People that do not regularly compete in fashions on the field may not understand how much time, effort, and money goes into creating and planning the outfits that are showcased on race days around Australia.
As we head in to the Autumn season and some great FOTF events, we're going to look closely into the planning process behind the 2021 Myer Fashions on your Front Lawn SA Winning outfit, and how I came to put this whole outfit together to take home the SA title.
The beginning of planning an outfit is different for everyone, but for me I always start with the outfit, then I move onto the millinery/hat and then accessories.
I knew for this competition I wanted one of my outfits to be custom made, and luckily I once did a photoshoot for a young lady in Adelaide, Juanita Kratzer. I knew she would be the perfect person to create a piece for me. Juanita is only new to the fashion industry, and had never made an outfit for FOTF, but I trusted my gut and went with her anyway, and she created the dress better than I could have ever imagined.
The process behind custom pieces is different for everyone, but for me I forwarded imagines to Juanita of garments I loved, and she worked her magic. I knew for sure it had to be stark white, which is often very controversial for a spring FOTF event, but I wanted to be able to re-wear this dress for other occasions if I wished.
Once the dress was finished, I then had the tough job of deciding how to do it justice with the right millinery. I didn’t want it too over the top, but then I knew it couldn’t be too simple as the dress was just white. I started playing around with different millinery pieces I already had at home to get an idea on the shape and colours, so I could get something made, but then when I tried on my rainbow millinery piece from Allport Millinery, I knew it was a match made in heaven! Between the rainbow swirls on the millinery and the white ostrich feathers, it was everything I wanted.
I was fortunate enough to already own the millinery. I purchased the piece over a year ago from Allport Millinery after seeing it in a background photo of Sophie, knowing it would be perfect for an outfit I had planned for Kangaroo Island Cup 2021. I then re-wore the outfit to Darwin Cup 2021. I thought it would be the last time I wore this millinery, but it came back out for the Myer competition!
Okay, with millinery and outfit sorted – it's onto accessories. This was the easiest part! As my friends know, I am a shoe and bag collector, so finding the right pieces was easy. A few years ago I purchased the rainbow sequin clutch from Zara on sale for $10, knowing it would come in handy one day, and the shoes I purchased online a couple months before the competition, maybe I knew I would need them for this outfit! However, I made a mistake when ordering the shoes and accidentally ordered 2 sizes to small! The day my friends and I took out entry photos was very embarrassing when I could hardly fit into the shoes, but I made it work for a few photos then straight off they came. Its not always as glamorous as it seems!
Often though, the planning process is not as simple as this. There are time where outfits or millinery don’t arrive on time, don’t fit, come broken, aren’t the right colours, but you need to push through all the annoyance and figure it out, especially if you leave your outfits to the last minute like I do! Often spray-painting hats, safety pinning dresses and stuffing shoes that are too big are often on the agenda the day before the races.
Don’t forget, trying everything on and playing around with different colours and styles is often the best way to find what works well together. It can be very hard planning just off of photos, especially with shades of pink that never seem to match!