Kentucky Derby Museum curator explains 150 years of Derby fashion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – It’s one of the most frequently asked questions this time of year: what are you wearing to Derby? 

Since the first Kentucky Derby, fashion has played a key role.

“The fashion tradition was very much part of the Kentucky Derby from the beginning because it was a place where you were coming to come to see and be seen,” Curator of Collections at the Kentucky Derby Museum Jessica Whitehead said.

She says the founder of the Kentucky Derby, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., did his homework before developing the upscale racetrack in Louisville. He and his new socialite wife went to England’s Epsom Derby and Paris.

“There they saw just how beautiful the ensembles were that women and men were wearing to the races,  and they really wanted to cultivate a similar atmosphere of social elegance and of fashion elegance,” Whitehead said.

Clark’s wife and her friends got that point across before the first Derby in 1875.

“They dressed up to the nine’s, they all got into a beautiful open carriage, and rode around the streets of Louisville, encouraging people to come out to the Kentucky Derby dressed in their finest,” Whitehead said.

For those early Derby’s, hats for men and women were a part of everyday ensembles.

In the 1940s, the designs became bigger and brighter, racing fans hoping to catch the eyes of the media.

“That journalists would immediately, you know, pick you out of a crowd and say ooh, I want to feature you in the Courier Journal,” Whitehead said.

In the 1960s and 70s, people stopped wearing hats every day. But not at the Kentucky Derby.

“This is a great example that combines Haute Couture with wild and outlandish Derby style you can only get away with at the Kentucky Derby,” Whitehead explained.

In the 2000s and 2010s, the royal influence of the fascinator was introduced, and it’s becoming more popular.

And the Derby’s during the Covid-19 pandemic is a time to be remembered.

“We were seeing milliners designing hats to go with specifically designed beautiful masks and selling these sets of accessories,” she said.

Now what will we see for Derby 150? Anything goes.

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