Fascinator Begone!

Model Charlotte Pallister wearing a dress by Antonio Berardi and a hat by Stephen Jones. Ph: Simon ProctorFor some strange reason, I imagined that the fashions on the fields of Royal Ascot would be somewhat classier than those of Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. I don’t know what I was thinking. It seems that the English know how to destroy a hat even better than the Australians.

But this year something has been done about it. The fashion police have done their level best to stamp out (to use a horsey analogy) race day trashiness.

It’s about time the fashion police made use of their power and trampled those nasty little things [fascinators] underfoot.

Model Charlotte Pallister wearing a dress by Dior and a hat by Stephen Jones. Ph: Simon ProctorRoyal Ascot has passed a new decree on dress for those wishing to enter the Royal Enclosure, and it’s all about demure elegance: modest skirt lengths, and no naked shoulders or midriffs. Really? No naked midriffs? Quelle surprise! I was more interested to read that fascinators have been forbidden (well, except for very substantial ones). Hallelujah! It’s about time the fashion police made use of their power and trampled those nasty little things underfoot.

Some of the new Ascot dress codes (for more, click here):

• Dresses and skirts should be of modest length defined as falling just above the knee or longer
• Midriffs must be covered
• Fascinators are no longer permitted in the Royal Enclosure; neither are headpieces which do not have a base covering a sufficient area of the head (4 inches/10cm)

For their official campaign, the Racecourse has produced a series of photographs of an English rose sporting hats by Stephen Jones (a refreshing change from the ubiquitous Philip Treacy). The images were inspired by Richard Avedon’s famous image of Dovima with the Elephants (below), published in Harper’s Bazaar in 1955.

Dovima and the Elephants, by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar, 1955Hurrah, a return to elegance! But I wonder how successful they were in enforcing it? Surely there were flouters, or loopholers? Indeedy yes, one only has to do a quick Google search to discover that a lamentably large number of woman had not the slightest interest in entering the Royal Enclosure, alas …