Bec Hewitt was the best thing to happen to the Melbourne Cup

The Melbourne Cup is always a huge fashion event, but there’s a major problem and only one celebrity that can truly save the day.

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It has been six years since Australia has genuinely got to experience a Bec Hewitt Melbourne Cup fashion moment.

We have been deprived.

Usually, when an Aussie threatens to retire, they never do.

Yet, Hewitt gave us no warning and just stopped attending the Melbourne Cup, and just like an overconfident white man on Tinder with a tribal tattoo, she has ghosted us.

Bec Hewitt was Melbourne Cup Fashion.

She loved some giant head gear. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

I haven’t seen such betrayal since Ricki-Lee Coulter left the Young Divas, and Jessica Mauboy had to throw her hair in an extravagant up-do and pick up the pop pieces.

Here’s the thing: Bec Hewitt was Melbourne Cup Fashion, and she was awful at it, and that is what made it so good.

The problem with the fashion today is all the Influencers shop at the same places and buy the same $700 Rebecca Vallance dress, and everyone looks good during the iconic Melbourne day.

Sure, you might not love whatever cut-out Pip Edwards is wearing, but she still looks nice. Everyone looks nice and it is as predictable as David Campbell’s annual performance at Carols in the Domain.

Bec Judd has done her best to hold down the Melbourne Cup forte but, much like her tenure on The Amazing Race, it isn’t enough to save a sinking ship.

We need Hewitt back, because she bought the drama.

Now this is fashion. Picture: Paul McConnell/Getty Images

2006 was the best Melbourne Cup year ever. Picture: supplied.

She’d pop on a pair of white pedal pushers, strap a fascinator to her head, and she’d be off to the races.

It was tacky, it was shocking, and it was everything we all deserved.

Did it look like she’s rustled through a Supre sale bin to find her outfit? Yes.

Hewitt would land on the worst-dressed list; people would sneer at her and crack jokes, but she always had the last laugh because she was the one everyone was talking about.

I think she always understood that the Melbourne Cup wasn’t meant to be taken that seriously.

It isn’t a family wedding where you’ll have to face that cousin who has her life together, so you need to look conservative but still gorgeous; it is the races.

It is just an event where a bunch of men in chinos pretend to understand horse racing for a day and usually someone falls over in the muddy grass.

It isn’t that serious.

This was a vibe. Picture: Jason Edwards

She’s looking incredible. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

It is a chance to wear something fun, and she took full advantage. She’d wear a ridiculous hat that looked like it’d been stolen from Guy Sebestian’s fedora collection and she’d look incredible.

One year, she even wore a cape, and it was floral!

Lleyton would accompany her in a boring suit, understanding that it is his job to let her shine, and she’d be the talk of the town.

It is the kind of icon behaviour we don’t see enough of anymore. Everyone’s so invested in looking hot and sexy that it has become dull.

There’s no denying that Hewitt is gorgeous, but her fashion looks were never particularly sexy. She was too busy experimenting.

It always looked like she’d popped into Spotlight and picked a fabric that should have only been used for curtains and decided to wear the hell out of it.

They were always bright and slightly hideous, making it fun, ridiculous and the height of Australian fashion.

Now she’s gone AWOL and we need to lure her back immediately. At this point, we may have to enlist one of those trainers on The Biggest Loser in the early 2000s to yell at her until she returns.

The Melbourne Cup’s cup looks half empty without her.

Originally published as Bec Hewitt was the best thing to happen to the Melbourne Cup