HATS, HEALTH & HARLEM: Evetta Petty's "Hat Day in the Sun" Celebrates 16 Years of Fashion, Giving Back and Community
By Harlem Westside Publishing News | September 2026
In Harlem, a hat has never been just something you put on your head. It can be fashion, culture, church tradition, self-expression—and, thanks to celebrated Harlem milliner Evetta Petty, even a tool for promoting better health.
On August 20, 2026, the sidewalk outside Harlem's Heaven at 2538 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at West 147th Street became the center of one of Harlem's most distinctive annual traditions: Hat Day in the Sun, hosted by Petty in partnership with The Headwear Association (THA).
The 2026 celebration marked the 16th year of Hat Day in the Sun in Harlem. Nearly 300 free sun-protection hats were distributed to members of the community, and according to The Headwear Association, the hats were gone in just two hours as people began lining up early.
More Than a Free Hat
The purpose behind Hat Day in the Sun goes far beyond fashion.
The Headwear Association describes the initiative as an annual public-awareness campaign designed to educate adults and children about the role appropriate headwear can play in protecting people from sun damage, premature aging and skin cancer. The association, founded in New York in 1908, promotes melanoma awareness through Hat Day in the Sun as part of its broader mission supporting the headwear industry.
Petty has made bringing that message directly to Harlem part of her own commitment to the neighborhood. In a previous interview, she explained that she brought the Headwear Association collaboration to Harlem because of her affection for the community and her belief in giving back. She said her mission isn't simply to sell beautiful hats, but also to educate people about wearing hats for sun protection.
That combination—fashion with a purpose—is what makes Hat Day in the Sun particularly fitting for Harlem.
Who Makes Hat Day in the Sun Possible?
The event is presented through The Headwear Association, with Harlem's Heaven Hats and Petty serving as the longtime Harlem host.
For the 2026 Harlem giveaway, The Headwear Association specifically credited its Platinum Sponsors and members for donating the sun-protection hats. Complimentary hats were provided by Dorfman Milano, Outback Trading Company, Wallaroo Hat Company, Bollman Hat Company, Hatco and Jennifer Hoertz Millinery.
The association's current Platinum Sponsor roster includes Bollman Hat Company, Broner Hats, Dorfman Milano, Hatco, Magid, San Diego Hat Company and Wallaroo Hat Company, while Young An Hat Company is listed as an international sponsor.
So the giveaway represents something larger than 300 hats. Manufacturers, designers, retailers, industry professionals, volunteers and residents come together around a simple idea: give people something beautiful that can also encourage them to protect themselves from the sun.
Silent Voices United Inc. Steps In to Serve
For Silent Voices United Inc., volunteering at the 2026 Hat Day in the Sun was another opportunity to do what grassroots organizations do best: show up and help make a community event work.
With hundreds of people arriving for a limited number of hats, organization was essential. Silent Voices United Inc. was happy to volunteer its time assisting Evetta Petty and the Hat Day in the Sun team with crowd control and managing the long lines, helping keep attendees organized as they waited for their opportunity to receive a hat.
SVUI volunteers also helped direct attendees to scan QR-code information sheets so they could follow Harlem's Heaven Hats, learn more about Petty's work, stay connected to the shop and discover more of the fabulous hats and designs available beyond the giveaway.
It was community service in its most practical form—not always glamorous, but necessary. When hundreds of people turn out, somebody has to help organize the line, answer questions, direct traffic and make sure information gets into people's hands.
For Silent Voices United, volunteering also meant supporting a fellow Harlem institution and a Black woman-owned creative business whose roots in the neighborhood stretch back more than three decades.
The Woman Under the Hat: Evetta Petty
Petty's story is as remarkable as many of the hats she creates.
She graduated from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, studying textiles and fashion marketing, and initially worked in corporate fashion. What began as making unusual hats for herself eventually attracted so much attention that Petty began selling them through weekend pop-ups in SoHo.
The response changed the direction of her life.
Petty has recalled that the hats sold quickly enough that she eventually left her corporate fashion career and became a full-time, largely self-taught milliner. After several years in SoHo, she moved her business uptown to Harlem, recognizing both the neighborhood's fashion culture and its strong churchgoing clientele—women for whom a distinctive hat could be an essential part of Sunday style.
Today, Harlem's Heaven describes itself as having operated in the historic neighborhood for more than 30 years and as the oldest hat shop uptown in New York City.
And Petty's Harlem storefront became much more than a neighborhood hat store.
From 147th Street to the World
Petty has traveled internationally—to places including Tokyo, Rome, Hong Kong and New Delhi—searching for unusual textiles and inspiration for her work. Her designs have appeared at the Kentucky Derby and Royal Ascot, and have been worn by notable figures including Patti LaBelle and chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Her work has appeared in major fashion publications including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Essence, Marie Claire, L'Officiel and The New York Times, as well as television productions including Power, The Equalizer, The Bold Type, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Married to Medicine and others.
Her hats have also crossed the line from fashion into art, appearing in museum exhibitions, including at New York's Museum of Arts and Design and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
One achievement is particularly historic: Petty became the first Black milliner invited into the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective in England, and one of her hats is held in its permanent collection.
In 2025, The Headwear Association named Evetta Petty and Harlem's Heaven Hats its Retailer of the Year, recognizing decades of work in the headwear industry. Industry coverage described Petty as the first Black woman to receive that particular honor.
A Harlem Institution That Gives Back
That international recognition makes what happens every summer on West 147th Street even more meaningful.
A designer whose creations have traveled to international fashion events, television sets, magazine pages and museum exhibitions continues to open her Harlem doors and give hundreds of hats away to her neighbors.
And Harlem responds.
The lines are long because the community knows the event isn't simply about getting something for free. Hat Day in the Sun has become a neighborhood tradition—part fashion celebration, part public-health campaign and part old-fashioned Harlem fellowship.
For Silent Voices United Inc., being there as volunteers was a privilege. Helping manage the crowd, organize the lines and connect residents through QR-code information to Evetta Petty and Harlem's Heaven Hats was one small way of supporting a woman who has spent decades building something extraordinary right here in Harlem.
Evetta Petty didn't simply build a hat shop. She built a Harlem institution.
And Hat Day in the Sun demonstrates what can happen when business, creativity, health education, philanthropy and community service meet on the same Harlem sidewalk.
From Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to Royal Ascot, the hats may travel around the world—but Harlem remains home.
Harlem's Heaven Hats is located at 2538 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. at West 147th Street, New York, NY 10039. The shop currently lists hours Tuesday through Saturday, noon–6 p.m., with special appointments available.
Explore Evetta Petty and Harlem's Heaven Hats | Learn about The Headwear Association and Hat Day in the Sun
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