STYLE COUNSEL:For a decade now, we've been flaunting it, traipsing around in entirely inappropriate gear. In the season of race meetings, horse shows and weddings, here are a few modest tips. Lose the feathers, for starters, writes Orna Mulcahy
DESIGNER PAUL COSTELLOE has never been forgiven for telling Irish women that they had no style - and that was years ago, before the nation got all confused between day and night and started wearing cocktail dresses to the races.
A sport that was once associated with sensible tweeds and smart raincoats has turned into a chiffon and feather fest that begins with Leopardstown on St Stephen's Day and reaches a pitch at the Galway Races.
Women think nothing of tottering across the turf in four-inch heels and strapless gowns that were really designed for tiny Asian teenagers, not for galumphing Irish girls with, to borrow from Edna O'Brien, backsides that sing of soda bread.
With beefy arms slathered in fake tan and sausage toes spilling out of their strappy sandals, these ladies are a fearsome sight, from Punchestown to Tramore. It's Sex and the City Goes Racing - without the stylist, the hairdresser or the make-up artist. The object of the exercise is to have a rollicking good day out, probably get blind drunk and possibly meet a man to take home.
Get it right and you could even win a "best dressed" prize - this summer around €50,000 will be handed out in best dressed ladies competitions at race meetings - a phenomenon that has brought new life to the track, albeit the expense of good taste.
Twenty years ago, good taste was a clear-cut affair, and the best dressed women at the races were invariably leggy blonde women in the winners' enclosures, wearing gorgeous little suits with nipped-in waists, or the exuberantly floral Kanga dresses made famous by Princes Charles's ex, Lady Dale Tryone. Broad-brimmed hats were de rigeur, handbags were discreet. Fast forward to today, and the "best dressed" contenders could be wearing anything from their debs dress to a business suit tarted up with diamanté and Carmen Miranda headgear, or a boho number slashed down to the waist and up to the knee.
Competition is stiff, however, with professional clothes horses on the prowl. Model agency boss Celia Holman Lee, a judge at the Curragh best dressed competition last month, had to defend herself against accusations of "fixing" after one of her models, Miss Universe contestant Lorraine Nolan from Carlow, scooped the top prize, after an earlier victory at Punchestown, where Holman Lee was also one of the judges.
How can ordinary punters, wearing a decent hat and coat, stand a chance of winning a prize against these willowy creatures clad in daring designer kaftans and Christian Louboutins?
Coco Chanel, the grand arbiter of style, and a passionate race-goer, must be spinning in her grave. She created clothes and hats of exquisite simplicity that the racing set adopted the world over, and still, at top-notch meetings you will see her disciples wearing little bouclé wool suits, double strings of pearls, straw hats with turned-back brims and two-tone patent shoes. Granted, these ladies are getting on a bit, but you still see them, strolling by with their elderly, binocular-toting husbands, clad in Viyella and tweed.
They sit well back from the action, in trim little suits with, possibly, a brooch on one lapel. Their narrow, well-bred feet will be shod in sensible Ferragamo. These are the real grand dames of racing, who attended their first meeting with Daddy 70 years ago, and who still remember Ballymoss and Arkle. There's a lot we could learn from them.
Seasoned punters know you have to keep warm at the races, what with all the standing around at the parade ring, so, generally, they wear layers, including a jacket or a coat with pockets for cash, betting slips - and a copy of The Irish Field.
Newcomers, who may not know one end of a horse from the other, see the races as a chance to dress up and bring the lightest of pashminas in case the temperature drops below zero. They will almost certainly drag along a designer handbag, even if it's a vast, clunky one with lots of hardware that plays havoc with the chiffon.
"It's that boring old word 'appropriateness', isn't it?" says Sarah McDonnell, editor of The Glossmagazine, who admits to disliking the spectacle of Irish racing. "A lot of Irish women equate the races with glamour, and glamour with bareness. They don't feel dressed-up unless they have a cleavage and bare arms."
We should, she says, be taking a cue from people who are always at the races. "Trainers and owners, their wives and husbands. You see them in suits and court shoes, and they have a certain type of glamour. The combination of evening dress, high heels and fascinator is just not right, particularly not in a gale-force wind."
"One of the problems is that women have splashed out on all this gear and they have nowhere to wear it," says Rhona Blake, managing director of PR company Fleishman-Hillard, who has organised scores of functions at racecourses. "They don't have the social life to match and they see the races as an opportunity to get the gear on. True blue racing people would never dress themselves like that, so it's a real case of old-style money versus the nouveau riche."
An immaculate dresser herself, Blake is beginning to wonder if her strict code is being overtaken by the tide of fashion. "The last time I got dressed up to go the races, and for a lunch beforehand, I was looking at all these other women in backless dresses and halter tops and high heels, and thinking how they had got it wrong, but then someone said to me that I looked like Margaret Thatcher because I was wearing a suit and a handbag!"
However, she has seen all the mistakes at the track over the years, and singles out the Punchestown festival as the most challenging event of all. "Punchestown takes place in April, when it is neither winter nor summer. At the same meeting, you can have some women wearing cocktail dresses and others wearing fur hats and coats. I remember at one of the best dressed events the rain was sheeting in from the left and all these women were standing there with fake tan running down their left legs."
It's the fake tan that makes fashion designer Peter O'Brien shudder. "I think that extreme fashion or extreme artifice - in fake tan or make-up - only look good on people who don't need it, like 18-year-old Brazilian women." Tone it all down is his advice, and look to Carla Bruni for inspiration. The couturier, who worked in Paris for decades, is aghast at some of fashions being paraded out there and makes a plea for women to return to tailoring, particularly those of a certain age.
"Diana Vreeland said that everyone over 40 should wear a uniform, and I have to agree with her. She wore a Balenciaga dress and coat that she reordered every season in colours like navy and grey and it looked wonderful."
He suggests adopting the French style in the form of a "three-hole dress", worn with a jacket, or with a cashmere cardigan over the shoulders. "That is one of the sexiest things in the world. Think Grace Kelly. And great shoes. I hate it when there is too much foot and not enough shoe. "I don't think it's about old, young, thin or fat, tall or small. It's just about being quietly and appropriately dressed. This society is terrified of things being quiet and understated. Everything has to be a statement or have a message. We don't seem to want things that are just attractive and nice.
"Please, can we stop the fey flutteriness, we just can't carry it off with our 36DDs," said one exasperated race-goer, who didn't want to be named in case of lynching.
"We think that we can wear floaty skirts and camisoles, but we can't. I blame the boutiques that you find in small towns, sweet kooky-looking places run by women who spend too much time in Marbella and peddle the most dreadful clothes by Mario of Madrid or whoever. Let's face it. It's genetics. We are Celts. Fat Celts. We are not Mediterraneans with good tans and muscle tone. Women who pour themselves into these blingy clothes just end up looking like trollops. They don't know if they are going to Ballybrit or Ballinasloe. The only toned haunches you are likely to see are on the horses in the parade ring."
"Ladies' Day competitions are supposed to be for the best dressed, not the least dressed," says writer Robert O'Byrne, forever famous for telling Irish women to cover up their arms as they approach 40.
"They shouldn't be occasions to show how much of your flesh is covered in fake tan. Well dressed, says O'Byrne, would be a decent well-cut shift dress to the knee and a jacket. "If you must wear a hat, wear a hat, not a number of feathers stuck onto an extended coat hanger. We've stopped being fascinated by those . . . they are deeply boring and unattractive on most people."
O'Byrne also insists that dressing like Carla is the way forward. "Look at what she wore on her state visit to London. Grey and navy were her colours, and she knocked everyone else out. She shows that an immaculately simple coat and dress just wipes out the competition. She does have other advantages of course, but ignore them and just copy the clothes.
"You don't have to dye yourself tangerine and wear lime green and turquoise to make a impression. The horror story has continued for far too long. But at least now the recession might encourage people to a bit a sobriety."
Perhaps, but exuberant dressing has taken hold across the land, and there will be no official moves to stop it. There is no dress code for Irish racing, including the big festival events, unlike in England where fears of slipping sartorial standards have seen new rules introduced at Ascot, barring women from wearing halter-necks, spaghetti straps, mini-skirts and bare midriffs in the Royal Enclosure.
"The good thing is that racing in Ireland is for everyone," says Tamso Doyle, PR for Horse Racing Ireland, who attends at least 75 meetings a year. "Horse racing has always been glamorous, but years ago it was seen as an elite sport. It's only in the Noughties that it has grown to be such a big sport and we are seeing record attendances. Last year 1.46 million people went racing, up from 1.3 million in 2002."
The general public, she says, does not feel "stifled by rules. Going to the races is a perfect showcase for dressing up."
Best dressed competitions shouldn't be taken too seriously. "They are a bit of fun, but it's important that the people who win are appropriately dressed." She relies on suits and separates to see her through the season, and a rota of hired hats. Her car is a mobile wardrobe.
"I have all sorts of things standing by. Extra shoes, an umbrella, a coat, and I decide at the last minute on what to wear. Racing dressing shouldn't be about being on trend, it should be about being comfortable. Blister plasters are not a good look." "More and more women are attending race meetings," she says. "It's regarded as a growth area. These days it's all about getting together with friends to go to the races. There is a touch of Sex in the Cityto it. At festival meetings the attendance is 50:50. At regular meetings it is 60:40, men to women."
With all this socialising, the glass has replaced the binoculars, says Blake, who adds that women need to take it easy at the bar. "Dressing up and drinking just don't go well together. Big racing events are a complete binge-up. At the end of the day, you see a lot of tired and emotional women leaving with their stilettos in their hand."
The last word goes to Faith Amond, the legendarily smart Carlow woman who has carried off dozens of best dressed prizes in recent years. Deep in preparation for Galway when we spoke, she was hoping for good weather at Ballybrit so that she can give her bright yellow Jackie O-style outfit another outing.
The 55-year-old, who is recovering from breast cancer, will be recycling some of her previous winning ensembles from designers such as Louise Kennedy and Paul Costelloe. "I love his clothes, no matter what he said about Irish women."
She describes herself as a classic dresser. "I like suits and coats and nice hats. Younger girls can get away with being a bit more daring, I suppose, and maybe it has gotten a bit out of hand in recent years. I have seen girls wearing no sleeves in the middle of winter, when men are wearing their Crombie coats.
"But you have to live and let live don't you?"
For details of race meetings in Ireland, see www.goracing.ie