Unrestrained glamour as Birdcage returns after two years in Covid exile

The forecast may be somewhat soggy trackside today as Penfolds Victoria Derby Day kicks off the Melbourne Cup Carnival, but inside the Birdcage racegoers should expect unrestrained glamour.

Model and actor Montana Cox is returning to the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The forecast may be somewhat soggy trackside today as Penfolds Victoria Derby Day kicks off the Melbourne Cup Carnival, but inside the Birdcage racegoers should expect unrestrained glamour.

After a two-year hiatus, Melbourne-raised, London-based model and actor Montana Cox will be just one of the racing carnival’s VIPs, which include Elsa Pataky, Nicole Trunfio, Jess and Ashley Hart, Duckie Thot and millinery maestro Stephen Jones OBE.

“Like many of us, due to Covid I have not attended any racing physically since 2019, which makes flying home and attending even more exciting,” says Cox, the guest of G.H. Mumm. “I can’t wait to see friends and to get back into the live action and fashion.”

Also back IRL is Myer’s Fashions on the Field competition. This year promises to be the 60-year-old competition’s most inclusive and diverse yet thanks to the scrapping of its men’s and women’s categories in favour of the gender-neutral alternatives of Best Dressed and Best Suited.

“I think it’s absolutely correct because traditionally men were peacocks even more than women,” says Mr Jones, who is ecstatic to be back in Melbourne after judging the 2020 and 2021 Field Millinery Award virtually from Britain.

“I want to be dazzled!” adds the Ascot regular, who counts Meghan Markle and Rihanna as clients, and has been Christian Dior’s creative director of hats for more than 25 years.

For Derby Day, black and white is, of course, the style convention, with noir headwear experiencing a huge upswing in the UK these past few months.

Above all, it’s individuality Mr Jones hopes to see trackside.

“I want to be surprised by the variety of hats that are an international language but spoken with a very different accent,” he says. “It’s a balance between the tradition of racing, as embodied by Queen Elisabeth II, and a country and milliners who have found their own identity.”

To accompany those headwear statements, occasion-dressing specialist Rebecca Vallance says post-pandemic racegoers are ready to “take risks with colour and texture.

“We are embracing fun and freedom with saturated hues, embellishments and exaggerated silhouettes – oversized bows, extreme puff sleeves and ruching will all be trackside this season,” says the Sydney-based creative, whose brand has experienced a 70 per cent uplift in sales this past week.

“Don’t let the rain dampen your outfit,” Vallance says.