Melbourne Carnival 2011: celebrating home grown talent

Rebecca Share's design: winner of the Professional Millinery Competition (view larger photo)

View photos of the Derby Day and Oaks Day

millinery.info had extra help on hand to take photos of the Melbourne Racing Carnival 2011 with the Gountzis team, George and Dora, in the Birdcage. Dora can spot a celebrity from the moon and George is a professional photographer. Sadly all the celebrities did not have adequate headwear to get into these social pages! But there were a few standouts.

The Fashions on the Field stage is always a good place to see the results of a lot of thought and effort into creating the perfect racewear outfit. Some of the entrants start preparing months in advance, others decide on the day!

As usual the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) invited several celebrity guests to the races. And what better ones that milliner Phillip Treacy and burlesque star Dita Von Teese?

Phillip attended the races on Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day, alas had left the country by Oaks Day. We would have loved to have shown him our home grown talents in the Professional Millinery Competition.

Louise Macdonald's design: 2nd runner up (view larger photo, with milliner on the left)

Mandy Murphy's hat: 1st runner up (view larger photo, with designer on the left)

This year's winner was Rebecca Share with a beautifully engineered and designed navy, white and red piece. Runners up were Mandy Murphy and Louise Macdonald.

View photos of the Derby Day and Oaks Day