While we’re days away from the Met Gala, a few thousand miles away, another opulent fashion spectacle is happening: The Kentucky Derby. The annual Churchill Downs horse race is now in its 151st year of celebrating jockeys, mint juleps, and some of the world’s best hats and fascinators.
The Kentucky Derby 2025 style guide emphasizes the importance of guests embracing traditional “race day occasion wear” with a chic, contemporary twist and building looks around “the star of the show”—the Derby Day hat.
When looking around the Churchill Downs grounds, you’ll see a sea of extravagant and ornately designed hats and fascinators, many of which are Christine A. Moore creations. A veteran milliner, Moore has worked in the horse racing space for 20 years, creating over-the-top luxe pieces for the Derby and other annual race events. With a background in costume design and having worked on Broadway as an assistant to legendary theatrical milliner Rodney Gordon—designing hats and accessories for iconic shows like Phantom of the Opera—drama has always been an integral part of Moore’s design aesthetic.
“Theatrical fashion is what I’m really known for…and I think my detail is what I’m really known for,” Moore told Vogue prior to the 150th celebrations last year. We spoke on a call from her car as she drove between Churchill Downs and Louisville’s famed boutique, Rodes, where her iconic hats are sold. “Everything’s hand-made in my style, so we don’t buy parts at all. We don't buy flowers, we don't buy bows; we just buy flat fabric and raw material, and then we just hand press everything. That is the point of focus that sets us apart from other hat designers.” One of the most spectacular styles at the Derby was Moore’s hand-crafted silk rosette hat purchased by longtime Rodes client and Kentucky Derby regular Patricia White.
Video by Lili Kobielski
2024 was a homecoming of sorts for Patricia White, who previously held decades-long attendance at the Louisville affair but had missed the past four years. She originally planned to wear a “head-to-toe yellow” ensemble, but the thoroughbred breeder’s vision for her Derby Day comeback look immediately changed once her eyes landed on Moore’s black, white, and red rose creation.
“It totally changed my whole outfit,” White says of the intricate chapeau. “As soon as I put it on, I loved it, so I had to switch. To have the red roses—it [was] a great way to come back…[I had] been away for four years. It was perfect.” (For the uninitiated, the Kentucky Derby is sometimes referred to as the Run for the Roses—a nod to the 544 roses the winner is presented with.)
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