What Does One Wear In Front of Royalty? (And Horses)

On Sunday, as part of the SHE magazine team, I attended an amazing day of events starting with the Royal Jaipur vs Toronto Polo Match followed by an evening gala with a JJ Valaya (leading Indian designer) fashion show. The guests of honour were HRH Diya Kumari and family (Princess of Jaipur), you might've seen her on Oprah's Next Chapter, when she hosted Oprah at her frickin palace! The minute I got the invite, I immediately started planning my outfit: what does one wear in front of royalty? What does wear in front of horses? (super elite horses I might add).

After much deliberating I picked an outfit (a maroon 3 quarter sleeve dress and a purple fascinator I bought some time ago and was dying to wear), pretty similar to a Kate Middizzle ensemble, but then as the day grew closer, the temperature kept rising and the dress was far too warm. I had to switch to plan B a couple of days before; very disappointing since I had no plan B! This is where I ended up scouring Queen St for the perfect outfit that was budget-conscious and CUTE. And thanks to the fashion gods, I found it. In a Chinatown shop no less! Chinatown came to the rescue.

Since this was my first Polo match, I had no clue if what I was wearing would work but I found when I got there, it was really quite a range. From ladies dressed in cute Calvin Klein sheaths with giant sun hats, to polo shirts and khakis, I saw the gamut. Of course, I decided to do something a little different, I imagined this as a garden party so I went with that theme for myself :) Frills, flowers and flowy ruled my fashion choice for the Polo match.

Here is my daytime Polo outfit:

Dress: $25 (Chinatown whaaaat!)

Espadrilles: $22 (Nine West on sale)

Fascinator: $40ish (Sussmans bridal on Queen St.)

As for the Polo event, it was a fun way to spend the day! It was a tied game until the end when Team Jaipur scored the winning goal! (surprisingly by the Maharaj of Jaipur himself...ahem...).

Here are some more pics from the day!

Me with SHE Magazine's Editor; Priya Kumar

The SHE intern team working hard!

My fascinator

Polo Warm up

Serious hat action

Stomping some divets! At the end of the match, the audience is asked to come on field and turn over the grass kicked up by the horses

After the HOT but fun day, we rushed home to quickly do an outfit change for the evening gala dinner at the Liberty Grand and House of Valaya fashion show. Valaya is one of the top Indian designers and his collection was gorgeous, (see below) I wanted it all! And the absolute highlight of my night was my conversation with the Princess herself! She was so incredibly sweet and friendly, she even complimented by outfit a few times ;) Ofcourse, I couldn't resist asking her about her experience hosting Oprah at her palace, and she proceeded to tell me how gracious and kind Oprah really was to every person she met, and that she really is as sweet as she seems on TV. And surprisingly, the Princess has not seen her own appearance because they don't get OWN in India! I encouraged her to YouTube it...lol

All in all, a fabulous day and night! Although the next day my feet and I were SO tired....still recovering, I think a spa day might help....hmmm

Here are some pics from the night, including my outfit pic!