Spring Racing Carnival : Fashions on the Field
By Ines Mendoza
Spring has sprung as they say in the classics and the homes
of the less educated, which can mean only one thing : spending money on
horses and clothes on women who sometimes look like horses (I'm looking
at you Sarah Jessica Parker).
There is simply no better time to be alive
in Australia than during the Spring Racing Carnival.
It's
the only time of the year where you can skip work without your boss
questioning whether or not your "flu like symptoms" have anything to do
with the coinciding race day you are attending.
It's the only
time of the year in which people don't yell "Get off the road you crazy
drunk!" when you are full to the eyelids with champagne before noon.
It's
the only time of the year where people expect, nay demand, that women
wear shoes for no longer that 20 minutes on their actual feet in favour
of holding them in their hands.
It's pretty damn great.
Although
racing in Australia is held every day except Good Friday and Christmas
Day (let's face it, we are a country of degenerate gamblers, alcoholics
and convicts and we happily embrace it), the Group One races in
Melbourne are held almost exclusively throughout the Spring Racing
Carnival, which is traditionally placed between the football and
cricket seasons.
The Spring Carnival is made up of meetings
held by the metropolitan clubs, where Group One races take place, and
also at Geelong. With numerous group races during August and September
at metropolitan tracks Flemington, Caulfield and Moonee Valley, the
Spring Carnival officially starts on the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes Day at
Flemington, one week after the AFL Grand Final.
The Spring Racing
Carnival officially ends on the final day of the Sandown Carnival, Eclipse
Stakes day.
Sure,
losing money - that could have been used to save starving children in
Africa - on a horse simply because it has a pretty name is as important
to the season as anything else... but at the end of the day, for guys
and gals, it's all about fashions on the field.
The VRC's
Fashions on the Field was instigated in 1962, in which a contest was
formed as part of the "Fashions, Flowers and Favourites" celebration
and was an attempt to "woo more women to the races". Obviously, up
until then, it was drunken men smoking cigars and laughing at "wooly
woofters".
The competition was launched with the object of
"finding the smartest dressed women at the Carnival within economic
restraints" and would be entrants were enticed with a generous prize
pool of goods and cash to the value of almost £7,000. There were
initially two categories for ladies' outfits - one for those that had
cost no more than £30, and one for those worth more than £50. First
Prize was a return sea trip for two to the UK, valued at £1,400.
Fashions
on the Field captured the imagination of the public and was covered
extensively in the press of the day and grew rapidly in popularity.
Things
began to heat up and by the 1980s the competition was open to people in
both the public and members' areas and would-be contestants were
advised that they could be required to produce invoices and sign
statutory declarations verifying the cost of their outfits thanks to a
prize pool of more than $20,000 in four categories: outfits costing
less than $250; outfits costing between $250 and $500; outfits over
$500 and the best-dressed couple.
These days, Fashions on the
Field at Flemington is not only an undisputed institution of Melbourne
Cup Week and a pinnacle event of the Spring Racing Carnival, it has
established its place as Australia's largest and most prestigious
outdoor fashion event.
Fashions on the Field has undergone many
developments - while categories may have been modified over the years
and celebrity judges & sponsors have come and gone, the basic
premise of the Fashions on the Field at Flemington competition remains
the same – an opportunity for the fashion industry to showcase its
wares and for women and now men to indulge in their 'passion for
fashion'.
So how can you win?
Model Jess Hart suggests
that "More is more" when it comes to the races and that "the dress code
is about being ladylike, including great accessories and an
ultra-contemporary hat".
Ah, yes, the silly hats! Nothing says fashion
than headwear that even a prehistoric bird during mating season would laugh
at.
Leona
Edmiston, a Fashion Designer herself, smartly suggests "Ladylike
silhouettes with a little bit of a wink – sweet but sexy!", while
Fashion Designer Toni Maticevski urges ladies to "Go easy on the spray
on tanning" claiming that it's "never attractive – especially around
the feet and hands".
Me thinks Toni hasn't ever seen the beauty of the
sun glowing off an Oompa Loompa's skin before.
Look,
Fashion is Fashion, it's never going to change. Look amazing on the day
to prospective partners and the rewards will come your way.
Beauty is
only skin deep, but the pockets of winning gamblers are even deeper!
|
