Fashionistas are strutting their stuff for Melbourne Cup’s Fashions on the Field. A Waikato woman has made the Digital Finals as an international candidate. Anna Campbell, an animal daycare owner near Cambridge, will be wearing the hat of local milliner, Monika Neuhauser, of Pirongia.
Anna has made the finals for the Best Suited Competition. The 7th of November will be the Lexus Melbourne Cup Day. Two days later, on Kennedy Oaks Day, the full force of Fashions on the Field will be seen at the “Best Dressed and Best Suited On Course Competitions and Final”. Anna will fly in for the Melbourne Cup and walk the runway on the 9th as a Best Suited grand finalist.
Being on fleek but reflecting the entrant’s personal style are requirements for the Best Suited category. Competitor’s must also showcase millinery but have to completely style themselves. Appropriateness of the outfit for the Melbourne Cup is also a criterion.
Anna’s outfit is called “Powder Blue Power”; a three piece suit with a box style jacket from Country Road. A sheer pussy bow, feminises the suit, along with heels by Diavolina and a Gucci bag and earrings. A flower rosette in her lapel completes Anna’s accessories. The all-important hat is a white fedora, styled with a band of blue veil material.
Anna says she is a regular at Monika’s millinery. “She is luckily, not far from me, so I get to go and see everything up close and raid her supplies. I like to think I’m her best customer.” For over a decade, Monika has been the creator of many a race day winner. Her creations have won multiple times at both the Auckland Cup and Christchurch Cup. Monika makes bespoke pieces as well as ready-to-wear hats.
As an International Digital Finalist, Anna has won herself a “Melbourne Cup Experience”. All flights and transfers to The Cup are paid for, along with four nights of accommodation, NZ$1,650 in spending money and special treatment at the Festival. Anna has a total of $13 500 in prizes before even stepping onto the runway on the day. Winning Best Suited is going to net the winner around $60 000 in cash and prizes.
Anna will be heading over to the Races with her daughter, “It’s our hobby. We wear old farm clothes 90 percent of our lives but we love the racing dress-up because it gives us a real creative outlet. If we didn’t have that we’d be pretty bored because we love fashion and we just don’t get to wear it with our jobs.” Being a doggy-daycare owner, she is usually in “old farm clothes” and thinks her regulars might not recognise her in her racing day garb.
Anna’s daughter, Eleanor, will also be competing this year. The two have entered an won many a race day competition, “…this isn’t our first rodeo”. Anna’s suit for the competition was actually bought using vouchers that her daughter won in last year’s Melbourne Cup.
Though the cocktail party at Melbourne’s Government House won’t go amiss, Anna is also looking forward to the “horsey-side” of the Melbourne Cup Festival. Having part-ownership of three fillies, Anna is also interested in horses. “Two of them are with an all-lady syndicate. It’s a lot of fun and quite addictive.” Their syndicate has a charity that they support and wear the colours of. Their horses’ colours are pink and white, for breast cancer.
The $9.1 million Lexus Melbourne Cup will run on the 7th of November this year, Cup Week runs from the 4th to the 11th.
