Kentucky Derby fashion trends explored throughout the years

LOIUSVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – With the Kentucky Derby just days away, it’s one of the most frequently asked questions: “What are you wearing to the Derby?”

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

Jessica Whitehead, a curator of collections at the Kentucky Derby Museum, helped take a look back at fashion trends leading to the 150th Run for the Roses on Saturday.

She says the founder of the Kentucky Derby, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., did his homework before developing the upscale racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky.

He and his new socialite wife went to England’s Epson Derby and Paris, exploring fashion trends that men and women wore to the races.

Whitehead says, “They really wanted to cultivate a similar atmosphere of social elegance and of fashion elegance.”

His wife and her friends got that point across before the first Derby in 1875, getting into an open carriage and riding around the streets of Louisville to encourage people to show up to the Derby in their finest, she says.

For early derbies, hats for men and women were part of everyday ensembles.

In the 1940s, the designs became bigger and brighter, with racing fans hoping to catch the eyes of the media. The curator says journalists would pick people out of the crowd and say, “I want to feature you in the Courier Journal.”

In the 1960s and 1970s, people stopped wearing hats every day but still continued the trend at the Derby.

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

The derbies during the COVID-19 pandemic are a time to be a remembered, influencing hat designs to go with masks as sets.

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