This week, the 149th Dublin Horse Show is taking place in the RDS in Ballsbridge. Ladies Day, which was held on Thursday, was originally known as the Ladies Jumping Competition but is now mostly known for its Best Dressed event, which draws huge numbers.
This year’s winner, Lorraine Ryan Kelly from Galway, is the latest in a long line of stylish attendees who put tremendous effort into catching the judges’ eyes to win the covetable first prize.
Participating in Best Dressed events has become a huge social pastime. While race meetings have always been associated with glamour, the competitions for the smartest dressers now challenge the races as the focus of attention.
Outside of weddings, occasions that demand full-on high style are in decline, so the opportunity to get dressed up and pull out all the stops in terms of coordination, grooming and accessorising are few and far between — and welcomed when they do present themselves.
These fashion competitions also offer amazing prizes – both the Galway Races and the RDS Dublin Horse Show offer a first prize of €10,000. Other prizes offered include cars, flights and foreign holidays, so it is highly lucrative.
Winning Best Dressed at an event can also be a boost to the winner’s profile. Previous winners include Heidi Higgins, the fashion designer who won wearing her own design in Punchestown in April 2010, and Lisa McGowan of Lisa’s Lust List, who won at the Galway Races in 2016. They have both carved out highly successful fashion careers since.
Racing has always been a backdrop for glamour: The relationship between equine sports and fashion dates back to when racing was first professionalised in the early 20th century and getting crowds though the turnstiles became a priority.
Flamboyance and glamorous dressing became part of racing’s allure. From the early 1910s, the print media gave ample space to the glamourous crowds at race meetings, which gave the public opportunities to observe ostentatious finery. The races emerged as a social catwalk for the wealthy and the socially mobile to display their glad-rags, and race day fashion filled social pages across newspaper titles.
Fashion at the races became both a social barometer and a reflection of the styles worn by the aristocracy, the tastemakers of the day. In the days before fashion shows, race meetings were a prime opportunity to show off your style credentials, as they were one of few social occasions staged in front of the wider public.
Society women spent lavishly on fashionable racing outfits by famous couturiers who also gained from the publicity. By 1922, Ascot was deemed the ‘best place in England to see beautiful women wearing beautiful clothes’.
In Ireland, racing was perhaps less socially stratified but just as popular, with the first Irish racing calendar published as early as 1790. Although not as wealthy as English society, dressing up to attend the races was also ingrained in Irish people.
Throughout the early decades of the Irish Free State, a day at the races was a favourite outing and prepped for with great care, especially by women.
The RDS Dublin Horse Show was the social event of the season for Anglo-Irish families and the Shelbourne Hotel would be full with groups up from the country for the socialising that surrounded it.
Today, dressing up for the races remains as popular as ever despite fashion’s general slide into casual style. The advent of Best Dressed competitions as a marketing ploy to attract more female race attendees has been a huge success. Now almost every race meeting worth its salt – such as Galway, Sligo, Kilbeggan, Punchestown and Leopardstown – boasts a competition for the most stylish racegoers, with men included too.
The criteria for winning might seem to be about grabbing attention, but it is more subtle and nuanced. Striking silhouettes, dramatic headgear and bright colour palettes are often seen but so too are monochrome outfits and elegant ensembles.
Looking back at winners throughout 2024, it is striking to see many women wearing pre-loved, vintage, borrowed, up-styled or existing items they have owned for years.
At the recent Sligo races, Olive Tonry won in a striking yellow dress bought on Depop paired with a cape made by her local dressmaker. At the Galway Races, Davinia Knight won in an all-black ensemble which was rented. While at the Curragh Sapphire Awards, Maksuda Akhter won while 38 weeks pregnant in an outfit bought from a St Vincent de Paul shop.
Similarly, at the Kilbeggan Races, Katie Moran scooped the prize in a Ralph Lauren dress she had bought on Oxfam’s online shop, while in January in Naas, Mary Woulfe from Limerick triumphed in a pre-owned Zara bouclé trouser suit styled with a fur stole from an old coat.
Faith Amond, 71, from Carlow is Ireland’s most successful Best Dressed contestant with wins at more than 50 events. Her first was at Leopardstown 40 years ago and she won a Range Rover Evoque at Aintree in 2017. She recalls that the events weren’t as competitive back then while now it is ‘more commercial’.
‘I say to young girls, it’s a lovely day out and just enjoy it,’ she says. ‘You meet lovely people. It’s a lovely social outing.’
However, for those who are focused on competing she advises, not to ‘overthink it too much’ and ‘it can be won wearing anything’. She firmly believes in ‘appropriate’ clothing for racing and that ‘elegance is very important’.
She also thinks that grooming is very important and that women need to be wary of badly applied fake tan or overdone make-up, like heavy false eyelashes. Too much flesh as in overly high slits paired with off-the-shoulder styles is also a no-no. For Faith accessories are really key and overall, ‘elegance plays a big part’ but says that that is just her personal opinion and that it is ‘horses for courses’.
Marietta Doran, fashion stylist and MC, has been judging Best Dressed events for over 20 years. She started out with RTÉ Racing commenting on fashion and then worked with Channel 4 in the UK. Today she works mostly with race courses and sponsors and adjudicates all over the island at race days.
‘They really add so much colour to the track and to the races and it’s lovely to see everyone get dressed up,’ she says of the Best Dressed events. ‘It’s like a competition within a competition.
‘It does draw a lot of ladies. I judged at Gowran Park a few weeks ago and they had their highest ever entry registration. It’s just grown. You have head-to-toe glamour and if that’s your thing, you are at the perfect place.’
Marietta says that it is definitely the ‘sense of occasion around it’ that makes it so special as it is not every day that people do get dressed up now.
‘There’s great planning that goes into the outfits, and it is actually lovely that the glamour is from the head to the feet and all in between, the accessories and stuff,’ she says.
‘I always go on how an outfit looks – I couldn’t care less if it’s high street or high-end,’ Marietta asserts. ‘It’s just lovely now there’s a huge effort with sustainability because we’re all so conscious of the clothing industry and the effect that it’s having on the environment. It’s lovely to hear these outfits have all been worn before, even the accessories, the shoes. If it looks good on you and you’re comfortable in it, that’s important too, because that really does resonate,’ she emphasises.
‘There’s a real community being built around these Best Dressed and Ladies Days and there’s a sense of camaraderie. I always find there’s lovely stories behind the outfits and it’s important to find those stories and to share them.’
In a world that is increasingly homogenised, Marietta says that Best Dressed events celebrate individuality and are ‘a wonderful platform to showcase your style’. The ‘genuinely great prizes’ are also a big incentive to make an effort.
She also cites all the businesses that the competitions support. ‘We’re talking about not only the milliners but also hair and make-up people and boutiques too,’ she says.
In terms of advice to would-be competitors, Marietta says: ‘When you are planning your outfit, put on the entire outfit the day before, and practice walking around in it, because you’re familiar with it and you’ll feel more comfortable in it.
‘I always say colour is what I look for, colour and style. Head-to-toe glamour – you must have something in the hair or on the head because it does finish the entire look.
‘Grooming is a big thing for me – I was trained as cabin crew with Aer Lingus years ago, and during our training a really important part of it is your grooming. So, attention to detail, like your nail varnish, your tan, your make-up, your hair.
‘I always say less is more as well, so don’t over-accessorise but at the same time, it’s very hard to describe the winning outfit, because you just see it like I did last week in Sligo and for some reason you go, wow, that’s a beautiful outfit, that just ticks all the boxes.
‘I would also say, make sure to be seen by the judges. Those few hours at the track are very busy, so be seen, come up and say “Hi” because a lot of the girls are a little bit shy, but don’t be.
‘Just be comfortable in what you are wearing and never ever think that you have to be spending a fortune on an outfit,’ she emphasises. ‘Sustainability is here. It’s something that I’m very passionate about as well. Just be comfortable and enjoy it.
‘All these women are not necessarily there to be winning competitions, I don’t like that phrase. I prefer to say they are all there to take part in Ladies Day. It’s to get dressed up and to take part.’
