Who Was Best Dressed At Royal Ascot?
It’s the day out for every posh person in England – and the best day for millinery lovers in the whole calendar.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your Melbourne Cup outfit, this year’s Royal Ascot is the place to look. But who won the hat parade, and who fell flat?
The Queen only ever wears one sort of hat – she’s notoriously set in her ways about her public dress sense – but her pretty sweetheart-pink wide-brimmed number, with both ribbons and a pearly flower, was dead on-trend. Light brights are very in for summer, and can make even the palest complexion pop.
And on the second day, she made bookies miserable – but not by placing a bet herself. They take bets on what colour the Queen will wear, and she confounded all expectations by wearing several of her favourites at once: green, pink and purple. We think it looks fabulous.
We loved Indian film legend Aishwarya Rai’s black-and-white number. Monochrome is huge this season, and she played it coy with a vertical brim with black lace and white flower. Rai, called “the most beautiful woman in the world”, was in the news in India after she gave birth last year when commentators bullied her about her baby weight – but she looks stunning as ever to us.
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie also went for the monochrome trend, with futuristic ribbons and sleek lines. However, our best-dressed lady has to be opera singer Katherine Jenkins, who managed to make neon orange and pink classy and elegant in a beautiful, sky-skimming confection. Now that’s risky fashion paying off.
And, of course, you can’t beat Prince Charles’s classic top hat for the men. What other option is there, really?
Worst-dressed has to go to hat designer Tracy Rose, who wore a hat that defies description – but we’ll try our best. A metre-high cone of pink velvet apparently modelled after the Cheshire Cat, with its own thought bubble – thinking ‘Hats Hats Hats’.
Rose is famous for her over-the-top millinery: she’s turned up at Ascot and other public events wearing a surrealist purple chocolate box, a crown two metres across and abstract neon butterflies and swans.
What do you think of the hats on display?
Image: Katherine Jenkins, Aishwarya Rai and The Queen at Ascot.
Diana Vreeland’s Wardrobe Goes On Auction
She was the legendary editor of American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and one of the sharpest ladies in the business.
Now the formidable wardrobe of Diana Vreeland is up for auction in a sale called, fittingly, Passion for Fashion.
Not sure who Vreeland is? She was Anna Wintour times two – she edited Harpers Bazaar for nearly 30 years before moving seamlessly to Vogue, discovered Edie Campbell, organised exhibitions for the world-famous Met Museum in New York and was immortalised in the 60s classic film ‘Who Are You, Polly Magoo?
And her one-of-a-kind pieces are worth an exhibition all to themselves.
Among the pieces? The coat she wore to receive the Legion d’Honneur – she was born in France – in the 1970s, still with the ribbon on which the medal would have been attached.
And, if you have a fancy event to go to, why not splurge on the one-of-a-kind couture gown made just for her by Yves Saint Laurent? It was embroidered by the famous couture beading house Lesage, and made for the Met Ball in 1985.
The auction pieces are expected to go for less than other famous wardrobes – the couture gown is ‘only’ predicted to reach $AU4000.
Image: Diana Vreeland.
Marc Jacobs Once Called Cara Delevingne A Dwarf
Cara Delevingne is the current fashion ‘it’ girl – she parties with Prince Harry, is best mates with Rita Ora, has campaigns for every label worth mentioning and is famous for her boyish style.
But it was hard for her starting out – because of her 5’9″ stature, which is just a bit shorter than the usual catwalk 5’11”.
At one casting for the 2012/13 shows, her casting agent recalls, Marc Jacobs took one look at her and asked, “What’s that dwarf doing here?”
She didn’t get cast – and it was several more seasons before she managed to break the big time.
Fortunately, the casting agent, Katie Grand, felt so bad about the incident that, to make it up to Cara, she put her forward for every job she could – and the offers started rolling in.
So insults can pay in fashion: now Delevingne is modelling Jacobs’ exclusive T-shirt to raise money for cancer research, and all is forgiven.
Image: Cara and Marc Jacobs.
