Hello this is Bill Cunningham.
At that notoriously windy corner
of 5th avenue and 23rd st
Early in the last century,
the police who directed traffic
from towers in the middle of 5th avenue
would often call out to the men
gathered there "Skidoo"
Because the men were there to see the wind
blow up the women's skirts
So it became 23 Skidoo.
Of course, skirts
have just about vanished from fashion
Pants replaced them
but now a new generation who have discovered
as you see all winter the wide brimmed
felt hats
Of course they have yet to learn
to hold on to them
in the wind
and it was fabulous to see unsuspecting women
come along
and suddenly these ferocious blasts
of wind nearly
knocked you over
they are grabbing their coats to keep
them down and trying to hold their hats
and little dogs
What a scene
and full of nostalgia
It was wonderful
but it emphasized to me
the fashion world
and its new intoxication with wide brimmed
felt hats
Here you have a vanity
and a conceit just unexpectedly hit
by these cyclones of wind
It is just a lovely portrait,
I thought, of New York
in mid-March