Royal enclosure at Royal Ascot

This blog post is so long overdue. I have had so many of your asking me for pictures from my big day out.

I was so so excited to be invited to Royal Ascot. In fact, the invitation was from last year, but we all know covid happened.

So this year I it was such a wait to see if it would go ahead. The the date was a couple of days before Boris had announced the lifting of the restrictions. Anyway, with 3 weeks to go, we were told it would go ahead with very limited numbers 12.000 instead of 60.000. It was also announced it would be classified as a test event so everybody had to test lateral flow and PCR before and after the event.

I was so excited when I knew it definitely was going ahead. But also sad for all the weddings that didn’t go ahead that week due to restrictions.

Dress for Royal Ascot

Then the next issue… the outfit! I obviously had to have a stunning outfit, for attending. The dress code when you are in the Royal Enclosure is pretty strict. Men have to wear morning suits and top hats. Women are asked to wear dresses of modest length. Straps an inch or wider, Hat is obligatory… obviously. Any accessories like any jacket or pashmina must be a part of your outfit.

It is an absolute joy walking around there to spot celebrities and beautiful outfits, I like that nearly as much as the horses.

Struggling always to pick something for me to wear, as I feel I have too much choice. I had recently worked in this stunning pure silk satin chiffon, it was so lovely and light and had a light shine on it.  The silk is absolutely lovely to wear, so picking it for my own dress is a no-brainer.  I made the dress with bell sleeves and deep cuffs with button details.

Alex Muir made my hat. He knows I LOVE this sinamay in the check pattern He chose that and added the dress color. I absolutely also love my hat have a Christian Dior inspiration.  I feel so special when I wear it, even if I get stuck in the taxi door as you can see in the photo. What a laugh.

A lot of choices for the embellishment of the dress were tried. I ended up with something slightly different from what I initially had in mind. But I love how it came together.

This year, the queen attended. She did however arrive by car and not by horse and carriage as she did when I was there in 2016, (see the pictures here)

It still is so special to see her Majesty arrive. The queen’s horses raced in a couple of races and did really well. I must confess to a little flutter…. and it was well worth it.

Making it onto the big screen at Royal Ascot Fashion Hub speaking about my outfit was such fun. Scott Wimsett and Susan Bender Whitfield run this the whole week.

Our group even ended up on ITV speaking about Alex Muir’s amazing contribution with his lifelong work with hats.

What a day!