Even for the most stylish woman, there are occasions when it is more important to be wisely than well-dressed. Yesterday at the RDS was just such an occasion.
It was a day so soft that disintegration by excessive humidity seemed likely, a day simultaneously so warm and wet that choosing what to wear became a well-nigh insuperable challenge.
Around the Ballsbridge grounds' band lawn, that challenge had been taken up in a wide variety of ways. There were women in evening dresses, cocktail dresses, co-ordinating coats and dresses and, every now and then in trouser suits.
For yesterday was Ladies' Day, a title which evokes images of graceful creatures drifting indolently by bedecked in their summery flummery. That, at least, is the fanciful notion of the day.
The reality, on the other hand, turned out to be somewhat less dainty and more hard-edged. For Ladies' Day now usually means an opportunity to pull out that outfit bought for a wedding last year and attempt to win a prize for best/finest/most glamorously dressed woman of the moment.
This explains why the band lawn had, by 3.30 p.m. yesterday become a heaving mass of ladies desperately attempting to take shelter under a tent from torrential rain which threatened to turn the event into a distinctly unstylish version of the wet T-shirt competition.
If "best" were to be interpreted as most appropriate, then a waterproof coat and pair of sturdy shoes would have scooped the prize. On a stage inside the tent sat TV3's Lorraine Keane, fashion consultant Barbara McMahon and tailor Louis Copeland in judgment on the procession of almost 200 women - and a mere handful of distinctly shame-faced men - who skittered past them to applause from the hot and damp audience. Those few, brave men who chose to show themselves had ambitions to win one of Mr Copeland's suits; Dr Greg Kelly eventually succeeded in doing so thanks to a dashing striped boating blazer.
As for the women participating in this parade of aspiring pulchritude, if they felt any embarrassment at having to make a public spectacle of themselves, the thought of a £2,500 first prize cheque clearly managed to overwhelm any scruples.
However, when the judges' decisions were eventually announced, creativity proved to be the greatest asset any woman could have. This was certainly true of Ms Phil Cahill from Salthill, Galway, who won the most creative hat award for a confection she had made herself from lengths of black net and dozens of silk flowers. But inventiveness also turned out to be behind the outfit which won Ms Avril Ahern first prize; down the front of a sleeveless black shift from Roches Stores, she had painted a cascade of flowers and then matched these with hand-dyed blossoms around the brim of a rented black picture hat.
And speaking of matching, Ms Ahern also had one other accessory with her yesterday which was both stylish and sensible - a large black umbrella.