Miriam Lord: A steamy D4 lends Ladies’ Day an elegant attitude without a horse in sight

Only the horses were sweating.

The ladies, on the other hoof, were sweating buckets. (Or, in the parlance of Best Dressed devotees, gently perspiring.)

This week’s episode of “Here’s your Hat, What’s your Horsey” came from a steamy Dublin 4, following on from last Thursday’s uplifting offering at the Galway Races when a lovely woman wearing a lovely outfit won a lovely prize.

There were two gongs presented in the winners’ enclosure at Ballybrit: Best Rig-out and Best Hat. The RDS doubled up with four for best dressed winner and runner-up, most elegant lady and most elegant man.

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How to pick those last two?

“Elegance is an attitude.”

Plenty for the judges to work with there.

More than 300 people – overwhelmingly female – entered this year’s Best Dressed Person contest at the Dublin Horse Show.

While the weather setting for most of this summer has been damp to deluge, conditions in the Ballsbridge showgrounds were firm underfoot and the going was glam to sweltering.

Fashion journalist Bairbre Power (in cool black) and media personality Lorraine Keane (cool in white) put in a marathon judging performance, evaluating the fashion parading past them on the main stage from midmorning to late afternoon.

While Bairbre’s headpiece was compact and restrained, Lorraine wore a white hat with a brim billowing like the underside of a giant stingray. A decent gust of wind and she would have taken off and landed in Tipperary.

Contestants who registered and agreed to be photographed for the judges queued for lengthy periods in the rising heat for a chance to appear onstage in their finery and have a quick chat with mistress of ceremonies, Laura Woods. They were scrutinised upside down and inside out by a gimlet-eyed crowd seated in front of the stage between the cocktail and prosecco concessions and a pop-up fine dining outlet on the band lawn run by Michelin-starred chef, JP McMahon.

Patrons who fancied nipping off campus for a restorative snifter could have done worse than the outside drinking area in Madigan’s Horse Show House on the other side of Merrion Road, gloriously named “Madigan Square Garden”.

Veterans of Best Dressed competitions – there are people who do the rounds of race meetings and festivals around the country – will have recognised some of the hats and outfits from last week’s Galway Races.

The celebration of recycled, repurposed, vintage and “sustainable” clothing continued into the Dublin event. We overheard one woman tell her companions as she held up a naggin-sized clutch for their perusal: “This is granny’s beloved handbag. She bought it in Zara two days ago but the judges don’t need to know that.”

A different sort of fashion drew large crowds of spectators to nearby Ring 2, where the Ladies Side-Saddle competition – a venerable staple of Ladies’ Day in the RDS – unfurled in all its veiled top hat and skirted riding habit glory.

Back across the way, MC Woods was confessing to a contestant draped in different shades of gold: “I haven’t seen a horse yet.”

“Me neither. I’m not judging you,” she replied.

“I’m here for the week,” said a woman from west Cork, wearing the elegant outfit she wore to her daughter’s wedding. “My husband brought two fillies here this morning. The two year old won this morning and the 62 year old is on the stage here this afternoon,” she declared, to a chorus of cheers from the discerning mammies seated below.

Darryl, who travelled from Northern Ireland, teamed check trousers and waistcoat with a pinkish jacket.

“What colour is that?” wondered the presenter.

“Ashes of roses,” shot back Bairbre, the Indo’s fashion editor, to a murmur of appreciation from the audience.

Laura Erskine from Carrickmines won praise and many hearts with her exquisite chiffon ballet-length floral dress. She said her 85-year-old mother Kay, originally from Cabra, made the dress in 1962 to wear out to dances.

“I’m here, not to win but, I suppose, to honour her,” she said, explaining that her mam hasn’t been in the best of health recently and moved into a nursing home last week.

“We were cleaning out her wardrobe and found it – all wrapped up and perfect. She’ll be delighted when she finds out I wore it on Ladies’ Day at the horse show,” said Laura, who is one of four sisters.

Meanwhile, in the acres of indoor space devoted to trade stands, there seemed to be a cure on offer for every ailment and condition under the sun. From hair removal to teeth whitening, treatment for bockety feet, bad back and gastric eruptions, allergies, fungal infections, food cravings, iron deficiency, stress, strain and matters requiring psychic readings.

The Randox Health stand offered a vast array of health testing options. “How can I check my testosterone?” was one of the questions highlighted in the company’s display.

We watched a smiling man in his 40s rock up to the two health experts running the stand. He stood in front of them, hips out, arms splayed. “Would yis like to check my testosterone now?”

Nudge-nudge. Gas man.

Neil McSharry of Kennedy & McSharry, Dublin’s oldest gentleman’s outfitters, had an impressive range of hats on display. “We will sell a lot of fedoras this week and Panamas are becoming very popular,” he told us. They are priced from €120. “I’m even getting people sent to me by their doctors who recommend them for sun protection.”

The judges (on the equestrian side of things) famously wear bowler hats. Otherwise, there isn’t much call for them in Dublin these days. But should an emergency arise in the RDS, Neil and his daughter Sarah have the precious bonces covered. He produced a wool felt Christy’s of London bowler from its silk-lined box – a snip at €220.

Then, a hint of controversy, Neil pointed to a handsome fur felt black fedora (€160). “He might get away with it,” he murmured.

Get away with what?

“The gentleman said he is a judge. And he bought this.”

And so to the big winners on fashion’s big day in the RDS.

Maria De Leon Castillejo, a travel writer from Seville in Spain, walked away with the best dressed crown on her first visit to the Dublin Horse Show. No stranger to Ireland, Maria has been a regular visitor since her parents sent her to Cork to study Irish at the age of seven.

[ Ladies’ Day at the Dublin Horse Show: 15 photos of head-turning headgear ]

She was visiting family and friends here and they encouraged her to enter the contest.

She teamed her deep burgundy silk jumpsuit by Spanish designer Adolfo Dominguez with a stylish handloomed coat she picked up in India and accessorised it with earrings by Malaba and a hat by Minoki.

She walked away with a prize worth more than €10,000 from the Anantara Hotel Group comprising packages from Anantara’s Marker Dublin Hotel and sister hotel in the Algarve.

Runner-up was Dee Maddock from Straffan, Co Kildare who also won a prize package from the hotel group. Dee’s striking hat was made by her sister and was constructed entirely out of badminton shuttlecocks.

The Longines “Elegance is an Attitude” winners were Maura O’Neill from Monkstown, Co Dublin who wore a stunning embroidered skirt made from material she bought at a sewing show in the RDS five years ago, and Hari Haran Rajendran, a doctor based in Dublin. Originally from Malaysia, he borrowed his mother’s treasured Chanel brooch to set off his Canali suit from Hanley and Co of Galway.

As you do.