Royal Ascot has never really been about horse racing.
The races matter, of course. The winners matter. The history matters. But what has drawn people back to Ascot for more than three centuries is something more difficult to define. It is tradition. It is ceremony. It is one of the few places left in the modern world where presentation still matters.
It is precisely the sort of place that fascinates Victoria Van Der Berg.
Model and lifestyle creator Victoria Van Der Berg arrived in England this week for Royal Ascot, exchanging the harbors of Monaco and the sunlit terraces of the Mediterranean for manicured lawns, grandstands, and a distinctly British sense of occasion.
“For a moment I thought of Eliza Doolittle,” Van Der Berg says. “Not because I felt out of place, but because there is something wonderfully theatrical about Ascot. Everyone arrives wearing the best version of themselves.”
It is an observation that reveals something important about the creator herself.
Over the past year, Van Der Berg has built a growing audience through a visual world that stretches from Paris and Saint-Tropez to Monaco, Capri, and the Italian coast. The images in which she appears feel less like social media content and more like pages from an ongoing European travel diary. The destinations are beautiful, but what keeps people returning is the atmosphere.
Whether she is stepping onto a train platform in Venice, attending Grand Prix week in Monaco, wandering the streets of Paris, or watching the sun disappear beyond the Mediterranean, Van Der Berg approaches each destination as part of a larger story. The result is a body of work that feels connected, cinematic, and unmistakably her own.
At Ascot, that fascination with place and tradition finds a natural home.
“There is an elegance to it,” she says. “Not just the fashion. The rituals. The expectation. The idea that certain occasions still deserve effort.”
Walking through the grounds, she seems less interested in celebrity sightings than in the details. The craftsmanship of a hat. The careful tailoring. Families attending together across generations. Conversations between strangers who may never meet again after the final race.
“It reminds you that people still enjoy participating in something larger than themselves,” she says. “For one day everyone agrees to play a role in the story.”
One moment in particular stayed with her.
“I looked across the lawn and saw hundreds of hats moving through the crowd,” she says. “For a second it felt less like a sporting event and more like stepping into another century. You don’t get many experiences like that anymore.”
That perspective may explain why her audience continues to grow. Followers often describe her content as transporting rather than aspirational. They return not simply to see another destination but to experience a world that feels increasingly rare in contemporary social media. A world built on observation rather than urgency.
Fashion remains central to Van Der Berg’s visual identity, but it is rarely presented in isolation. A dress belongs to a place. A location becomes part of a narrative. Whether she appears on the French Riviera, along the Amalfi Coast, in Monaco during Grand Prix week, or now at Royal Ascot, the emphasis remains the same: atmosphere first.
Raised around horses, travel, and European culture, Van Der Berg sees Ascot not as a standalone event but as part of a larger tradition.
“Horses have always been part of the landscape for me,” she says. “What I love about Ascot is that it brings together so many worlds at once. Sport. Fashion. History. Society. You can watch a race and then spend twenty minutes talking about a hat.”
That combination of seriousness and playfulness has made Royal Ascot one of Britain’s most enduring cultural institutions. It also makes it a natural fit for a creator whose work exists somewhere between fashion editorial, travel journal, and visual storytelling.
For Van Der Berg, the most memorable moments are often the smallest ones.
“Everyone talks about the races,” she says. “But one of my favorite moments was watching people arrive in the morning. The anticipation. The excitement. You could feel that something special was about to happen before the first horse ever reached the track.”
Perhaps that is the secret of Ascot itself.
Like the best travel experiences, it is not simply a place to visit. It is a place to inhabit, if only for a day.
For Victoria Van Der Berg, that has always been the point.
To see more of Victoria Van Der Berg’s travels, fashion, and daily observations from across Europe, visit VictoriaVanderberg.com.
