Homemade dress wins at Melbourne Cup

Emily Hunter was chosen over 200 other contestants. Photo / Getty

Forget forking out for high-end designers, the winner of this year's Myer Fashion on the Fields competition was a woman whose mum made her race day dress.

28-year-old Emily Hunter won the coveted title with her navy 50s style dress which she paired with yellow heels, a pink clutch and a flamboyant floral head dress that tied together the colours from her outfit.

The inspiration for her homemade haute couture came from Pinterest where Hunter says she saw the dress, fell in love with it and showed it to her mother to recreate.

"I said, 'I really love the full skirt,' and mum replied, 'oh, it's easy, we can whip that up," Hunter told news.com.au.

"It took her a couple of days, I thought it'd be something fun to do and a good project for mum and I to work on the dress together."

Emily's mum finished her dress the night before the event. Photo / Getty

Upstaging more than 200 fashionable women, many parading bold colours and prints, Hunter said her tactic was to keep the dress simple to compliment her headpiece.

"I couldn't find a dress that did the hat justice, so my mum decided to make my dress on Sunday and finished it late last night," She told the Herald Sun.

Her mother, a primary school teacher, was taught to sew by her mother. She couldn't be at the event yesterday and after finishing the dress, flew back to Canberra, then drove a further two hours home.

Hunter says she can't believe she won. "I'm still in shock. I wasn't expecting to win."

- nzherald.co.nz