It's Melbourne Cup time again, and oh, what to do, what to wear?!

In honour of the Melbourne Cup, a national horse-racing event in Australia that happens on the first Tuesday of every November, I am going to post a selection of fabulous rainbow fascinators and hats I have come across in recent times.

This event is so important in Australia that almost every business holds a special Melbourne Cup luncheon for it's employees, and from 2-4pm the race will be watched on televisions across the country. It's correctly nicknamed "the race that stops the nation", and if you live in Melbourne the whole day is even a public holiday!

And the reason is this: as far as the general public is concerned, no one really cares that much about horse-racing. Or gambling; in fact an office sweep is probably the closest to betting that most people ever get. But EVERYONE gets a chance to dress up. Especially the women: FINALLY, they get to dress up in something fabulous! FINALLY, they get to wear an amazing hat! And what artistic creations many of them are!

INSANE hats are worn, in fact. You wonder how some of the wearer's even fit into a building or don't collapse with a neck-strain headache!

Below is a selection of some rainbow winners. (I won't call them favourites... those are hard to come by!) But to be honest, the art isn't as in them as in other hats. Rainbows still aren't as popular in racewear fashion as every other colour, separated. Perhaps after the race day I will put up some favourites from this year's selection.

Until then... enjoy! :-)

This is probably the most typical racewear Millinery style. But I love it! :-)

Hat by Aussie girl Amanda Macor.

For an extra sparkly piece, you can't go past this gorgeous fascinator - more hair jewellery than millinery!

Of course, as an artist, this is a personal favourite! ;-)

Fascinator by Jo Morgan, exclusive to Flights of Fancy on Tamborine Mountain.

It's not a vivid rainbow; but it's elegant, fun and it still counts!

...And reminds me of a Russian fur hat.

Original creation by Monique Lee.

I believe this hat is by Philip Treacy. Princess Beatrice wore a smaller version of this.






I have to say, I LOVE Princess Beatrice for her bold and experimental wearing of hats! She doesn't always get it right, but who cares? She's having fun! That girl has confidence and guts. A very attractive combination!

This beautiful piece is a one-off eBay creation; however I'm sure you could get the milliner to custom-create something similar just for you!

This cute creation is by etsy seller StarRoseCreations. It's not amazing, but wins points because it is whimsical, fun and has a peacock feather (and I've always been rather partial to those).

Just in case you couldn't tell this was a multicoloured hat, they made her face rainbow to help complete the look!

Of course, you can't have a post on rainbow Millinery without displaying one of my own creations! I began a few rainbow hats, but this is one I have actually finished... Like? ;-)

I completed this while doing a Certificate II in Millinery at TAFE. Gosh, I'd love to pursue that! It's an expensive hobby though... and I'd need more spare space, time and money to do it PROPERLY (next level up is in Sydney; a fair way to travel with all that equipment)!

I'm sorry I don't have a good photo of this! Pastel rainbow felt with a vibrant rainbow floral arrangement; it totally counts! And it's great for Spring racing events :-)

I AM sorry I don't have anything brighter finished though. Maybe one day I'll get around to it... my main issue is lack of space, closely followed by time... I barely have enough to paint in, let alone any fashion production set-up!

This is probably a better picture of the floral arrangement. It takes a lot longer, and is a lot more fiddly, to put together than you might think!

And at the same time, it's marvellously common-sense.

If Fashion has taught me anything, it's to trust my instinct more... because I always want to do things "properly" & don't have confidence in my product until I know the official way to do things... which is frequently exactly the same way as I did it intuitively or experimentally!

Oh, BTW, this hat is not for sale. However, should I ever start making hats again (and selling them, obviously), you'll be the first to know! :-)

Soon, my pretties... I hope! There's a few things happening next year... you just never know where life may take me. I expect it would be a few years away yet though... but... who on earth knows?!! I sure can never predict where life will take me. I smile when I hear the saying "Man makes plans and God laughs at them", because it certainly feels true for me! I am trying to learn to let go and let life and ride the wave wherever it takes me, because it certainly doesn't ever seem to end up where I was taking it!!! Holding too close to stuff just brings stress. Maybe one day I'll get the balance right.

Wow, that got serious fast! Time to go and enjoy this beautiful day! Beautiful because even though the weather is crappy, I will finish my first self-made rainbow dress in my fashion production class today! :-D

Have you ever seen something you wanted and thought "stuff it, I've gotta have it, I'll worry about the consequences later!"?

Me neither. Until I was working three jobs through uni to get by and discovered I had a little cash spare as I didn't have time to go out like the other kids. And then eBay got good. Which I only found out because the city I was living in was boring as a knitting nanna and barely half as trendy. (Sorry nanna. You know I love you. Tea and scones, anyone?)

Thus began my love affair with rainbow clothes. All imported, I might add. Until local Chinese fast-fashion shops clued in and started selling the odd item, which I dutifully collected.

I remember the first time I put any colour into my wardrobe. I remember my mother's shocked (and somewhat horrified) gasp and exclamation when she saw the colour. "TIFF! PINK?!!" (I hate pink. But the shop assistant said it looked better with my skin than the orange that was trendy at the time.) And then I bought a yellow top - even if it wouldn't go with anything else but one skirt! And my collection slowly grew from there.

You see, I used to wear black. I wasn't goth, I wasn't alternative, it was just easier to pair with other black items. Colour is much more adventurous. Better play it safe with black and burgundy. And ...pink, apparently.

Then I discovered colour. But I didn't go full bling until I was an adult.

I used to claim that "I never had a teeny-bopper stage, so I'm going to spend the rest of my life making up for it!" ...Who am I kidding, I still do!!!

Now I'm known as "Rainbow Girl". My boss looked at me once and named me "DJ Rainbow". I stuck with it (yet never introduce myself as it, it feels too pretentious!).

Fast forward to a few years ago, where I saw the most fantabulous leggings I have ever seen.

Galaxy leggings.

I HAD to know where she got them. Black Milk.

As in blackmilkclothing.com. And no, they're not paying me. But I dare not go near their site when I actually have money.

Because eyegasm.

That to me is the ultimate pair of leggings. Black Milk, if you're out there, and want to send me these, please, go right ahead. No, really, you're really too kind.

In fact this to me is the ultimate pair of anything.

Knowing this, my friend put me onto this obscure and little-known site named eBay. She Face-Booked me a link to a galaxy-print dress. Which I loved. But as cute as it was, it could never compare to Black Milk. Because it isn't Black Milk, and Black Milk are awesome (the original and the best)!

And then I came across the most awesome pair of gamer-girl leggings a classic femme could lay eyes on. Tetris leggings.

NERDGASM.

I'm sure these were a Black Milk Limited Edition item once, but you can't buy them anymore, so copyright says you're allowed to make copies... is that the way it works? I don't care, because I bought them before you could say "$12 = hot legs forever"! Sure, it's one size fits all made in China. But gosh darn I'm gonna make those things fit with every fibre of my being (hopefully not literally)... (Fingers crossed. Hopefully there's a clothing god out there somewhere smiling benevolently down on me.)

And then I thought "well, since I haven't bought groceries this week, and already spent some money, why not spend some more? I'm already in trouble with the misses for the first purchase" (my better half, the rational, sensible part of my brain)! And bought the galaxy dress my friend recommended, too. :-)

Ok I'm really not that broke. But if I spent my money on everything that dazzled my eyes, I'd be NASA's current space program budget in debt right now (granted that's not that much these days)!

Which means that I'd better get off the Black Milk clothing website. Because right now they have both Star Wars AND Lord of the Rings limited edition clothing items now, and after the Tetris leggings and galaxy dress, the multiple nerdgasms I could encouter might make me pass out before I even finish this post.

Speaking of passing out... I heard Australia was going to start it's Space Program! They're calling it State of Origin, in honour of our ancestors. Because this:

It could be worse. We could be in Russia.

Oh yeah, and if you ever find yourself emptying your wallet at Black Milk, tell them I sent you. Then finally I might get that free pair of rainbow galaxy leggings! ;-P