Derby Day fashion: The top five best-dressed

Dress: Toni Maticevski
Hat: Stephen Jones
Bag: Christian Louboutin
Shoes: Jimmy Choo

“I’m working with a new stylist so the brief was edgy, with just a touch of bitch,” Melissa Leong says. “Sure I can’t sit down in it and I was driven in a Lexus with the dress unzipped but it was worth it.”

“I did zip it up the moment I got out of the car.”

“These are my lucky Logies shoes. Sure, I didn’t win, but I feel lucky today.”

Dress: Vintage
Shoes: Jonathan Anderson
Bag: Lanvin

Designer Heidi Middleton continues to embody the spirit of sass & bide, the label she founded with Sarah-Jane Clarke and sold to Myer in 2013.

“I found this dress at a flea market in Boston,” says Middleton, who now focuses on her label Artclub. “It’s from the 1940s and I shortened it.”

The length and romper vibes might be at odds with VRC rules but Middleton’s cool confidence had attendants at the Lexus marquee looking the other way, and other guests looking on enviously.

4. Simone Holtznagel: Tate modern

Dress: Effie Katz
Bag and sunglasses: Saint Laurent
Headpiece: Ezara J

“The brief was Sharon Tate, Claudia Schiffer and a touch of Brigitte Bardot,” says model Simone Holtznagel. The sex kitten purr was kept to respectable limits with the sixties references swinging in a playful direction.

“I needed low shoes because I’m pregnant,” says Holtznagel, who is expecting a girl with her partner, personable personal trainer Jono Castono. “This is subdued. Wait until Melbourne Cup. I’m going all out then.”

There was no need to wait.

5. Alessandra Ambrosio, Moves like Jagger

Coat and dress: Paris Georgia
Hat: Stephanie Spencer

Former Victoria’s Secret angel Alessandra Ambrosio teased on Friday that her outfit might be from Australian labels Zimmermann and Dion Lee, but the Brazilian supermodel was casting eyes across the ditch.

Moving like Mick Jagger and channelling the cream-suited spirit of the Rolling Stone frontman’s first wife Bianca Jagger, Ambrosio was wearing a coat and dress from New Zealand label Paris Georgia.

“It’s my first time at the races, so I hope I got it right,” Ambrosio says. The each-way bet on Melbourne’s temperamental weather with a coat and dress combo paid off.

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