{"id":585521,"date":"2026-08-07T01:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585521\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:32:15","slug":"dublin-woman-scoops-e10000-best-dressed-prize-at-dublin-horse-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585521\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin woman scoops \u20ac10,000 Best Dressed prize at Dublin Horse Show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pamela Ryan from Drimnagh<\/a> in Dublin 12<\/a> was crowned the winner of the 2026 Dublin Horse Show<\/a> Best Dressed competition on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Her look included a gold headpiece and dramatic pastel dress rented from Galway company completelook.ie, shoes she picked up in a charity shop and a bag from Repeat Edit by Camila. Her ensemble was praised by judges for the texture of the dress and gold disc headpiece. <\/p>\n

Now \u20ac10,000 richer, Ryan said: \u201cI am so appreciative. I have been out of work for a year now so I would really love to take my lovely husband to a lovely brunch and treat him for being so wonderful to me today. And maybe take a little trip away. That would be lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan is no stranger to the Ladies\u2019 Day fashion circuit, having won Best Dressed Lady at the Irish Derby in May and a prize of a luxury Dubai holiday for two and \u20ac1,000 in spending money. <\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Natasha Roccca Devine, winner of the Irish Heritage & Sustainability Style award; Aisling McCarthy, winner of Most Creative Hat; Pamela Ryan, Best Dressed winner; Laura Engele, Best Dressed runner-up and Tariq Anwar, winner of Best Classic Elegance, at the RDS on Thursday. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

When making her decision, judge Aoife McNamara said: \u201cFor me one thing I really look for is someone to have so much fun with their outfit. I want to hear a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

With more than 400 entrants preregistered online before the event, and 472 entrants on the day itself, the fashion designer says there are three elements she looks for in a winner: \u201ca story through design, sustainability and Irish design\u201d. <\/p>\n

One of the youngest designers represented at Thursday\u2019s Best Dressed competition was 12-year-old Alex Doolan, who designed a floral headpiece for his grandmother. <\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Doolan (12) with the the hat he made from more than 5,500 individual pieces for his grandmother Brid Hanlon (left), who was competing with Alex’s mother Laura Hanlon at the show. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

\u201cI surprised my nanny with it,\u201d the Roscommon native said. \u201cI bought a ring of styrofoam and placed all these little flowers on it. There\u2019s over five-and-a-half-thousand pieces on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex says that the headpiece took about a week to make, which he said \u201cwas quite a quick process for all of that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alex attended the Best Dressed day with his mother Laura Hanlon and his grandmother Brid Hanlon, who said they were \u201cvery proud of all the work\u201d he put into the fascinator.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time he has designed a hat for family members, having designed a floral fascinator out of Lego pieces a few years ago for his mother. <\/p>\n

Alex has aspirations to work in fashion when he is older, and says \u201cmy mum is a milliner so I want to follow her\u201d. <\/p>\n

The trio have done a circuit of Best Dressed racing days across the country this summer, attending Punchestown, Galway and the Curragh. <\/p>\n

However, their interest lies mostly in fashion rather than horses. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t see a nose nor tail of a horse,\u201d joked Laura Hanlon. <\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Lisa Walsh, Jenny Ryan, Ann Marie Dunning, Breda Butler and Aine Malone were among the Best Dressed hopefuls. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Lisa Walsh, from Co Meath, was there as the freshly minted winner of the 2026 Galway Races Ladies\u2019 Day<\/a>, though she did not think lightning would strike twice for her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how the judges pick one person. Everybody is always incredible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Although she is passionate about fashion, Walsh said the best part of being a regular at Best Dressed days was \u201cdefinitely the social side\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0In pictures: Lisa Walsh scoops \u20ac10,000 prize on Ladies\u2019 Day at the Galway RacesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have become such close friends and some of my best friends now are on the circuit. It\u2019s nice to get out for a day and dress up. It\u2019s great fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

Breda Butler from Tipperary is also a regular on the race day circuit and agreed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge geographical spread here between us all but we have become great pals over the years. It\u2019s a fabulous day to admire women in general and empower each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler said that back-to-back Ladies\u2019 Days and Best Dressed days are expensive and that sustainable fashion was a great way to keep costs down. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a market now where we are trying to avoid paying the big bucks all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all on Vinted now. It is just fantastic to be sustainable and to rewear. We also swap a lot of bits and pieces between us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pamela Ryan from Drimnagh in Dublin 12 was crowned the winner of the 2026 Dublin Horse Show Best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[171363,615,71658,57160,93,4500,61,60],"class_list":["post-585521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-drimnagh","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-12","tag-dublin-horse-show","tag-entertainment","tag-galway","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}