The winner’s enclosure (From Living Northeast)

The winner’s enclosure

11:58am Tuesday 23rd February 2010 in

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What does it take to be crowned Best Dressed Lady at the races? Ruth Addicott speaks to Jayne Spink, who has been scooping up prizes for the past ten years.

MOST people like to wear a hat for the races, but few go to the lengths of sending a milliner to China to get 100 feathers to put in it. Meet Jayne Spink, a 37-year old research scientist from Harrogate. When it comes to making an effort for the races, Jayne always goes the extra mile.

Her efforts paid off and she won Best Hat at both Ripon and Catterick races last summer.

Although Jayne always plans her outfit months in advance, she had a nail-biting wait last year when the milliner ran out of feathers for her fascinator at the last minute.

“I had to wait for her to come back from China so I didn’t get the hat until a few days before the meeting, but it was worth the wait,” she says.

Jayne spent £300 on the fascinator which she bought from Hats on Top in Harrogate. It had more than 100 green feathers on it and was designed to go with her green dress (£165) which was embellished with lots of tiny coins and beads from online boutique Designer Desirables.

“I wanted a hat which was big and flamboyant, something that would stand out,” she says. “My dress had an animal print pattern and I like the hat to match my outfit as much as possible.”

Jayne first won the prize for Best Dressed Lady ten years ago. Since then, she has won seven times in total – scooping awards at Ripon, Weatherby and Catterick and winning Best Hat at Ripon three times.

Apart from the prestige, she has accumulated an array of prizes including several bottles of champagne, flowers, restaurant vouchers, a foot spa and two annual members’ badges worth about £250 each.

She admits competition is tough (she lost out on a piece of jewellery worth £1,200 and the chance to win a Mini), but she is always up for the challenge. To prove the point, she started her search for this summer’s dress when the snow was still on the ground in January.

“I get a bit of stick for spending so much on my outfits but it pays for itself,” she says. “I like feeling glamorous and famous for the day.”

Jayne insists it is not what you wear, but how you wear it. “You don’t have to look like a model and it doesn’t matter how old you are. You just have to be confident,” she says.

Confident and colour co-ordinated, it seems.

Jayne bought some fabric paint and spent a week spraying her shoes to ensure they matched her dress.

The year before, she spent four weeks colouring in the feathers of her hat to match a leopard print number.

Jayne normally spends around £300 on a hat – the most she has ever paid was £350 for a red hat with a wide brim, netting and ginormous ostrich feathers. In general, she tries to keep the cost (and feathers) down.

“I don’t like to go too big because I’m only 5ft 2in,” she notes.

As for her dress, she’ll spend between £200 and £500, but isn’t averse to wearing the same one twice.

“I save up. I see it as my one-off present to myself,” she says. “I’ve spotted a lot of women wearing the same dress recently, probably because of the credit crunch. I don’t think anyone cares.”

Jayne casts her net far and wide in her search for the perfect dress. As much as she enjoys trawling through eBay and trendy boutiques, her best bargain to date was from TK Maxx, where she bought a dress last year by Argentinian designer Kasike, down from £180 to £40.

But even the most meticulous planning can’t stop some wardrobe malfunctions on the day. Jayne has had to contend with everything from the heel of her shoe falling off after getting wedged in a clump of grass, to the strap of her dress breaking when she was in the final line-up for Best Dressed Lady at Ripon. “I was worried it was going to fall down in front of the cameras,” she says. “I was relieved to win Best Hat in the end, so all the attention was focused on the feathers.”

Her friends have also made the occasional fashion faux pas. One made it to the final of the Best Dressed Lady at Weatherby, then tripped over the fence, ripped her tights and ended up in the First Aid tent.

It’s not only the frock, hat, bag and shoes Jayne has to worry about. She also spends a fair amount of time on beauty treatments. She takes a day off work the day before the races to have a spray tan, curl her hair and find the right shade of nail polish to complement her dress.

Jayne has always had a love of horses (she has five of her own), but while she’s happy to splash out the best part of £1,000 on an outfit, she is more of a “£2-each-way kind of person” when it comes to placing a bet.

So what’s the secret to being best dressed lady at the races? “It’s all about how you hold yourself,” she says.

“You need to keep your head up, especially if you’ve got a hat on. A lot of people walk around with hunched shoulders thinking, ‘oh my god, I look silly in my hat’. I’d also say go for colour. A lot of people wear black and white which doesn’t get noticed any more.”

Ultimately, though, she says it is all about confidence.

“I’ve been going to the races since I was five years old so I’m comfortable in that environment,” she adds. “I think that’s been my real advantage – being confident in my outfit.”