The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Ascot ladies risk frightening the horses as dresses twinned with ties
Course’s creative director encourages pushing boundaries at venue famous for its strict code
ASCOT’S first ever creative director has backed neckties with dresses, in a new guide intended to inspire fashionable racegoers.
Daniel Fletcher, Ascot’s creative director and Central Saint Martins graduate, designed the racecourse’s 2024 “lookbook”, which offers outfits for attendees to emulate.
It features women wearing “oyster pink” silk Sarah Green dresses with blue and grey spotted neckties from Oliver Brown and Richard James.
Men wearing corsets, as well as high street brands including Charles Tyrwhitt, Coach, and LK Bennett are also included in the guide.
A “New Guard” section pays homage to some of Mr Fletcher’s university peers, and includes a Chopova Lowena dress which has a key sewn on the bodice, alongside a harness across the bust.
Attendees at the event, which this year will run from June 18 to June 22, typically include a selection of senior royals and celebrities.
Ascot is famous for its strict dress code policies, which include a ban on adult women wearing fascinators, and requiring men to wear morning dress in either black, grey, or navy in the Royal Enclosure. Skirt hemlines should fall at or below the knee, shoulder straps must be one inch or wider and hats must have a minimum base diameter of four inches.
Off-the-shoulder, one-shoulder halterneck and Bardot necklines are not permitted in the Royal Enclosure, nor are sheer fabrics or visible midriffs.
You can wear a jacket or pashmina over your outfit, but the clothes worn underneath must still comply with the dress code. Other enclosures have more flexible rules, but racegoers are encouraged to dress in “smart day wear”.
Hen and stag do paraphernalia is banned in all of the enclosures, as are “novelty patterns”, trainers, denim, leggings, and shorts.
In a video released alongside the lookbook, Mr Fletcher said that becoming the first ever creative director for Ascot was “daunting”.
The designer said: “We’ve got these really beautiful feminine dresses, and we’ve given them ties and berets and little flower bags. There’s a real mash-up of things. A tie you might expect to see in the boardroom or in school uniform with this really gorgeous, silk, flowy dress. There’s a contrast there.”
He said: “I want people to really embrace that, and to have fun with it, and to not stick with what they know and have always known.”
The Cheshire-born designer entered the fashion world with a bang after singer Harry Styles bought shirts from his graduation collection at art school Central Saint Martins.
cast member Tan France and Olympic diver Tom Daley are also fans of his shirts, and have been pictured wearing them. Mr Fletcher previously told magazine that the idea of gender-specific clothing was such a “funny” idea. He said: “I understand that something like a bra is designed for function, but when it comes to a shirt, why would we apply gender to something like that?”
Mr Fletcher is the first creative designer in Ascot’s 300-year history. The dress code rules were first formulated by Beau Brummell alongside the future George IV, nearly 100 years after the first race meeting.
Ascot’s 2023 lookbook featured women wearing suits, in an effort to encourage race attendees to “think outside the box”. Trouser suits for women were introduced to the Royal Enclosure dress code in 1971.
In contrast, the Jockey Club scrapped the majority of its formal dress codes in 2023, in an effort to make racing “more accessible and inclusive”.