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Fashion’s great race PREVIEW There’s an old-fashioned charm about dressing up for a day at the races, where tradition and elegance reign supreme. e. IMAGES AAP
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day at the races means two things: horses and fashion. Those who enjoy a flutter might spend all day studying the form guide and placing bets, but for others it’s simply a chance to while away a few hours admiring gorgeous hats and frocks. Fashions on the Field is a uniquely Australian event which arose out of our nation’s love of horse racing. According to the off cial Melbourne Cup Carnival website, the f rst reference to Fashions on the Field was in the November 1957 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, when a roundup of fashion at the 1957 Melbourne Cup was printed with the headline ‘In the Fashion Field for Flemington’. Over the next few years the term grew in popularity, and in 1962 the Victoria Racing Club held its f rst Fashions on the Field competition in an attempt to attract a larger female audience to the
previously male-dominated carnival. the The competition’s aim was to f nd “the smartest dressed women at the Carnivall hree within economic restraints”, with the three original categories including outf ts under er £30, over £50 and Most Elegant Hat. The prize pool was worth almost £7000 0 and included the grand prize of a Ford Falcon Futura. The event faltered in the 1970s due to poor economic conditions, however various fashion-related days continued over the decade, and the event came back ck into vogue in the early 1980s with an increased prize pool of $20,000. Categories became broader and sponsors more prominent (including New Idea, Qantas, Crown and naming ort sponsor Myer, which continues to support the event today). Last year the Myer Melbourne Cup Fashions on the Field event celebrated its 50th anniversary. SOURCE: melbournecup.com
Long line of celebrity judges Over the years, celebrity judges have included French model Christine Borge ( 1965), US fashion public ist and founder of the International Best Dressed List, Eleanor Lambert (1969), UK designer Zandra Rhodes (1979), Madame Nan Legeai, director from the House of Christian Dior (1985), and television personalities Eva L ongoria (2005) and Carson Kressley (2007). In 2001 the late Heath Ledger judged the inaugural Men’s Fashion on the Field event.
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