The Kentucky Derby Style Guide is a book- both physical and digital- that was first introduced last year in 2024 for the 150th anniversary of the Kentucky Derby, it compiles many outfits from over the years of Derby fashion in order to pay homage to it’s history and inspire a new era of Derby fashion as well. While this sounds wonderful in theory, the question still remains: is it truly necessary?
As one can see looking at the Style Guide, it is mostly directed towards women with many female models adoring the pages of the book in different dresses, shoes, and of course, hats. Although lovely to look at, many have argued Derby fashion is often sexist by more pressure being put on women to dress a certain way or have the best hats and fascinators. Perhaps the Style Guide’s intention is not to further this stereotype, but it certainly does not help to eliminate the stigma surrounding women’s choices for their Derby fashion being judged more than men’s.
Along with this, the Style Guide suggests that Derby fashion is a status symbol as well as a tradition, which casts a dark shadow upon the enjoyment of people’s experiences picking out what to wear for themselves, not for others. The fifth page of the 2025 style Guide states, “The first act of this visual symphony celebrates the spectacle of the Kentucky Derby through the lens of a distinguished guest.” This judgmental idea of fashion equaling your financial or political status has been going on for decades in the Kentucky Derby, but one may argue the new Style Guide has opened an old wound of over consumption during the weeks leading up to Derby by promoting the idea of a “distinguished guest” based on how close your outfit is to what’s trending according to the Style Guide’s “visual symphony”.
Allowing Derby attendees to express themselves through extravagant outfits and the classic hats has always been the center of the Kentucky Derby’s fashion culture, yet that heart of the people seems to be restricted in the past year by the Style Guide’s proposal of “correct” outfits. Although these controversies are not the main goal of the Derby’s Style Guide whatsoever, the subtle messages within it’s pages unfortunately can cause our perspective on fashion to tunnel, feeding these harmful stereotypes and old ideologies. It is up to us to determine our own fashion choices for the Kentucky Derby and evolve its fashion culture to be the change we wish to see.