Ballarat Cup

A few weeks ago, Review Australia asked me to go the Ballarat Cup. I’ve never been before so (aside from singing in bands many years ago), so I decided it would be fun. They let me pick a dress from their upcoming collection, so I chose something from their limited edition range that wouldn’t be available in the local Ballarat store. (The timeless ladies above are Angela Menz and Amanda Macor.)

When we arrived on the day, some of the MYER staff asked as to enter the Fashions on the Field event, so we did. Ironically, the host of Fashions on the Field had been dressed by MYER and had chosen the exact same dress as me. She didn’t realise until I got up on the FotF stage and walked past her, and I told her she had excellent taste. We both had a good laugh. She had chosen her dress from MYER in Highpoint. I wondered if she had chosen it for the same reasons as me.

Headpiece: Jenny Burke Florist

Dress: Review Australia

Clutch: Collette

Shoes: Modcloth

Pics: Me and Goldfields Girl

The day was incredibly hot. As I’m writing this I am sunburnt in all the places I didn’t reach with the second layer of sunscreen. Goldfields Girl and I planned to stay in the shade all day, but FotF was in full sun with very little shade. Goldfields Girl has just come back from San Fran and had very little time to plan her outfit. I ended up loaning her one of the hats she bought me for my birthday this year, which she looked really elegant in. She made it into the final for the Local Lady section of FotF. Check out her blog for details.

The best part of the day was the fashion. I’ll be honest, I’m not really interested in horse racing or making bets. I love a day in the sun with dignified people, celebrating each other’s style. I wish there were more public events where you could just hang out and do FotF activities.

I had a bit of drama with my outfit. For the most part, it was easy. I chose a dress from Review and it arrived a week out. I knew what shoes I was wearing. I chose an Olga Berg clutch to go with the shoes. I visited Jenny Burke Florist about the flower crown. I showed Jenny the dress and shoes and asked for a blue hydrangea crown to go with it. Jenny advised me that real flowers wilt very quickly, so she ordered in silk ones to make an artificial crown, then I picked it up from her the day before the races.

The Olga Berg clutch. Oh my. So a week out from the event I logged on to the MYER website to buy the clutch. I had a voucher I wanted to use, but you can’t use them on their website. I called to ask about it, and the online store couldn’t sell it to me, or ship it to my local store, so they transferred me to a store that had it in stock. After holding for some time, a friendly girl answered, and I explained what I was after. She then told me I’d come through to the wrong place and transferred me through to the switchboard where another friendly staff member checked what I was after, and then transferred me through to another area. That area wasn’t answering so she got my contact details and said they would call me back. I got a call back from that area. The woman in that area, who was lovely, couldn’t find the bag so asked to call me back again. Then she called me back, she’d found the back, she processed the transaction over the phone with my voucher. Then she told me the back would take seven days to arrive. At this point, I couldn’t even. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy. Why had no one told me it would take seven days? I told her I needed it by Saturday. It’ll be fine, she assured me. It’ll probably be there in 2-3. Well, five days later and it’s still not here. So in these photos, I’ve got a cheap clutch that Goldfields Girl picked up for me from Collette at some stupid time last night, because that’s what awesome sisters do.

Anyway, in summary, cup day was awesome, but that’s just because the fashions were incredible. 10 out of 10. Would go again.

If you see yourself or someone you know in the pics below and you have a website or something you’d like a link to with your name, let me know!

A wrap of the glorious day so far with lovely ladies fashion and bloggers Goldfields Girl and @lianasmooz Finding Femme. pic.twitter.com/RHLcqFxZ1t

— The Courier (@ballaratcourier) November 19, 2016