Melbourne Cup Fashion in the Field winners turn heads

Fashion in the Fields winners Kellie Walker from Beachlands and Qasim Mohammad from Manukau at Ellerslie Racecourse for the Melbourne Cup Race Day event. Photo / Dean Purcel

Seven finalists were hand-picked from the crowd for this year's Fashion in the Field event, but only two went home winners: stylist Kellie Walker and barber Qasim Mohammad.

Neither had been in a fashion in the field competition before and it was Mohammad's first time at the races.

His win marked a change in fortune, after his brother lost several thousand dollars on a bet earlier in the day.

Mohammad was wearing a classic cut, tight-fitting brown three-piece suit which was made for him in Turkey, and brown leather loafers also made in Turkey.

The Manurewa barber shop owner was at Ellerslie with his two brothers and some of his shop staff.

Walker was clad in a tastefully clashing blue and yellow Mossman dress, with a blue fascinator designed by Claire Hahn.

The gravity-defying headpiece was reminiscent of a strand of DNA.

Both winners took home swag including vouchers for beauty treatments, a massive bouquet of flowers and a magnum of champagne.

Walker had spent the day with a group of friends and said she planned to share her champagne with them.

She had never entered a fashion competition before today, when she was picked with Mohammad and five others as a finalist.

"It makes me want to enter more," she said, joking that she might be back for the Boxing Day races.

The Christmas-time competition is serious stuff, with contestants shelling out hundreds or even thousands of dollars on their attire.

Walker was a stylist, so perhaps her win was no surprise.

"It's my job to look good - and make others look good."