Royal Ascot Outfits

Today I want to show you my Royal Ascot outfits. As the Face of Ascot, I’ve been outfitted by a number of sponsors this year. I can’t wait to attend the races in style.

I’m not a big fan of shopping. Nothing ever fits me, I always regret what I buy, and I inevitably spend way too much money on clothes that see the light of my closet more often than the light of day.

It would be nice if I had other people to do all my shopping for me. In fact, I do.

With Royal Ascot just around the corner, I’ve had several people help me get outfitted for the races. They made sure I have the perfect Royal Ascot outfits.

Royal Ascot Dresses

The first stop on my Face of Ascot clothing sponsorship tour was Karen Millen, the official retail sponsor of the modeling competition.

The company was kind enough to outfit me with dresses and accessories from their High Summer collection so I could attend Royal Ascot in style.

A couple weeks ago I headed back to their Regent Street store for a personal shopping appointment.

Apparently rumors of my first appearance had made their way around the shop by that time, because when I walked in the entire staff knew who I was.

I went through the store with my personal shopper, a lovely girl who encouraged me to try on anything that even remotely struck my fancy.

Off the racks came pink satin dresses, flowing green dresses, sliver sparkly dresses, pretty white dresses, black dresses, yellow dresses, blue dresses, and red dresses. There were a lot of dresses.

For the next 90 minutes, I camped out in the fitting room and held an impromptu fashion show while she figured out what looked good on me and what didn’t.

When she figured out what looked really good on me, she cut the tags off, put it all in a bag, and sent me on my way with my Royal Ascot outfits. It was painless. It was how every shopping experience should be.

Royal Ascot Hats

Dresses taken care of, the next stop was hats. Last Saturday I woke up ridiculously early and took a car out to Bagshot. After getting lost several times, my driver finally deposited me in front of milliner Ilda Di Vico’s hat shop in Surrey.

Ilda kindly offered to provide hats for my Royal Ascot outfits, and thankfully so, as I have no prior hat-wearing experience. When I walked into the shop, I was wide-eyed as I took in hats of all colors and sizes.

There were tiny black ones with mesh and feathers, huge zebra-striped ones with asymmetric brims, lavish sequined hats, tall straw hats, and lots and lots of feathery hats.

“What kind of hats do you like?” Ilda asked me excitedly as I walked in. “I have no idea,” I laughed. “What? You’ve never worn a hat before?” she looked shocked. “No,” I replied. I’m American, I thought, we don’t wear hats.

I think she didn’t know what to make of me, but she certainly knew how to outfit me for Royal Ascot.

As soon as I showed her my dresses and handbags, Ilda went straight for a big, circular mesh-looking hat with a cloud of feathers in the center and crystals radiating out from the middle.

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it, but as soon as she put it on, we both knew it was perfect.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. She chose a hat that was still a work-in-progress in the back room as soon as she saw my second dress for Royal Ascot. It too was a perfect match. She had a gift. Shopping had never been this easy.

By that time I was a bit more comfortable with the whole hat thing, and I ventured to ask if I could try on a few others just for fun.

I put on a huge black one that was all feathers, and a few others that made me look like a child under the vast canopies of their brims. I looked ridiculous. I guess I found out what kind of hats I like: big ones. Too bad they don’t like me.

Royal Ascot Shoes

Hats in the works, there were only two weeks left to complete my Royal Ascot outfits. I needed shoes. The sponsorship tour took me to the PR agency of a new designer that was conveniently located just down the street from my office.

I went to the showroom to meet with a very kind girl who showed me the selection.

Having stupidly forgotten to bring the dresses with me, I stood in front of the shoes trying to figure out which ones would go best with the dresses, the handbags, and the hats. It was a lot to coordinate.

Unfortunately, all the shoes were samples, which meant they only came in size 37 or 40. I wear a 39. I picked a few to try on and went to the sofa. The first were blue satin pumps that fell off my feet every time I took a step. No good.

The second were boots that would have been cute if my feet had been wider or bigger (or both), but they probably wouldn’t have gone with either of my dresses anyway.

The third were cute black peep-toes with gold trim that were a bit big but nonetheless promising, and the fourth were 5-inch purple suede wedges with a lot of personality and not too much extra room at the back.

Being completely inept at choosing Royal Ascot outfits for myself and having forgotten the few articles of clothing that would have helped the PR agency do the outfitting for me, I opted to return next week when some new samples are due to come in.

Hopefully I’ll remember my dresses and I’ll be able to leave the fashion part to the experts.

And hopefully there will be some more shoes that fit decently well. Otherwise when you see me shuffling around the racecourse looking like a child playing dress-up, you’ll know why.