Champions of curious creativity

There’s so much going on in London - I sometimes worry about venturing outside our culture-crazed capital, for fear of missing something… Nevertheless, next week I’ll be travelling a few miles up the road to attend Royal Ascot. I’ve yet to decide which hats to wear. I’ll probably find myself doing a bit of DIY decoration at the very last minute.

As florals are in fashion, I might take my inspiration from the finalists in the Florist of the Year award at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, whose theme was 'a day at the races'. They created these magnificent jockey vests from freshly cut flowers, all displayed around Tom Hare’s stunning 2-D willow sketch of a race horse (see right and below).

































































For men, one of the advantages of Royal Ascot is that they get to dress up too. If you’re going along, ShopCurious has some curiously appropriate accessories, like these vintage ‘steeplechase’ cufflinks, which will certainly set you apart from the crowd. They’d also make a great gift for Father’s Day, which is useful, since that falls just after Royal Ascot – so if you’re curiously clever, you can save a few bob by using them for both…

Will you?