Aintree Ladies Day - 1
LADIES DAY AT AINTREE - Part 1
THE BEST DRESSED !!
As you all know, I have declared April to be 'Wedding Month' here at Fashion Police Headquarters, and as part of the month-long celebrations, I will be posting several posts on the subject of what to wear to a wedding - royal or otherwise !!
I think everyone agrees that the most contentious decision in choosing your wedding attire - as a guest or as a member of the wedding party, and especially if you are either the bride or groom's mother - is whether or not to wear a hat...
It is often the case that whatever the bride thinks, the mother and often the prospective mother-in-law too, will be thinking the opposite !! The truth is that it is a very personal decision and usually one of self-confidence and personal style. People, as a rule don't wear dressy hats very often these days, and when the occasion demands that kind of dressing, some women simply relish the prospect of having the chance to really dress up for a change, and just as many other women throw up their hands in horror at the thought !!
If you are having either of these dilemmas - either you really want to wear a hat and think that the occasion demands it, but your daughter thinks that it's simply outdated and too old-fashioned for words, or she really wants you to look dressed up to the nines, but you'd really rather wear something you're comfortable in and can wear afterwards too...and you regard the expense of buying a dressy hat far too wasteful - then this piece is for you...
One of the best places to see how to wear a hat, and to get ideas for other options, and also, more importantly, how not to wear a hat, is undoubtedly Ladies Day at Aintree...
Aintree is one of the most important events in the British racing calendar, taking place over four days in April, culminating in Ladies Day on the Friday - when all the horses taking part are fillies, and all the girls dress up to the nines - and Saturday when the most infamous race of all, the Grand National takes place...
Ladies Day at Aintree, has got itself a bit of a reputation lately, and has appeared to become something of a notorious fashion free-for-all, not putting too fine a point on it, but I think the National Press's general low opinion of the girls who bother to dress up for the day is a teensy bit unfair - after all, they are mostly typical girls in the street, who are simply out for a fun day at the races, with their mates, and do not, in all honesty, expect to be photographed by the media ( much ) and then lampooned in the press and on the internet...and for the most part they do actually look nice - it's just that the worst outfits and the worst behaviour tends to get featured more because it is newsworthy...and let's face it, we all like a good laugh !!
So that will not stop me from doing my own share of the lampooning in Part 2, when I feature with a certain amount of glee, the absolute Worst Dressed...but for this first instalment, I will look at all the ladies who got it right, for one reason or another, and wore their hats with pride and behaved with grace and elegance.
This year, at Aintree, there were several very popular fashion trends on show - the first was a development of a small trend from last year...
MAXI-DRESSES
The full length maxi-dresses were simply everywhere...and they were, for the most part, very pretty multi-coloured prints, or very elegant neutral plains, and all very definitely wedding-type outfits rather than evening dresses...summery and fresh, they looked absolutely delightful...and for the most part, the best ones were worn with bigger picture hats - it seems that general Rule no 1 should be that a long dress demands a wider hat to balance it out...either that or a tiny fascinator, which picks up a hint of the colour in the hair...
They do look good don't they ?!! I like the fact that the girl below has chosen a very plain black dress with her enormous black hat adorned with the huge fountain of black and pink feathers - the hat is the feature which the plain dress sets off well...bear this in mind when choosing a hat to go with a particular dress - sometimes it's a good thing to choose the hat first !!
Here are some of the beautiful prints on show last Friday, and very pretty they all look too...as you can see, the small fascinator is also a good option with a multi-coloured print if the huge wide-brimmed hat is not for you !! All these maxis are being worn with a hint of vibrant colour being introduced into the hair to give the dress that extra dressed-up look...
Sometimes just a plain neutral hat looks just as good as a matching colour if that proves too difficult to find...and for some women, no hat at all is a good option with a long dress.
TROUSERS
The other big trend this Summer is for trousers and jumpsuits, and Aintree was no exception here either...there were several really good looks which involved trousers !!
As you can see, the ladies went for both the hat and the no hat options, and both looked good...
Several jumpsuits showed themselves, most of which I liked, especially the pink print one below...
So maxis and trousers were the major trends showing themselves on the race-course last week, but what about all the different types of hat ? Here are the main three categories - choose which you would like best !!
GREAT BIG PICTURE HATS...
These are not for the faint-hearted or the unpractised hat-wearer, and definitely not for anyone who is dithering over whether to wear a hat or not...these are most definitely the statement hats, and look their best when they are worn with panache and confidence !!
Oh - but aren't they fabulous ?!!...
This lady in red, on the left, is Faith Amondo, who was featured in my post from Aintree last year here :- wendylady2.livejournal.com/69541.html She wore an equally gorgeous purple outfit then, with matching hat and gloves - the whole works - you see, this is really how to do it with style and glamour !! Last year she got into the final four of the Matalan Style competition which, this year attracted over 1280 entries, but I haven't been able to find out whether she got anywhere this year, although I do know that she entered !! I'm guessing that she got into the finals...
The lady in red on the right is looking amazing too, with her short red dress - very simple in style to set off her perfectly fabulous hat !!
The biggest hats were worn the best with plain colours, to show them off, but it can work to wear them with a print - see the lady in the black, white and lime green print with the lime green hat - she looks great !!
MEDIUM - SIZED HATS...
By far the most popular type of hat was the medium sized hat, and a lot of these were the angled type which seems to perch magically unaided on the side of your head at a delightfully rakish angle...these hats are chock full of personality and elegance, and they're not nearly as difficult to wear as they look !!
As you can see, some of them come mounted onto a hard hair-band, which holds the hat exactly in the right place...these is a superb example, worn with black and white outfit and super-sized pearls...gorgeous !! This is Mimi Theobald who landed up in the finals of the Matalan Style competition - and rightly so !!
When wearing an angled hat, with a one-shouldered outfit, make sure that the hat is at a different angle than the dress or top - it is more balanced. Imagine what this outfit would look like if the top she is wearing went up to the other shoulder instead...it wouldn't look bad exactly, but it would look very different !!
The two ladies on the right are looking great in black and white - always a classic combination, and both with medium-sized hats...well, the left hand girl is actually wearing a very large hat, but because the brim is semi-transparent, it looks much more lightweight and smaller as a result !!
Sometimes a medium sized hat can be a very strong statement indeed as the next two pictures show...these two are enjoying wearing their hats very much, and both of them feature the most amazing upward swoop of feathers and net...I absolutely adore both of them !!
The next two ladies both went for a similar equestrian look, which given the event, was totally appropriate !! I love both complete outfits because they look so polished and elegant and at the same time original and unusual...the lady on the left is Lyn Macmilan who got into the finals of the Matalan Style Competition with her outfit and amazing topper-style hat...
Here's one lady, below left, who really went for it with her outfit, giving us a as a total finished look, with hat, bag, gloves, umbrella everything - all matching !!
I also like the pure simplicity of the outfit on the right - a simple black shift dress with a black saucer hat adorned with red and black stripy ribbons...
Here's Janine Brighouse, who was one of the finalists in the Matalan Style competition - she looked amazing in her bright pink outfit, set off with a medium-sized angled hat set on a hair-band...so, technically, this is a fascinator, but a very large one indeed !!
Here's Lystra Adams, the winner of the Matalan Style Competition, - doesn't she look amazing ?!! She wore a Vivienne Westwood dress and a slightly Homberg-style hat with the most outrageously large flowers made out of fabric and a long curving swoop of feathery goodness.....
This is what she won:-
• £5,000 cash
• An Almond Resorts Caribbean holiday for two
• Feature in a Matalan photo shoot
• £500 shopping spree in Matalan
• A £500 Totepool bet
• £500 worth of Benefit treats!
Wow - that's worth getting all gussied up for, isn't it ?!!
SMALL HATS AND FASCINATORS
These are getting to be by far the most popular type of hat being worn at this type of event, because they're also by the far the easiest type of hat to wear...they are small, but perfectly formed, brightly coloured and easy to match with any dress - and best of all, you can put them on and then pretty much forget them, as they are so lightweight it doesn't feel like you're wearing anything at all...
A fascinator is either mounted onto a comb, or a very thin hair-band and is often little more than a hair ornament really, but some of them have longer feathers and look more like a small hat...
This is Sophie Cullen, who is a bit of a Kate Middleton lookalike, isn't she ?!! Kate also wears fascinators a lot, as they dress up any outfit and still allow her hair to flow free - an excellent choice for the novice hat-wearer too...
Black and white is again, such a classic choice - you almost can't go wrong !!
Here are several groups of girls who have all gone for the small hats and fascinators, and they all look great !! Simple court shoes and the less clumpy platforms are best with these smart dresses, both long and short - and they are more comfortable to wear for long periods, and also are less likely to trip you up when walking on uneven grass...a good idea to remember this when shopping for that wedding outfit !!
Fabulous green and blue shades, worn with black and white ...
Oh, I loved this amazing peacock-feather pillbox hat - it looks amazing and she is clearly enjoying wearing it too...and being photographed in it !! Her chum is also looking really nice in her purple butterfly and feathers concoction...it took me a few minutes to spot that beautiful butterfly nestling in amongst the feathers !!
Even when girls could be pulled up by me for wearing and doing daft things, they sometimes get away with the worst fashion crimes because despite everything, they still look great !! These two below are certainly guilty of breaking a few fashion dos and don'ts...
Firstly, the girl on the left - I hate the two-tone hair - it's simply awful !! However, she gets away with it because overall, she looks amazing in every other respect - her dress is good and the beribboned shoes are interesting, and I like her tiny fascinator with its net flower perched on one side of her head !!
Secondly, the girl on the right - she is wearing a dress that is at least one size too small - see the unsightly creasing around her middle, and the satin is showing off exactly where her knickers come to - not a good look at all, but she actually looks great !! Her outfit has been so carefully matched that she gets away with it...she clearly has put a lot of thought into the whole ensemble that it's a shame that it just isn't the right size...
Although this outfit, below right, is a teensy bit too evening-ish for Aintree, I think, it's still a great look for a wedding that is perhaps going on into an evening party - something to consider if you are looking for an outfit that will take you right through the day into the evening too ...and actually, i suppose the same can be said for all three girls on the left too...
Here's a great little selection of outfits that are very brightly coloured - perfect for such a summery day, and excellent hat choices all round, i think !! I particularly like the bright turquoise side-angled saucer hat on the left, picking up the brightest colour in her dress, and the pretty maxi-dress on the right, worn with a tiny little bunch of red feathers...
Just look at this beautiful cornflower blue ensemble - how about this for a great wedding outfit ?!! This is Megan Crowder, who made it into the finals of that Matalan Style competition too...
Her little hat is perfect for the dress because it matches not only the colour, but also the swirling design of the dress edging - keep that kind of thing in mind when choosing your hat as well - the style must match the type of dress it's going with...
Here are two more darker blue outfits - I love the blue and white ensemble on the right - clean and bright, with natching bag and shoes - this is the one and only time when actually, the matchy-matchy principle is rather good !!
CLEVER HATS & FUNNY HATS
Of course, at Aintree, and also at Royal Ascot in June, the art of wearing hats is taken to the absolute extreme by all the ladies who rather like to have fun with it all, and so here are the funniest and the cleverest of the Aintree crop this year...
THE VINTAGE FLOWER POT
This potty little hat amused me no end - this is sort of a play on words - to whit, the flower-pot hat, which describes the shape, has been made to look like a 1950s chi-chi little flower pot with a decorative curly edging... marvellously batty !! This is Liz Shanahan, who entered the Matalan Style competition...
THE LIVERPOOL HAT
This was a design created to represent the city of Liverpool by milliner Hayley Marsden, who was commissioned to make the piece of headwear for Liverpool Day at Aintree, which was the Thursday befoe Ladies Day...she said it paid tribute to the city's Liver Birds.
"The hat is all about Liverpool people. I spoke to lots of people who love the city and love the Grand National. They gave me their treasured memories of Liverpool. These memories are engraved in the hat. As the Liver Birds reach their centenary year it was really important they were a part of the design."
Hayley's creation is made with gold and silver brushed aluminium and features knitted plaits made from horse hair. I think this is amazing, but unlikely to be worn anywhere else...
KRISPY KREME DELIGHT
Here is model Sonia Razzaque, who is sporting a truly amazing wide-brimmed hat, chock-full of mixed doughnuts - absolutely barking mad, but I love the concept of this...especially as I've been dieting since the end of January and would dearly love a doughnut or two !!
VINTAGE RECORD
Here's an inspired design, and one which just proves that you don't have to spend a fortune on a hat, but can create your very own one-off design using any old tat !! This is a vintage 78rpm record held on with a strand of hair threaded through the centre hole...
THE PATRIOTIC UNION FLAG
These next two are absolutely bang on the money here in the UK at the moment - they both catch the feeling of the year, what with a Royal Wedding in the offing, and the union flag absolutely everywhere you look, and Royal Wedding souvenirs coming out of our ears...
Fabulous stuff indeed !!
NO HATS AT ALL...
Now then, you will have noticed along the way, that several photographs further up feature ladies who have bare heads, and here below too, you will see that in this day and age, it is perfectly OK not to wear a hat at all if you really don't fancy it...even if you are the Bride or Groom's mother, what does it matter as long as you are smart and comfortable...
Toi my mind, there is frankly, nothing worse than someone who is not comfortable in what they're wearing, whether it is their high heeled shoes, or a hat that threatens to blow away with the slightest gust of wind...
Here's Coleen Rooney who is a regular at Aintree, looking lovely in her Azzedine Alaia dress, with no hat !! Likewise, the two girls beside her have no hats at all and they both look great !!
As this is Wedding Month here on the Fashion Police Files, I thought that this would be the appropriate post to repeat my rules for choosing a hat, written several years ago, but still just as relevant today...
This is for all of you who are about to choose a hat to wear to that important Wedding of the Year, whether it's the royal family or your own family ...it's still just as important to get it right !!
HOW TO CHOOSE A HAT SUCCESSFULLY !!
All these beautiful hats in this post are successful, because of one major factor in every case...and one which it would never be a great idea to venture out in any hat without...confidence !! If you ain't got it, and you have to wear a hat to some great occasion or other, then it would be a very good idea to get some...and fast !! Trust me, there is nothing worse than seeing someone wearing a great outfit, without confidence - you may as well stay home !!
How to get the confidence ... There are a few rules for hat wearing, and sticking to them will go a very long way to giving you the confidence to wear your hat with pride...yes, BE the centre of attention for once !!
1) Choose your hat with care, and take someone along whose opinion you trust...not all sales assistants will tell you the truth...( unless you are shopping in Peter Jones, of course...we believe that truth is a far better option than hard sales talk, and one which will get the customer to come back and shop with us again - so if it doesn't suit your face shape or doesn't quite match the dress, they will try and get you one that does !! )
2) Always take the outfit that will go with it along you, and try it on with the hat - no sales assistant should ever mind you using the fitting room for this.
3) Try and match the colour exactly - no half measures about this !! Either it matches or it doesn't, and if it matches exactly, it will look a million times better. All the pictures above work well because of the colour match, in every case !! No exceptions...
4) Choose a hat that suits your build well - there is nothing worse than being swamped by a huge hat, if you are anything under five foot three or a size ten, so leave the huge cartwheels to the huge beanpoles !! If you are, however, over five foot ten and only a size twelve, then congratulations - you have everything going for you, and probably shouldn't be needing my advice !!
5) Make sure it fits your head - this sounds like a complete no-brainer, but you would be surprised to find out how many ladies fall in love with a particular style and are determined to have that and no other, even though it teeters around on the top of their head, and will undoubtedly be lost to the first gust of wind...besides which, a badly fitting hat will cause you no end of trouble and shatter your confidence totally, when you should, by rights, be brimming with the stuff !!
6) Choose a hat that suits your face-shape - there are many instructions for suiting the shape of a hat to the shape of your face, but, in my opinion, you will know when you are happy in a hat, and your trusted friend that you have brought with you will tell you if it doesn't suit...If you have a round, oval, or heart-shaped face, then practically every shape of hat will suit, and therefore all you need to care about are all the other points !! If you have a long or square-shaped face, then some styles are better than others...
7) Try on loads...don't be content with the first one you see, as there are so many to choose from, but try and narrow it down to about three maximum for your final choice. Don't think that prices are going to be too high either - sure, you can part with over three hundred pounds for a beautiful hat, but you don't have to - they start from about twenty pounds and go up and up and up...the sky's the limit, frankly, but for one event, you don't really need that little £700 Phillip Treacy number, do you ? - or perhaps you do !!
My next post will be "Aintree Ladie's Day - part 2 : The Worst Dressed and the Worst Behaved !!"
It promises to be a proper little skank-fest, I can tell you that with the utmost certainty - those ladies of the North really know how to party...trust me on this !!
THE BEST DRESSED !!
As you all know, I have declared April to be 'Wedding Month' here at Fashion Police Headquarters, and as part of the month-long celebrations, I will be posting several posts on the subject of what to wear to a wedding - royal or otherwise !!
I think everyone agrees that the most contentious decision in choosing your wedding attire - as a guest or as a member of the wedding party, and especially if you are either the bride or groom's mother - is whether or not to wear a hat...
It is often the case that whatever the bride thinks, the mother and often the prospective mother-in-law too, will be thinking the opposite !! The truth is that it is a very personal decision and usually one of self-confidence and personal style. People, as a rule don't wear dressy hats very often these days, and when the occasion demands that kind of dressing, some women simply relish the prospect of having the chance to really dress up for a change, and just as many other women throw up their hands in horror at the thought !!
If you are having either of these dilemmas - either you really want to wear a hat and think that the occasion demands it, but your daughter thinks that it's simply outdated and too old-fashioned for words, or she really wants you to look dressed up to the nines, but you'd really rather wear something you're comfortable in and can wear afterwards too...and you regard the expense of buying a dressy hat far too wasteful - then this piece is for you...
One of the best places to see how to wear a hat, and to get ideas for other options, and also, more importantly, how not to wear a hat, is undoubtedly Ladies Day at Aintree...
Aintree is one of the most important events in the British racing calendar, taking place over four days in April, culminating in Ladies Day on the Friday - when all the horses taking part are fillies, and all the girls dress up to the nines - and Saturday when the most infamous race of all, the Grand National takes place...
Ladies Day at Aintree, has got itself a bit of a reputation lately, and has appeared to become something of a notorious fashion free-for-all, not putting too fine a point on it, but I think the National Press's general low opinion of the girls who bother to dress up for the day is a teensy bit unfair - after all, they are mostly typical girls in the street, who are simply out for a fun day at the races, with their mates, and do not, in all honesty, expect to be photographed by the media ( much ) and then lampooned in the press and on the internet...and for the most part they do actually look nice - it's just that the worst outfits and the worst behaviour tends to get featured more because it is newsworthy...and let's face it, we all like a good laugh !!
So that will not stop me from doing my own share of the lampooning in Part 2, when I feature with a certain amount of glee, the absolute Worst Dressed...but for this first instalment, I will look at all the ladies who got it right, for one reason or another, and wore their hats with pride and behaved with grace and elegance.
This year, at Aintree, there were several very popular fashion trends on show - the first was a development of a small trend from last year...
MAXI-DRESSES
The full length maxi-dresses were simply everywhere...and they were, for the most part, very pretty multi-coloured prints, or very elegant neutral plains, and all very definitely wedding-type outfits rather than evening dresses...summery and fresh, they looked absolutely delightful...and for the most part, the best ones were worn with bigger picture hats - it seems that general Rule no 1 should be that a long dress demands a wider hat to balance it out...either that or a tiny fascinator, which picks up a hint of the colour in the hair...
They do look good don't they ?!! I like the fact that the girl below has chosen a very plain black dress with her enormous black hat adorned with the huge fountain of black and pink feathers - the hat is the feature which the plain dress sets off well...bear this in mind when choosing a hat to go with a particular dress - sometimes it's a good thing to choose the hat first !!
Here are some of the beautiful prints on show last Friday, and very pretty they all look too...as you can see, the small fascinator is also a good option with a multi-coloured print if the huge wide-brimmed hat is not for you !! All these maxis are being worn with a hint of vibrant colour being introduced into the hair to give the dress that extra dressed-up look...
Sometimes just a plain neutral hat looks just as good as a matching colour if that proves too difficult to find...and for some women, no hat at all is a good option with a long dress.
TROUSERS
The other big trend this Summer is for trousers and jumpsuits, and Aintree was no exception here either...there were several really good looks which involved trousers !!
As you can see, the ladies went for both the hat and the no hat options, and both looked good...
Several jumpsuits showed themselves, most of which I liked, especially the pink print one below...
So maxis and trousers were the major trends showing themselves on the race-course last week, but what about all the different types of hat ? Here are the main three categories - choose which you would like best !!
GREAT BIG PICTURE HATS...
These are not for the faint-hearted or the unpractised hat-wearer, and definitely not for anyone who is dithering over whether to wear a hat or not...these are most definitely the statement hats, and look their best when they are worn with panache and confidence !!
Oh - but aren't they fabulous ?!!...
This lady in red, on the left, is Faith Amondo, who was featured in my post from Aintree last year here :- wendylady2.livejournal.com/69541.html She wore an equally gorgeous purple outfit then, with matching hat and gloves - the whole works - you see, this is really how to do it with style and glamour !! Last year she got into the final four of the Matalan Style competition which, this year attracted over 1280 entries, but I haven't been able to find out whether she got anywhere this year, although I do know that she entered !! I'm guessing that she got into the finals...
The lady in red on the right is looking amazing too, with her short red dress - very simple in style to set off her perfectly fabulous hat !!
The biggest hats were worn the best with plain colours, to show them off, but it can work to wear them with a print - see the lady in the black, white and lime green print with the lime green hat - she looks great !!
MEDIUM - SIZED HATS...
By far the most popular type of hat was the medium sized hat, and a lot of these were the angled type which seems to perch magically unaided on the side of your head at a delightfully rakish angle...these hats are chock full of personality and elegance, and they're not nearly as difficult to wear as they look !!
As you can see, some of them come mounted onto a hard hair-band, which holds the hat exactly in the right place...these is a superb example, worn with black and white outfit and super-sized pearls...gorgeous !! This is Mimi Theobald who landed up in the finals of the Matalan Style competition - and rightly so !!
When wearing an angled hat, with a one-shouldered outfit, make sure that the hat is at a different angle than the dress or top - it is more balanced. Imagine what this outfit would look like if the top she is wearing went up to the other shoulder instead...it wouldn't look bad exactly, but it would look very different !!
The two ladies on the right are looking great in black and white - always a classic combination, and both with medium-sized hats...well, the left hand girl is actually wearing a very large hat, but because the brim is semi-transparent, it looks much more lightweight and smaller as a result !!
Sometimes a medium sized hat can be a very strong statement indeed as the next two pictures show...these two are enjoying wearing their hats very much, and both of them feature the most amazing upward swoop of feathers and net...I absolutely adore both of them !!
The next two ladies both went for a similar equestrian look, which given the event, was totally appropriate !! I love both complete outfits because they look so polished and elegant and at the same time original and unusual...the lady on the left is Lyn Macmilan who got into the finals of the Matalan Style Competition with her outfit and amazing topper-style hat...
Here's one lady, below left, who really went for it with her outfit, giving us a as a total finished look, with hat, bag, gloves, umbrella everything - all matching !!
I also like the pure simplicity of the outfit on the right - a simple black shift dress with a black saucer hat adorned with red and black stripy ribbons...
Here's Janine Brighouse, who was one of the finalists in the Matalan Style competition - she looked amazing in her bright pink outfit, set off with a medium-sized angled hat set on a hair-band...so, technically, this is a fascinator, but a very large one indeed !!
Here's Lystra Adams, the winner of the Matalan Style Competition, - doesn't she look amazing ?!! She wore a Vivienne Westwood dress and a slightly Homberg-style hat with the most outrageously large flowers made out of fabric and a long curving swoop of feathery goodness.....
This is what she won:-
• £5,000 cash
• An Almond Resorts Caribbean holiday for two
• Feature in a Matalan photo shoot
• £500 shopping spree in Matalan
• A £500 Totepool bet
• £500 worth of Benefit treats!
Wow - that's worth getting all gussied up for, isn't it ?!!
SMALL HATS AND FASCINATORS
These are getting to be by far the most popular type of hat being worn at this type of event, because they're also by the far the easiest type of hat to wear...they are small, but perfectly formed, brightly coloured and easy to match with any dress - and best of all, you can put them on and then pretty much forget them, as they are so lightweight it doesn't feel like you're wearing anything at all...
A fascinator is either mounted onto a comb, or a very thin hair-band and is often little more than a hair ornament really, but some of them have longer feathers and look more like a small hat...
This is Sophie Cullen, who is a bit of a Kate Middleton lookalike, isn't she ?!! Kate also wears fascinators a lot, as they dress up any outfit and still allow her hair to flow free - an excellent choice for the novice hat-wearer too...
Black and white is again, such a classic choice - you almost can't go wrong !!
Here are several groups of girls who have all gone for the small hats and fascinators, and they all look great !! Simple court shoes and the less clumpy platforms are best with these smart dresses, both long and short - and they are more comfortable to wear for long periods, and also are less likely to trip you up when walking on uneven grass...a good idea to remember this when shopping for that wedding outfit !!
Fabulous green and blue shades, worn with black and white ...
Oh, I loved this amazing peacock-feather pillbox hat - it looks amazing and she is clearly enjoying wearing it too...and being photographed in it !! Her chum is also looking really nice in her purple butterfly and feathers concoction...it took me a few minutes to spot that beautiful butterfly nestling in amongst the feathers !!
Even when girls could be pulled up by me for wearing and doing daft things, they sometimes get away with the worst fashion crimes because despite everything, they still look great !! These two below are certainly guilty of breaking a few fashion dos and don'ts...
Firstly, the girl on the left - I hate the two-tone hair - it's simply awful !! However, she gets away with it because overall, she looks amazing in every other respect - her dress is good and the beribboned shoes are interesting, and I like her tiny fascinator with its net flower perched on one side of her head !!
Secondly, the girl on the right - she is wearing a dress that is at least one size too small - see the unsightly creasing around her middle, and the satin is showing off exactly where her knickers come to - not a good look at all, but she actually looks great !! Her outfit has been so carefully matched that she gets away with it...she clearly has put a lot of thought into the whole ensemble that it's a shame that it just isn't the right size...
Although this outfit, below right, is a teensy bit too evening-ish for Aintree, I think, it's still a great look for a wedding that is perhaps going on into an evening party - something to consider if you are looking for an outfit that will take you right through the day into the evening too ...and actually, i suppose the same can be said for all three girls on the left too...
Here's a great little selection of outfits that are very brightly coloured - perfect for such a summery day, and excellent hat choices all round, i think !! I particularly like the bright turquoise side-angled saucer hat on the left, picking up the brightest colour in her dress, and the pretty maxi-dress on the right, worn with a tiny little bunch of red feathers...
Just look at this beautiful cornflower blue ensemble - how about this for a great wedding outfit ?!! This is Megan Crowder, who made it into the finals of that Matalan Style competition too...
Her little hat is perfect for the dress because it matches not only the colour, but also the swirling design of the dress edging - keep that kind of thing in mind when choosing your hat as well - the style must match the type of dress it's going with...
Here are two more darker blue outfits - I love the blue and white ensemble on the right - clean and bright, with natching bag and shoes - this is the one and only time when actually, the matchy-matchy principle is rather good !!
CLEVER HATS & FUNNY HATS
Of course, at Aintree, and also at Royal Ascot in June, the art of wearing hats is taken to the absolute extreme by all the ladies who rather like to have fun with it all, and so here are the funniest and the cleverest of the Aintree crop this year...
THE VINTAGE FLOWER POT
This potty little hat amused me no end - this is sort of a play on words - to whit, the flower-pot hat, which describes the shape, has been made to look like a 1950s chi-chi little flower pot with a decorative curly edging... marvellously batty !! This is Liz Shanahan, who entered the Matalan Style competition...
THE LIVERPOOL HAT
This was a design created to represent the city of Liverpool by milliner Hayley Marsden, who was commissioned to make the piece of headwear for Liverpool Day at Aintree, which was the Thursday befoe Ladies Day...she said it paid tribute to the city's Liver Birds.
"The hat is all about Liverpool people. I spoke to lots of people who love the city and love the Grand National. They gave me their treasured memories of Liverpool. These memories are engraved in the hat. As the Liver Birds reach their centenary year it was really important they were a part of the design."
Hayley's creation is made with gold and silver brushed aluminium and features knitted plaits made from horse hair. I think this is amazing, but unlikely to be worn anywhere else...
KRISPY KREME DELIGHT
Here is model Sonia Razzaque, who is sporting a truly amazing wide-brimmed hat, chock-full of mixed doughnuts - absolutely barking mad, but I love the concept of this...especially as I've been dieting since the end of January and would dearly love a doughnut or two !!
VINTAGE RECORD
Here's an inspired design, and one which just proves that you don't have to spend a fortune on a hat, but can create your very own one-off design using any old tat !! This is a vintage 78rpm record held on with a strand of hair threaded through the centre hole...
THE PATRIOTIC UNION FLAG
These next two are absolutely bang on the money here in the UK at the moment - they both catch the feeling of the year, what with a Royal Wedding in the offing, and the union flag absolutely everywhere you look, and Royal Wedding souvenirs coming out of our ears...
Fabulous stuff indeed !!
NO HATS AT ALL...
Now then, you will have noticed along the way, that several photographs further up feature ladies who have bare heads, and here below too, you will see that in this day and age, it is perfectly OK not to wear a hat at all if you really don't fancy it...even if you are the Bride or Groom's mother, what does it matter as long as you are smart and comfortable...
Toi my mind, there is frankly, nothing worse than someone who is not comfortable in what they're wearing, whether it is their high heeled shoes, or a hat that threatens to blow away with the slightest gust of wind...
Here's Coleen Rooney who is a regular at Aintree, looking lovely in her Azzedine Alaia dress, with no hat !! Likewise, the two girls beside her have no hats at all and they both look great !!
As this is Wedding Month here on the Fashion Police Files, I thought that this would be the appropriate post to repeat my rules for choosing a hat, written several years ago, but still just as relevant today...
This is for all of you who are about to choose a hat to wear to that important Wedding of the Year, whether it's the royal family or your own family ...it's still just as important to get it right !!
HOW TO CHOOSE A HAT SUCCESSFULLY !!
All these beautiful hats in this post are successful, because of one major factor in every case...and one which it would never be a great idea to venture out in any hat without...confidence !! If you ain't got it, and you have to wear a hat to some great occasion or other, then it would be a very good idea to get some...and fast !! Trust me, there is nothing worse than seeing someone wearing a great outfit, without confidence - you may as well stay home !!
How to get the confidence ... There are a few rules for hat wearing, and sticking to them will go a very long way to giving you the confidence to wear your hat with pride...yes, BE the centre of attention for once !!
1) Choose your hat with care, and take someone along whose opinion you trust...not all sales assistants will tell you the truth...( unless you are shopping in Peter Jones, of course...we believe that truth is a far better option than hard sales talk, and one which will get the customer to come back and shop with us again - so if it doesn't suit your face shape or doesn't quite match the dress, they will try and get you one that does !! )
2) Always take the outfit that will go with it along you, and try it on with the hat - no sales assistant should ever mind you using the fitting room for this.
3) Try and match the colour exactly - no half measures about this !! Either it matches or it doesn't, and if it matches exactly, it will look a million times better. All the pictures above work well because of the colour match, in every case !! No exceptions...
4) Choose a hat that suits your build well - there is nothing worse than being swamped by a huge hat, if you are anything under five foot three or a size ten, so leave the huge cartwheels to the huge beanpoles !! If you are, however, over five foot ten and only a size twelve, then congratulations - you have everything going for you, and probably shouldn't be needing my advice !!
5) Make sure it fits your head - this sounds like a complete no-brainer, but you would be surprised to find out how many ladies fall in love with a particular style and are determined to have that and no other, even though it teeters around on the top of their head, and will undoubtedly be lost to the first gust of wind...besides which, a badly fitting hat will cause you no end of trouble and shatter your confidence totally, when you should, by rights, be brimming with the stuff !!
6) Choose a hat that suits your face-shape - there are many instructions for suiting the shape of a hat to the shape of your face, but, in my opinion, you will know when you are happy in a hat, and your trusted friend that you have brought with you will tell you if it doesn't suit...If you have a round, oval, or heart-shaped face, then practically every shape of hat will suit, and therefore all you need to care about are all the other points !! If you have a long or square-shaped face, then some styles are better than others...
7) Try on loads...don't be content with the first one you see, as there are so many to choose from, but try and narrow it down to about three maximum for your final choice. Don't think that prices are going to be too high either - sure, you can part with over three hundred pounds for a beautiful hat, but you don't have to - they start from about twenty pounds and go up and up and up...the sky's the limit, frankly, but for one event, you don't really need that little £700 Phillip Treacy number, do you ? - or perhaps you do !!
My next post will be "Aintree Ladie's Day - part 2 : The Worst Dressed and the Worst Behaved !!"
It promises to be a proper little skank-fest, I can tell you that with the utmost certainty - those ladies of the North really know how to party...trust me on this !!
Related Articles:
-
AINTREE LADIES DAY... COME AND JOIN THE FUN !! Friday 13th was Ladies Day at Aintree - the day... Read Full Story » -
LADIES DAY AT AINTREE : Part 2WHAT NOT TO WEAR (AND HOW NOT TO BEHAVE !!) How to behave and how... Read Full Story » -
Our second wedding of the weekend found us at a wedding venue we have never visited before (a... Read Full Story » -
Emma Johnson meets the man tasked with feeding 150,000 racegoers at the Grand National. RICHARD... Read Full Story » -
AINTREE LADIES DAY 2010 PART 1 - THE BEST DRESSED !! Friday was the second day of the biggest... Read Full Story »
Comments
