As an American transplant, I am slightly intrigued by the British emphasis on formal dress attire at the Royal Ascot Races in Berkshire. It is the social highlight of the horse racing year, where the high class of the thoroughbreds is matched by the high style of the fashions.

In an audience that includes Her Majesty The Queen, high style fashion means hats for both men and women, dresses for girls, and ties for boys. Any lady caught wearing a dress with a strap of less than one inch or mismatched trouser suits will be shamefully escorted outside of the Royal Enclosure.

(Note that the spectators in the above photo were not sitting inside the Royal Enclosure. The overexposure of hair and skin from both men and women would have caused much alarm and disruption.)

My question then is, “What if a big gust of wind hits the Berkshire area?”

The Royal Ascot 2009 runs from Tuesday 16^th June-Saturday 20^th June. Like the horses, the tickets to see them go fast. For more information go to www.ascot.co.uk.

[Photo credit: Stewsnooze, Royal Ascot, under Creative Commons license]

Tags: Berkshire, high fashion, horse racing, royal ascot races

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under Local events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.