LUELLA, Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Jones and Gieves & Hawkes complete the designer line-up at this year’s Royal Ascot fashion show.
Taking place in the Bessborough restaurant, the event will give visitors the chance to see Luella’s sugar sweet spring/summer 2009 collection (think oversized bows, frou frou layers and dainty hats adorned with net), Westwood’s Gold Label collection of the same season (which was originally shown in Paris and, entitled Do It Yourself, drawing inspiration from sustainability), as well as a retrospective of work from master milliner Stephen Jones. Gieves & Hawkes will showcase its first collection under the direction of head designer Frederik Willems.
"For nearly 300 years Royal Ascot has played an integral role in the British social calendar and therefore the fashions of the moment. From its foundation Royal Ascot has been an occasion for gentlemen to present their wives in all their finery and it continues today to be an opportunity for people to dress up and ‘show off’," explains Gary England, Royal Ascot’s director of sales and marketing. "It is exactly this sense of occasion that makes Royal Ascot such an exciting and memorable experience and why it remains the centrepiece of the British summer social calendar."
Of her involvement with the event, Westwood says: "Royal Ascot is a British institution for showing off clothes and I like the idea of a group of people gathered together."
Royal Ascot takes place from June 16 to 20. Tickets are now on sale. For further information, visit www.ascot.co.uk or call the hospitality team on 0870727 4321.