Miami Philanthropists Featured in British Social Pages
A group of Miami social starts caught the lenses of British paparazzi this week when they attended the Royal Ascot horse races in Windsor Great Park, just outside of London. This season marks the third of which hat designer Suzy Buckley Woodward organized the trip for 13 friends – including Carol Iacovelli, Marisa Toccin, Alexa Wolman, Jennifer Valoppi, Lauren Taschen, Nicole Lozano. Photos of the women have been published in the likes of the The Guardian, a daily newspaper and The Sun, which is the second most circulated newspaper in the UK.
Buckley Woodward, who founded hat company Shapoh, began organizing the international race visits after she began importing hats from the likes of New Zealand, Australia, England. “I wanted to meet the milliners I have been working with so closely for the past five years,” she says.
It’s likely one of the most glamourous of girls trips. The group stays at Cliveden in Maidenhead, where Meghan Markle spent the night before her wedding and watches the race from the Royal Enclosure – the seats second only to sitting with the Queen’s box. They have constant hair and makeup and enjoy lunch at three Michelin Star restaurants. It’s not unusual for them to get attention from people and press.
“A lot of people are not quite sure what our deal is,” says Buckley Woodward. “We have great, Avant Garde and our special headware isn’t very ordinary. However, our group is all on-trend, with very current styles and fashions to go along with it. We look cohesive and we spend six months discussing hats and outfits. There is nothing effortless about these looks.”
This trip is one of many races they’ll see this year. The group in May goes to the Kentucky Derby and the Central Park Conservancy Lunch, in July The Del Mar Races, in January The Pegasus Cup in January, and Buckley Woodward is contemplating putting the Dubai Cup on the calendar.
Brett Graff is SocialMiami.com’s managing editor and has been a journalist covering money, people and power for over 20 years. Graff contributes to national media outlets including Reuters, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Maxim, and the PBS show, Nightly Business Report. A former U.S. government economist, her nationally syndicated column The Home Economist is first published in The Miami Herald and then on the Tribune Content Agency, where it’s available to over 400 publications nationwide. She is broadcast weekly on two iHeartRadio news shows and is the author of “Not Buying It: Stop Overspending & Start Raising Happier, Healthier, More Successful Kids,” a parenting guide for people who might be tempted to buy their children the very obstacles they’re trying to avoid.
