What is Ladies Day? How did ladies day start? When did ladies day become official?

In the dictionary Ladies’ Day is defined as “a day on which women receive a special privilege (as attendance as guests at a meeting of a men’s club.)” However this meaning is not used so much anymore and is now mostly associated with the day that women are required to completely dress up and attend the races with the chance of being able to win “best dressed lady.” The first recorded use of the term Ladies Day was in 1823. It falls on the same day as most of the most important and biggest races, the Gold Cup at Ascot for example.

At different races, there are various prizes that are presented to the women who are voted the best dressed on the day and through research I found out that some women have been gifted cars 😯 ! In the office we had previously thought that if you won that you would have your picture taken and be featured in a magazine, we didn’t know that there were some really extravagant prize packages that were available.

Through researching about Ladies’ Day I also found a style guide on the Royal Ascot website that has been put together to allow women, and men as well, to get a better insight into how they can possibly dress for the day. I think the style guide is really informative and interesting because of how it goes into depth of what should/can be worn in the different enclosures.

“Ascot continues to recognise key trends in the ever-evolving world of fashion and in 2019 monochrome dressing, statement bows and tailoring for women are some of the spring/summer fashion highlights for the coming season. For gentlemen, mixed textures and bold colours come to the forefront of formal wear.”

Original Images: https://www.ascot.co.uk/what-to-wearssss/what-to-wear/what-to-wear

Fascinators are a form of millinery and were originally described as being “a form of lightweight knitted head-covering.” Hatinators is a new term that hasn’t been around for very long but they are quite similar to fascinators. The term fascinator came into use at the end of the 20th century. At one point in time, Marie Antoinette used ostrich feathers as a part of decoration to be worn in her hair and it then became popular within the royal courts within Europe.

Fascinators are mostly worn by women during weddings, horse racing and other occasion events. They are usually the focus point of women’s outfits on Ladies Day at the Races because of how some of them can be so over the top. However, in the Royal enclosure at Ascot, you are now not allowed to wear fascinators and hats that cover most of a woman’s head are preferred. I haven’t ever been to the races before, (although I definitely would like to go and experience it at some point!) but if I had the chance to go, then I think that I would prefer wearing a hatinator to a fascinator. I personally feel that you can do much more in terms of design with a hatinator.

One of the most famous milliners is Philip Treacy and he has created some of the most extravagant and talked about fascinators and hats. The photo underneath shows a few examples of his work from runways, weddings and Ascot too. These examples are also some of my favourite pieces that he’s ever done. I think that his work is really creative and unique and that they are pieces of art themselves.

Our Ladies Day Edit- Calypso in Apple Green (available in 5 colourways)