A little known fact about me… I like to collect hats.

Sadly, I do more collecting that wearing, but I plan on changing that.

When one of my dearest friends Tawnya asked if I wanted to go to the Canadian Derby at Northlands this year I jumped at the chance; I love any opportunity to pull together an outfit from my tickle trunk. I thought it would just be the two of us, but she demanded that The Spaniard join us for a day at the races. We channelled our best British horse-racing style; I wore a hat I got at my favourite church charity shop in Brixton, London, and Tawn wore a fascinator that I made in a hat class in London.

The day was a cold one in August, but that didn’t stop us from going for it. When we arrived we took advantage of the fashion stakes photo booth.

Walking long distances in heels is never fun so we gladly accepted a ride in a golf cart to the gate from one of the event volunteers.

It was the first time The Spaniard had ever been to the races. I think Tawn did an excellent job of styling him for the occasion.

We bet on a few of the races (I like to pick my winners based on the jockey’s outfits or the horses socks). Surprisingly we were not holding any winning tickets at the end of the day.

There were several hat-wearing ladies and dapper-looking gentleman in the crowd, but the weather certainly put a damper on the fashion scene. We ourselves layered up – Tawn warmed up by wearing an alpaca wrap I picked up while backpacking in Peru. 

We ran into a colleague of mine from work, Pam, who is involved with horse racing. When she asked if we wanted to check out the barns we jumped at the chance.

The horses were beautiful, friendly, and open to posing for selfies.

I know the fashionable drink at a derby is a mint julep – but it was too cool to have drinks with ice and we were desperate to warm up. Instead of settling in at the bar we did a pit stop in Chinatown for a bowl of pho from King Noodle House. I can’t think a better place to sport a derby hat.