How To Win At The Races (In The Style Stakes, Anyway!)

Coast Fashion have just announced their sponsorship of the ‘Best Dressed Lady Competition’ at the Punchestown Racing Festival, for the second year running.  There are some pretty amazeballs prizes up for grabs, so I've asked the most fabulously fashionable woman I know, fashion journalist and blogger Rosemary MacCabe,  to share a few tips.

Having judged the Moët & Chandon ‘Best Dressed Lady’ for the Galway Races last year, she knows just what the judges are looking out for in the style stakes.

Coast Amelie (€225, left) and Loulou (€170) dresses

The winner will enjoy a jet-set shopping spree to  New York, Madrid and London, to check out the Coast stores in each city, and she'll get to bring a friend along for the ride (pick me, pick me!). She'll win a whopping €1000 to spend in each location, and have a personal stylist on hand to help spend it. The prize includes flights and accommodation and sounds, frankly, like a dream come true.

Naturally, the judges will be particularly looking out for women in Coast – but who have put their own personal and unique stamp on their look.  But race day style can be confusing. All too often it looks like a sea of fascinators and fake tan, so how can you fashionably stand out from the crowd?

 

Edwina dresses, €225

 

Here are Rosemary's top three tips for bagging that fabulous prize package:

1. Wear a hat. Some kind of hat. (But not a fascinator; we frown on those.) Ladies without hats rarely - if ever - win best-dressed competitions. Extra points if yours is by an up-and-coming Irish designer, Philip Treacy or somehow manages to be whimsical and beautiful at the same time.
2. Don’t wear tights. It doesn’t matter how cold it is, women wearing tights . . . well, you get where I’m going with this. Shave your legs two days before, exfoliate the day before and go easy on the Sally Hansen. We want a gentle, rather than a post-nuclear-reaction, glow. And a bit of sheen helps - try Mac’s strobe cream mixed in with a little Face and Body if you must.
3. Think about your look from head to toe - everything must be well thought out and coordinated (sad but true). If you’re cold, suck it up; ladylike coats, elbow-length gloves and fur (faux or real) stoles are kosher, but parkas and puffas are (obviously) not.

Punchestown Racing Festival takes place from Tuesday 23rd April to Saturday 27th April, with the final of the Best Dressed Lady competition taking place on Friday 26th April. Race-goers can avail of a personal ‘Coast By Appointment’ at Coast stores nationwide, to ensure they are kitted out for the big day.

Tweet