melbourne cup 2009

On Tuesday, I celebrated Melbourne Cup at my local turf club. And I backed Shocking for the winner - yahoo!!

As I mentioned earlier, I went for a lilac/purple + tangerine/orange theme with Luella's Spring 09 collection as my main inspiration. I'll go more into outfit details later, but I'm very happy with how it came together + really loved playing with bright colours on the one day in the racing season when you can really go all out with fun/colourful/vibrant outfits.

There were nearly 400 entrants overall for Fashions on the Field with so many gorgeous looks. I was lucky enough to make it through to the final 16! Took loads of photos on the day to share with you, as fashion lovers, so this is a very image heavy post! (Remember, as always, you can click on images to see the larger versions).




















^ Overall Fashion on the Field winners (L-R) Best Hat, Overall Mens, Overall Womens (Source)




So... my outfit details!!

• I found the lilac Seduce silk beaded dress at Dot Wears a Dress, reduced from $280 to $40, so I knew it was meant to be + it was the building block for the rest of my outfit! It had spaghetti straps, which I didn't like so using the extra material from the hem, I sewed a halter strap + beaded it to continue on with the lovely beading from the bodice.

• I located a 50s skirt pattern at Spotlight + this gorgeous purple floral fabric from a local craft store and my Nan's friend Joyce made it + the interfaced bow belt up for me (I wore a petticoat underneath that I had made for my Magic Millions outfit in January).

• I found the Miss Shop suede purple pumps @ Myer for $79 reduced to $56 so I used my Myer gift card I won from Caulfield Guineas finals + they cost me a total of $6!

• For the bag, I hand-sewed extra fabric from the skirt onto this tapestry bag I found at The Village Markets (using my $200 voucher!) + secured it with an orange rose + a couple of vintage brooches.

• I found the orange vintage gloves on Etsy + I made my Flair Vintage headpiece from scratch!

So overall it was not a very costly exercise, more of a creative endeavour - of which I am very stoked with the final 'product'!!
(To tell you the truth, undertaking this fun project has made me crave that such work in creating/styling was my full time job!)



Thank you so much to my Nan, her friend Joyce, my Mum, my sister + Lisa for your thoughts/ear-lending/sewing skills to help me get this look together - love you all to bits!!




^ Made great use of my Starlettos from Caulfield Guineas day - what a lifesaver for heels on grass!!

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Happy Friday lovelies - hope you all have fantastic weekends!!

PS: I think this is the last week for public voting, so if you have some spare time + wouldn't mind throwing a vote my way for the Gold Coast's Best Dressed, that would be amazing!! Thank you so much to everyone who already has - you are wonderful!