Top tips for going to Cheltenham Festival in Style

Although I’ve definitely had a fun festive period, I really love springtime because it’s the time when we can finally shake off the winter blues and enjoy the great outdoors. And I’ve been investigating a few options for getting out and about, and the upcoming Cheltenham Festival seems to offer a good combination of cocktails, horse racing excitement, sports fun, and of course, lots of fashion opportunities. But as ever, my main question is - what to wear?

Races conundrum

The hardest thing about putting together a look for the races seems to be how to look stylish without necessarily breaking the strict dress codes that are often enforced. Thankfully the Cheltenham Festival looks like it doesn’t suffer the restrictive dress code found at Royal Ascot, but it still requires a little bit of forward planning.

Thankfully, the racecourse’s website gave a good idea of what was acceptable depending upon what kind of ticket you’d purchased. And similarly, I found that Betway’s site gave a good guide for newbies such as myself for the main race and all other top sports events of 2016, so that I could quickly get to grips with all of the odds and favourites.

A question of hats

However, I must admit that I’m likely to be spending more time mulling over my hats rather than the horses! It seems that the fascinator is rapidly falling out of style according to the nation’s fashion elite, and as such, I may have to be a little more inventive.

Thankfully there seems to be a rising trend of British milliners such as Indy Cindy who have a fantastic selection of handcrafted products ranging from fedoras to cocktail hats that should add the perfect touch of glamour for attending the ultra-stylish Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Festival.

Dressing for warmth


The other thing to consider is the fact that the Cheltenham Festival is held in the middle of March which can still be pretty chilly. However, that doesn’t mean that we have to dress up like old ladies as suede is still on-trend and provides a fantastic way to look chic and stay warm whilst out at the races.

The other alternative is a leather look jacket or of course tweed which, with the right cut, can provide the perfect amount of countryside charm to your look - although I’m not sure I’m quite ready for the wax jacket look yet!

But as long as you obey the dress code, stay warm and place your bets early, it looks like a trip to the races is a dead cert for a great way to start 2016!