Right before Christmas, we had a chat with the fabulous milliner, Lisa Tan, to ask some questions about the racing and fashion over in Australia…Here’s what she had to say!!
1. How did you get involved with Fashions on the Field?
I studied fashion design when I was younger, and fell in love with racing at the same time. My mother and nanna loved dressing up for the Melbourne Cup, and I convinced them to go on a holiday there when I was 17. I found out they held this best dressed competition at Flemington, and the prizes were unbelievable, so I made an outfit, consulted a milliner and commissioned a hat, and entered. I didn’t get very far in the competition because I had no clue about racewear at that stage, and my outfit wasn’t very fashion-forward, but I was hooked and continued to enter the competitions back in Perth, and later at the Spring Carnival when I started attending it religiously.
2. Tell me about your judging experience (couple sentences)
This year was the first time I’ve judged a Fashions on the Field competition. I’ve always wanted to judge Myer Fashions on the Field because it’s such a prestigious event, and having been an entrant for so many years I always wondered what it was like on the other side of the catwalk. It’s really quite an honour to be invited. I judged the Design Award, which is restricted to professional designers who are invited by the VRC to participate. This year’s winner (Craig Braybrook) was a standout, and I think almost all the judges had him as our top selection.
3. What do you love about Spring Carnival?
It’s the atmosphere – it’s unlike any other racing carnival I’ve attended in Australia and outside of Australia. It just has this spirit, this sense of celebration that’s so unique, and so much fun. And of course, I love the fashion – the ladies in Australia put in so much effort, no matter which enclosure they’re attending. You see just as well-dressed women in general admission as you do in the members’ enclosure. That never happens in Europe – it’s very rare to see a hat in the silver ring at Royal Ascot.
4. When did you begin making hats?
I started making hats when I seriously began entering Myer Fashions on the Field. The milliner I had been commissioning to make hats for me wasn’t making what I wanted anymore, so I started dabbling with making my own. I had absolutely no training with millinery, and there were no millinery teachers in Perth so it was impossible to learn, so I applied the general skills I learned while studying fashion design, and studied a lot of images of Philip Treacy hats. It wasn’t until after I had moved to London, around 2009, that I realised I wanted to do something more creative career-wise, so I left my e-commerce job and (finally) took at short-course in millinery at Central St. Martins. I realised the set-up costs for millinery were quite low, and it was something I could do from home, so I put together a small collection of winter hats while I was interning with Siggi Hesbacher, and when I went back to Melbourne that year for the Spring Carnival, I met with Myer and showed them the collection. Though they didn’t order it, they did order from the following collection (SS11).
5. How important do you think Fashions on the Field is to creating and keeping fans for the race industry? Why?
I think it depends on where we are in the world – in Australia, yes, Fashions on the Field is important for retaining female fans in racing. It’s kind of ironic that it was introduced to entice women to the races, but it created this whole subset of attendees who now only come to the races for the fashion – they enter the competition and leave straight after – which is quite unfortunate. I know it’s only a small selection of female attendees who do this, but it just shows how important the fashion side of racing has become. In Britain, best dressed competitions aren’t important at all. I’ve heard Royal Ascot refuses to stage a best dressed competition for fear it will cheapen their brand, which seems ridiculous given Myer Fashions on the Field has only enhanced Flemington’s. Nevertheless, Royal Ascot’s attendances are always fairly high, and when enclosures do sell out it’s because of the calibre of horses running.
6. How important do you think Spring Carnival is to creating and keeping fans for the race industry? Why?
The Spring Carnival is incredibly important for creating racing fans, and keeping racing fans. The Victorian racing clubs have really done a stellar job with the marketing of the Carnival, to the extent that it’s now a major part of most people’s social calendars – and you don’t even have to understand racing to enjoy it. I feel like it’s not really ‘the sport of kings’ anymore in Australia – it belongs to the people now, whereas in Britain racing is still very much for the wealthy. Of course, in the UK it’s more about the horses than it is the fashion, or the other social activities that take place off the track. It’s a purist’s game over here and I’m not sure if that will ever change. However, they only need to look at the health and strength of Australia’s racing industry to see that, whatever they’re doing it, it’s obviously working.