Grand National Festival 2015: Chanel-inspired 'Style Code' produces mixed results at Aintree’s Ladies Day

A variety of daring dresses, some fine hats, and an awful lot of fake tan paraded the racecourse today

Hat at Aintree's Ladies Day 2015 (Reuters)

For the first time Aintree Ladies Day introduced a dress code for its attendees and their (ahem) rather diverse outfit choices.

The result? A variety of daring dresses, some fine hats, and an awful lot of fake tan.

The “Style Code” was inspired by the Coco Chanel quote: “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.“ With this new rule the outfits parading at Ladies Day were expected to be a little more refined, shall we say.

Rebecca Ferguson at Aintree's Ladies Day 2015 (Rex Features)

Aintree’s website currently reads: “There is no official dress code, smart is preferable and is often adopted”, hats “are optional too, but are frequently worn”. But it also highlights that sports clothes and fancy dress are not permitted.

“The overall consensus is that Ladies Day at The Grand National is a unique event bursting with personality and individual takes on style,” said a spokesperson for the racecourse at the time.

“The Style Code is fairly light-hearted but we want racegoers to really embrace it and cement The Crabbie's Grand National Ladies Day 2015 as the best dressed event in the racing calendar.”

But besides the new dress code, John Baker, managing director of Aintree called for “negative” photographs of Ladies Day to be banned as he told the Telegraph that female racegoers should “feel secure” and he wants to “negate and nullify any media outlet” that attempts to take an unflattering photograph.

It felt like summer at Aintree's Ladies Day (Getty Images)

“Our event is full of character, it’s fun, and that’s generated by the personality of the Liverpool people” he said. “We have to absolutely protect that because it’s at the core of what we are, and we have a responsibility to our customers to project the correct image.”