Formula 1 fashion is picking up speed in Melbourne. Out in front, as usual, leading stylist Pip Edwards has cracked the style formula on and off track.
“There’s an energy to everything that leans into the adrenaline of the sport,” Edwards says. “Why fight it?”
Whether it’s motocross top with jeans and a leather jacket as she prepares to host Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Erika Jayne and rapper Ty Dolla $ign at a post-track party with Tequila 1942 Don Julio at Marmont restaurant, or in a fitted black lace J’Aton gown at Glamour on the Grid, Edwards embraces the fuel-charged theme.
“It’s all about context,” says Edwards, who recently left her high-profile role as creative director at denim brand Ksubi to work with more brands. “I still had my leather jacket on at Glamour on the Grid. There was a bit of glamour and a bit of grid.”
“The biggest mistake you can make is not playing with the look of the sport.”
At the Mercedes-AMG Lounge on turns 9 and 10 at Albert Park on Friday, model Sophie Barbour mined the racks of Australian labels to achieve a racing resort look that balanced refinement with relaxation. A shirt and skirt from Sir worn with the casual confidence of model Lauren Hutton in the eighties was an instant winner.
“I don’t think this is an event where you go overboard,” Barbour says. “I took a day-to-night approach because you never know where you might end up. There is so much happening.”
The considered approach to dressing for the sport is an improvement on last year, where style fender benders at Glamour On The Grid, had observers questioning the event’s ambitious name. This year the party benefited from a reduced number of taffeta trains, stray feathers and nude illusion gowns dragging across the asphalt of the Albert Park track.
Reformed reality television star Lara Worthington set the tone, racing down the media wall in record time wearing a restrained burgundy Saint Laurent trench coat dress, before disappearing from festivities.
Happy to linger longer were Rebecca Judd in the most stylish bejewelled bib-front dress to come from the Melbourne atelier of J’Aton couture; Rebecca Harding in a vintage Roberto Cavalli black gown with a plunging v-neck; and model Charlee Fraser exuding Bond girl potential in a gold Common Hours dress and Bulgari jewellery.
Some AFL Wags remained committed to a Brownlow Medal aesthetic, failing to shift gears for the outdoor festivities in restrictive gowns that looked as though the seams could burst at the mere sight of seared salmon cubes on a skewer.
Stylist Elliot Garnaut, who handed out Julius Marlow shoes to footwear-challenged men ahead of Glamour on the Grid, says that even a polo top and shorts can make the style cut for the sport.
“Grand Prix fashion can just be a baseball cap with your favourite car brand on it,” Garnaut says.
“Pirelli caps are my favourite, but do they even have a team?”
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