For Easter, the hats have it

As Margie Billups sat in her basement shop in Amityville surrounded by hats of all shapes and sizes -- adorned with feathers and bows, rhinestones and ribbons -- she still hadn't decided which she'd wear to Easter services.

She's been too busy.

Many churchgoers Sunday will be wearing new, fancy hats, a tradition some say is based partly on the newness of spring and emergence from the austerity of Lent.

Billups, who's been making festive hats for nearly a quarter-century, is doing her part: Dozens of Long Island women will be wearing her creations.

"You don't feel dressed up without a hat," she said Friday at her small, in-home store. "Without a hat, you don't feel complete."

"When I was growing up, you wore your best. Best hat. Best shoes. Everything was new," said Barbara Douglas-Robinson, 45, of Massapequa, who bought a hat to go with a new purple dress with silver sequins.

She's accumulated 40 hats over the years, she said.

"My mom said, 'Don't you have all those hats in the closet?' I said, 'Mom, I already wore them.' "

Billups, 70, owned a store for nearly 20 years in downtown Amityville before moving to her basement two years ago.

The hats arrive plain and unadorned, like a fresh canvas. Then she goes to work, wielding a sewing machine, glue and a dizzying assortment of decorations.

"I work wherever I can," she said. "Sometimes it's on the dining table."

Billups said she decorated about 100 hats for this Easter. Customers trying on elaborate hats Friday said they were looking for a certain "hat-itude," as one put it.

"That's a now-why-do-you-have-to-sit-in-front-of-me-with-that-hat?" a shopper said as Douglas-Robinson modeled a tall silver one with a large bow in front.

Billups approved.

"It makes the silver on the dress pop," she said.

But it's not just about style, said Douglas-Robinson, who intends to sport her new hat today at The Redeemed Christian Church of God Chapel of New Songs in Huntington Station.

"I believe you should cover your head [in church]," she said.

As for all the other women in their fancy hats, Douglas-Robinson insists she's not out to top anyone.

"You just know you look good, and that's it."