Colt status: behind the seams of racing fashion
• Live coverage: Melbourne Cup 2014 as it happens
In the spring fashion stakes, women who want to turn heads in the bookies ring dig as deep into their wallets as mug punters in the relentless hunt for a winner, and sometimes deeper.
The sartorially splendid women have good reason to go all out. Myer Fashions on the Field at Flemington, with the national final on Oaks Day, is Australia’s richest fashion prize.
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The victor leaves the track with the lion’s share of a $400,000 prize purse, including a luxury car, overseas holidays and bumper shopping sprees.
And with judges attuned to notice microscopic flaws, from a wrinkled hem to a puckered seam or smudged toenail polish, nothing less than impeccable attention to detail by entrants will yield a lucrative result.
But spending big on an individual outfit doesn’t necessarily lead to success.
In my role as a newspaper fashion editor and television presenter, I sat on the judging panel one Oaks Day when an entrant in top-to-toe Chanel tweed sashayed on to the stage.
As much as she looked like she’d stepped, picture perfect, from the pages of the September issue of Vogue, we cut her from the fashion pack.
The judges were unanimous that laying down a credit card in a French boutique did not equate to innate style (only supreme wealth).
We were looking for a girl who had tapped her fashion nous and searched far, and with variety, to create her look.
Some entrants have won in a $17 eBay dress, driving home in a new Lexus convertible, their homemade millinery quivering in the breeze as they sped up Epsom Road.
Others – the serial contestants – are known to purchase three outfits for each of the four days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival; the Derby, Cup, Oaks and Stakes.
The 12 ensembles cover any weather possibility – one for if the temperature is hot, another for a cold day and a third vintage option should old-school Sport of Kings style tickle their fancy.
Some contestants are known to spend up to $40,000 a year on clothing, accessories and millinery for spring racing.
Bespoke headpieces cost $350 to $1000 or more, but for a woman who considers race day dressing as more than a frivolous pursuit, it is unthinkable to buy a hat off-the-rack at Myer or David Jones.
However, these girls shrewdly turn over their investments, reselling the lot after the carnival and pump the funds back into their spring racing style kitty for the next season. So, if you are in the market for a barely worn Roland Mouret or Toni Maticevski frock, post-Cup is your best bet to acquire one on the cheap.
It’s a very expensive hobby, but one which has paid off for contestants over the decades, launching modelling careers and enhancing business opportunities.
Rosanna Faraci is a well-known Melbourne model whose Fashions on the Field victory in 2000, wearing a moss green blazer and matching pencil dress that was hemmed with lace to provide a peek of her lissom legs, resulted in more castings and a boost to her profile.
The first winner of Fashions on the Fields in 1962, Essendon teenager Margaret Wood, became one of Melbourne’s most in-demand models after captivating the judges in a loaned hat of frothy tulle and matching frock-coat bought with borrowed money.
She said potential clients thought she must be sought-after when she’d turn up to castings in her sparkling new Ford sedan, which was the major prize, and would promptly hire her.
And for those not attending the races to enter Fashions on the Field, there is something to be said about looking your finest for purely social purposes.
Many relationships – including radio star Andy Lee and supermodel Megan Gale – have been ignited after exchanging a wink and maybe a tip or two, for the sake of starting conversation, across a marquee in the toffy Birdcage, over the champagne-soaked Members Bar and through the throng on the public lawn.
Whether for one night only and over by Oaks eve, or an enduring partnership, the frisson of bottomless bubbly mixed with the thrill of the party has led to plenty of punting and pashes (present company included, to be frank).
A journalist friend who spent years covering the carnival calls it “love on the lawns” and it mostly has nothing with love.
However, flirting up a storm is so much more fun (and successful) when you have a feminine lace or net fascinator under which to peer beguilingly at your potential paramour.
Stepping out in your best fashion effort is the key to confidence at the social occasion of the year. That’s your best bet this racing season.
So, spend up, dress up and enjoy the Cup.