Winners Elizabeth Charleston, Ava James, James Glover, Carter Dean and best hat winner Emma Silk-French at the Fashion in the Field event at the Nelson Harness Racing meeting on Sunday. Photo: Andrew Board.

‘I’m a mod’

0
4279

It wasn’t just the horses that attracted their fair share of eyeballs at the Nelson Harness Racing summer meet on Sunday — Fashion in the Field was a popular competition off the track.

The annual competition sees the more fashionable amongst us show off their best in one of four categories — mens, womens, boys and girls.

Mens winner James Glover, a Nelson entrepreneur, says his look was simple.

“I’m a mod, always have been, so that’s the style I went for.”

It was a style that worked for judges Angela Leonard, Grant Kerr and Clare Scott.

“It’s cool, I didn’t expect to win,” says James who was encouraged to enter on the day by a friend.

For womens winner Elizabeth Charleston, the win capped off an incredible winning weekend.

The Waikato horse rider was in the South Island for the Buller A&P Show, where she won numerous awards including best presented horse and champion senior rider.

“It’s been a great weekend,” she gushed.

She says she decided to enter the competition after seeing that she would be in Nelson following the Buller show.

“My inspiration was summer and practical. I have thick heels so I wouldn’t sink in the grass. For the dress, I wanted to embrace summer with a nice bright colour. The headwear was to avoid the wind because wind can be a big problem at the races.”

Organiser Angela Leonard, manager of Morrison Square, says the event was a “fantastic” success.

“I couldn’t fault it. It was well organised, the weather was fantastic. We also had a wide variety of fashion and it was great to see vibrant colours and classy hats.”

She says 25 women entered, 10 men, four boys and nine girls.

The event was sponsored by Morrison Square and Wild Tomato.