What To Wear To The Prix De Diane Longines

The Prix De Diane Longines is often referred to as the Kentucky Derby of France! Over 40,000 people from around the world attend the races to not only bet on their lucky horse, but to showcase the latest fashion trends. Women dress to impress, wearing their extravagant hats, while men are in a traditional suit. Given that this was my first time attending the Prix De Diane Longines I had no idea what to wear. Before arriving to Prix De Diane Longines, the only reference I had for the horse races was from Julia Roberts in the famous Pretty Woman scene where she’s attending the horse races in her brown and white polka-dot dress. Considering Pretty Woman was released in 1990, this begs the question, what to wear to the Prix De Diane Longines?

WHAT TO WEAR TO THE PRIX DE DIANE LONGINES:

1. A Big Hat! – It’s all about the hats, the bigger, the better. As this was my first experience attending the Prix De Diane Longines, I wore a hat I already owned, but now that I’ve seen first hand all the fancy hats the ladies are wearing, I will be sure to find a fabulous one next year.
2. A Long Dress – I highly recommend you wear a long dress because most of the day you’ll be sitting down and you don’t want to keep having to worry about your dress and pulling it down. I wore a long, flowy dress that was both comfortable and fashionable.
3. Thick heels or wedges – You will be walking around all day in the grass, and I highly recommend that you wear thick heels. Many times you will even be walking in dirt, and if it rained the night before the ground will be wet.
4. Comfortable shoes – When you arrive, you’ll have to walk either from your parking spot or from the train station to the racetrack. It is between 15-25 minutes depending on where you get dropped off. I always pack my heels / wedges in a cloth bag and change when I arrive.
5. For the Men A Suit or slacks and a blazer or suit jacket – When I looked around the Prix De Diane Longines, I noticed The men were in suits. At the Kentucky derby you’ll see men in fun colored suits with bow ties, at the Prix De Diane you’ll see more traditional and neutral colors being worn. A majority of the guys were wearing Black, Grey, and Blue suits.  

ADDITIONAL THINGS TO PACK:

1. Binoculars – If you are short like me, or even have a hard time seeing, you'll want to pack a pair of binoculars. I wasn't as close as I would have liked to the horses, and the binoculars were definitely an added plus. 
2. Sunscreen / An Umbrella – This year it was both sunny and rainy. I would recommend checking the weather before attending. When I checked the weather in the morning, I saw there was a good chance of rain in the morning and sun in the afternoon. For me, both sunscreen and an umbrella were necessary. 
3. Picnic Supplies –  If you have passes to one of the sections you don’t have to worry about picnic supplies, but for the majority of us, we will be sitting in the common areas.  There are public tables available, however, typically these get snagged up quickly so unless you arrive right when the doors open, it would be a good idea to pack picnic supplies.
4. Water – The race horses don’t start until the afternoon, and if you arrive early for the concert you are going to be at Prix De Diane Longines all day, and you must stay hydrated. We purchased the Boite A Chapeau aka the gourmet lunch picnic package and it didn’t include water. I would recommend either purchasing water while you are there or packing water before attending.

HOW TO ARRIVE TO THE PRIX DE DIANE LONGINES:

There are two different ways you can arrive to the Prix de Diane Longines.

1. The first is by car, make sure if you do attend by car you purchase the parking pass prior to attending.
2. The second way is by train. If you go to Gare Du Nord there is a train that will take you straight to Chantilly. I have two major tips for arriving to Prix de Diane Longines by train, the first is to arrive early. This is an extremely popular event, attracting over 40,000 people from all around the world, and the most popular way to arrive is by train. If you don’t arrive early, you’ll be forced to stand the entire way. The second tip is to purchase your tickets online. When we arrived at the train station they were charging 8.60 euros a ticket or if you bought them online it was only 5 Euros. While it doesn’t seem that much, if you’re with a big group, that can quickly add up. I also recommend you pack a pair of comfortable shoes for the walk from the train station to the racetrack. The walk is roughly 15-20 minutes. There are buses available to you that will drive you from the train station stop to the horse races, but these buses fill up quickly.

In conclusion, this was the first year I’ve attended the Prix De Diane Longines and I had such a wonderful time. It was so watching the horse races, observing all the different hats / fashion trends, and spending time with my friends. I can’t wait to attend Prix De Diane Longines next year!

**If you do not have a printer, it’s okay. You do not need to print off your Prix de Diane Longines tickets, you can pull them up on your phone and they can scan the tickets.

OUTFIT I WORE TO ATTEND THE PRIX DE DIANE LONGINES: 

A Dress by NA-KD, V-Neck Flower Print Chiffon Dress White, Save 30% on NA-KD using “petiteinparis30” during checkout and a Hat by Sole Society, Panama Hat

Sincerely Petite in Paris,

Diane