Derby Day Autumn Carnival 2013!

If you follow my Twitter feed you'll remember I was originally really sad about not being able to go to Derby Day and see Black Caviar potentially run her last race. I love the races and usually only go with Members tickets (free entry, yay!) but this time there was such demand I wasn't able to get my tickets. Never fear, I managed to get last minute tickets on the morning of and my sister gave me a call while I was at dance class saying I had to get back, get changed and go go go!

So with that, I got home and had to come up with a headpiece, black and white outfit and accessories, quickly do my make up and head out within 1 hr! Luckily I have a collection of millinery ready to go for any racewear outfit and occasion and I went simple black shift dress for the occasion. If the weather had been cooler, I would have worn a white with black trim blazer I've been dying to wear on Derby.

Here's a rare headshot of me (you won't usually see my headshot on my blog!). I'm wearing a felt headpiece by Fiona Powell (which I posted about here) and YSL sunglasses. My hair is a bit messy because I've had it cut recently and it was too short for my normal chignon and as you can imagine, I was madly pinning it in 5 minutes!

Anyway, the weather was amazing. In fact, it felt more like summer carnival weather, and with that came the cringeworthy ubiquity of straw, strappy shoes and of course the always present eveningwear party dresses. Argh. I even whinged about it here if you recall!

It was so awesome to see Randwick Racecourse reopened after the refurbishment - its been a few years since I used to sit my university exams there and how has it changed! It looks really good and I think it will really herald a new racing culture that will match the new, fancy surrounds. Sydney just doesn't have a racing culture that Melbourne has and I think that is such a pity! Excuse all the dodgy pics - my clutch bag could only fit flats OR camera, not both so I went with flats and iPhone photos all day :)

I bumped into my super fashionable friend who works for Vogue pottering about as part of Vogue Style Stakes (i.e. Fashions on the Field). Here are the finalists lined up with Samantha Harris. Doesn't Samantha Harris look divine? She looked even more glamorous in real life!

I wasn't too happy with the girl on the far left being included in the finalists but I could tell she was included for the 'on trend' pick with the cat ears and cute collared dress. Don't get me wrong, I think she looked amazing and loved her outfit (and cat ears) and her accent red was great if I do say so myself...more on that later. However, I do feel like rules are in place at the Races for a reason as it is a very traditional fashion playground. Not to say you can't play and have fun with the fashion you do wear there, but it did seem a little too far. Anyway I will jump off my soapbox now :) In case you're interested, the girl second from left won!

Here's a random shot of my shoes for the day. So I went with the accent red accessories (belt and shoes) which I wasn't really wanting to do as I prefer to stick to the black/white but my outfit felt boring for the day so I needed something to make it look more polished. They're the Jimmy Choos I bought from the sample sale and posted about in December.

Enough about the random races going ons, the main event was clearly the racing of Black Caviar. And wow did the crowd go crazy. This was my sister's cute cocktail - Black Caviar inspired!

And the famous darling of the day!

We managed to get up to the barrier but on one of the furthest ends of the course but it allowed for a spectacular viewing both before the race (as they galloped past to get to the starting barriers) and also during the race of course.

All in all, a fabulous day out and I'm determined to find more time to go to the races this year :)