Growing up I was definitely not a girl who enjoyed being in dresses, even through my teenage years I was commonly found in Jeans and a T-shirt or singlet. Since being involved in racing and being required to adhere to strict dress regulations as a race horse owner and member has brought out the Inner Fashionista in me, for those that follow on Facebook wait in anticipation on race days to see what my outfits are for the day.
So what is my secret???
Honestly, I don’t have one! I just simply dress in what I am comfortable in. Although what does help is being a member of the Australian Turf Club (ATC) we are sent an email ahead of race days providing information about the day and at times they will advise of a colour theme. Examples include when Winx was going for 21 straight the colour
theme was a “splash of blue”, Colgate Optic White Stakes Day (also won by Winx) was a “splash of red”, The Everest theme was “White with a splash of light blue”. So when I see these notifications I take this into consideration when planning my outfits, some race days history dictates the colours to be worn such as Derby Day traditionally when the Black and Whites come out.
I do have a process in how I decide on my outfit, usually I will start with the large piece of the outfit the dress! Depending on if there is a colour theme I will go through my wardrobe and look for those colours or I simply will just pick a dress I have not worn in a while or is perhaps new.
Then I look to my array of Fascinators, in this department I am pretty fortunate that two of my closest friends are milliners and regularly I attend their launches looking for the next season’s pieces, believe me I never go home with just 1 piece. All of my fascinators 
that are seen in my pictures are the brain-child of dear friend Cherie Ableson who is the creative spirit behind Fashion Eight Fascinators. Where this partnership works well is that Cherie knows my favourite colours well and what I will go for when designing her new ranges, however, there have been a few that were surprise purchases.
When matching a dress to the fascinators and vice versa again I take into consideration the colours to make sure that they go well together and that either the fascinator or the dress is the main focus.
Of course, accessories are just as important as the rest of the outfit- a must that I keep in my closest is shoes in both Black and Nude as these two colours go with absolutely anything, silver is another popular choice. Then jewellery wise I will either match the colour of the dress or keep it simple and go with crystal or zirconia. A clutch is a must (no handbags), I will also usually try to match this to the dress or go for a neutral black colour to not distract from the colour in the dress or the fascinator.
2017 has definitely been a year where I have gone out of my comfort zone a few times with colours that I have worn and also breaking my tradition of not wearing open shoes to the races. I never really like having my feet on show, however, one particular race day I decided to go bold with the colour (Hot Pink) and also for the first time ever on a race track for me I wore open toe shoes showing the feet, much to my surprise when the photo was posted on Facebook it was popular with followers.
Over the year I have worn some outfits that have made me feel more confident as the support of followers is what really makes me feel brave enough to do it. I recall Optic White Stakes Day and being very bold in wearing a Red Dress (never thought red was a good colour for me) however the outfit was a hit on Facebook with some even saying “your best outfit yet” and even my mum saying “If this is anything to go by, watch out spring”.
No by no means do I consider myself to be a stylist but going to the races is all about dressing for comfort and what you are comfortable in. I surely can’t wait for the racing of 2018 to come and to hopefully put together more popular outfits and not to end up on disaster fashion lists.
Horse Racing Life 