“What a joyous occasion!” Bill Cunningham said last year of the Fifth Avenue Easter parade, calling it “a carnival celebration of spring.” He explained to us that the parade, which gained popularity in the 1880s, started as an after-church fashion procession by the residents of Fifth Avenue. It evolved into an occasion for people to dress up in even more whimsical costumes with “centuries of style represented,” he said. He started photographing the parade in the 1950s and continued until 2016, two months before he died. His pictures capture the humor, oddities and imaginativeness of the event, where fanciful hats, brightly colored clothes and enthusiasts of all things vintage are found on every block. Here are some of his photos, unpublished until now, from the past six years.

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