Racing Style Exhibition - Opens Oct. 15th 2012
- Wednesday, 10 October 2012 10:47
Presented by the Australian Racing Museum, Racing Style: 50 Years of Fashions on the Field is an exhibition celebrating Australian racing fashion that is set to open in the National Sports Museum on October 15, 2012.
The Fashions on the Field competition was created in 1962 to attract more women to the races.
Since then, it has become Australia’s largest and most prestigious outdoor fashion event and an iconic part of our cultural and sporting calendar.
Celebrities, designers and fashion enthusiasts flock to the Melbourne Cup Carnival every year to see the incredible creations dreamt up by racegoers and designers with a contagious passion for fashion.
The evolution of Australian racewear can be traced through outfits worn by Fashions on the Field competitors.
From vintage classics to daring designs, neutral palettes to bright colours, haute couture to thriftily recycled fabrics, these outfits capture the unique flavour of Australian racing style.
Fashions on the Field - A Timeline
1960s
• The Victoria Racing Club launches the Fashions on the Field competition (1962).
• International celebrity judges become a fixture of the competition and include Jean Shrimpton and French model Christine Borge (1965), acclaimed fashion model Baroness Fiona von Thyssen (1966), US Fashion publicist and founder of New York Fashion Week Eleanor Lambert (1969).
• The competition’s presentation ceremony is first televised as a “gala event” (1966).
1970s
• Fashions on the Field is replaced by smaller-scale fashion contests after the 1971 competition because of the difficulty in attracting sponsorship during the poor economic climate.
• The Victoria Racing Club’s Fashion Contest is introduced for women who have won contests at race meetings around Australia during the 1972-73 racing season.
• The “Ten Elegant Ladies” contest is held by the Victoria Racing Club (1976 and 1977).
• The “Myer Girl of the Day” competition is held at Flemington Racecourse (1979).
1980s
• The Victoria Racing Club re-launches Fashions on the Field (1981).
• Myer begins its relationship with Fashions on the Field as the major competition sponsor (1983).
• The prize pool increases to over $30,000.
• The number of entrants increases from under 50 a day (1983) to over 200 a day (1986).
• The original price-restricted categories are eliminated and replaced with broader categories.
1990s
• The Victoria Racing Club introduces the “Classic Racewear” and” Young Contemporary Fashion” categories to Fashions on the Field.
• The prize pool exceeds $100,000 for the first time.
• The competition’s categories are divided into “Classic Racewear” and “Classic Hats”.
2000s
• The Victoria Racing Club creates a National Fashions on the Field competition (2005). Finals are held in each state and winners travel to Flemington Racecourse to compete for the National title.
• Melbourne Cup Carnival attendances soar to over 300,000 each year.
• Celebrity guests including Sarah Jessica Parker and Eva Longoria wow raceday crowds.
• The Victoria Racing Club introduces invitation-only Millinery and Design Awards.
• The judging criteria still demands appropriate racewear, but the definition becomes less conservative in line with the times.
