Bespoke milliner Merve Bayindir wears one of her hats while sitting among recent headwear creations, as she speaks to Reuters ahead of the Ascot horse racing festival, a showcase event for hat makers and fashion designers, in London, Britain, May 13, 2025.
REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) — At her London studio, Merve Bayindir carefully glues on dried flowers onto a pale pink saucer hat. Nearby, an array of other colorful headpieces are on display.
The Turkish-born milliner has been busy making hats for guests attending the annual Royal Ascot racing event, where hoheadwear is a must.
“It is the biggest runway. It’s the Oscars. It’s the Golden Globes…that is what it is for us…milliners, because you can’t see that many amazing hats in one spot at the same time for a week,” she told Reuters.
The horse-racing event, held in Ascot just outside London, kicks off on June 17 for five days. It has become as much known for the colorful fashion as for the sport.
Its various enclosures have different dress codes — the strictest is for the royal enclosure.
“You have to have minimum ten centimeters of diameter on a hat,” Bayindir said.
“So (for) the ladies in royal enclosure, we always say make sure that your hat is not a fascinator,” she added, referring to elaborate, decorative headpieces, often fixed on a band or clip.
For the Queen Anne and village enclosures, hats, headpieces or fascinators are allowed.
In terms of colors, Bayindir said designs in pale pink and blue were annual staples, with fuchsia, sage green and lilac also proving popular lately. As for size, the bigger the better.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, you can be the star and take that chance and be outrageous,” she said.
“Royal Ascot itself has a very big personality. So you need to sort of support that big personality and be part of it if you want to be really enjoying the environment.”
