit, a little stuffed bunny in her pocket and an Easter basket with more eggs and a yellow Teletubbie that not only matched her jumpsuit, but her sneakers as well.
“I would say this is probably a first,” she said when asked how often she put eggs in her hair. “I mean, why not get a free prize for dressing like a weirdo anyway?”
Pointing out the jumpsuit from United Kingdom outfitter Lucy & Yak and her color-coordinated shoes, she laughed, “I don’t play no games.”
Alice, her stepdaughter, was not similarly garbed.
“We just came up here to visit family and I didn’t know this was going to happen, so I didn’t have anything Eastery,” she said.
Alice noted there was only one Teletubbie to go around, but there were spare eggs if she were so inclined.
“I just didn’t want to put them in my hair,” she said, laughing.
Philion and her significantly dressed other, Bruno Zacchini, wearing reptile-patterned pants, took the prize for best-dressed couple.
The best-dressed gentleman, from among a large field of candidates, was Vic Maggitti of Berwyn, Pa., all natty in a suit he said he wears for church at 7 a.m. each Sunday.
Little Bianca Leonard of Haddonfield won for most unusual bonnet and Linda McKeever of Fox Chase, Pa., won for best Easter bonnet.
All of the children in the categories from newborn to 12 years old got an award.
Junior Miss Ocean City Antonella DiAntonio was with Little Miss Ocean City Lyla Clark and Miss Ocean City Grace Oves. They were dressed to the nines as they prepared to judge the competitors.
“I’m so excited to be with everyone on the holiday and the weather is so beautiful and I’m super excited to see everyone,” DiAntonio said.
Asked if she liked dressing up, she left no doubt. “Of course. I love it. It’s actually my favorite side hobby ever,” the Ocean City High School freshman said, laughing.
“I never even have a chance to dress up, so getting to be here with Grace and Antonella and getting to show off our cute outfits is so much fun,” said Clark, a seventh-grade student at Ocean City Intermediate School.
Although she wore an evening gown on stage when she won the Little Miss title last summer, she admitted that is not her everyday attire. “I usually just wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt,” Clark said, smiling.
“I love getting ready,” Oves said about her favorite aspect of dressing up. “I took about four hours this morning. I just take my time, putting on a show. I just love getting ready.”
So who is the audience for the show? Just her.
“I wait to show my family until I’m all done.”
None of her family members knows the preparation that goes into her glam looks. “They have no idea,” Oves said, laughing, “especially my dad. He has no idea.”
Matriarch Kathleen Curran was with her son, two daughters and two granddaughters, all part of a family tradition.
“When I was little my parents put us in the Easter Parade in Atlantic City and then Ocean City,” she said. Her own little girls were included when they were one and two years old.
“We have been doing this for over 31 years now and they all get excited every year trying to pick out a new color or a new theme,” she said.
“It was my oldest daughter’s turn to select this year and she picked the outfits,” Curran said.
“This is what I found at the best price and it fit,” daughter Devon Bowman laughed when asked how she came to choose the green and black this year. “It felt like a great Easter idea and there was enough for all of us”
Bowman loves the tradition.
“I just like hanging out with my family doing this thing now 30-something years,” she said. “It’s great day to celebrate with them and then go have some Kohr Bros. afterwards. Not before, so I don’t get yelled at by my mom and mess up my outfit.”
Granddaughter Bella Curran personalized her green and black outfit with a pointy metal spike collar and ribbons in her hair.
“She is accessorizing in her own unique style today,” her grandmother said, admitting a spike collar wasn’t in her ensemble 30 years ago. “No,” she laughed, “but it was a much-looked-forward-to addition.”
The littlest member of the clan, eight-month-old Wynter Bowman, had her own tiny little dress and cute shoes.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years with them,” said Chris Curran, Kathleen’s son. “I just come and help them out and now I’m part of the gang. It’s a fun time for them, which makes it a fun time for me.”
Every year he vows it will be his last dressing up, but he’s been vowing that for 20 years. Chris admitted he enjoys it and adds that besides, “I get free food.”
His wife, Christina, and son, Nikita, also were there.
Kahthleen Curran said part of what makes the day special is the energy of all the people who come out to cheer everyone on. “It’s so family-oriented here in Ocean City,” she said.
– PHOTOS and STORY By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
