local

Suzanne takes top fashion title ... again

A 20 dollar vintage cameo brooch turned into a €25,000 windfall for Sligo racing fashion queen Suzanne McGarry in the Curragh on Sunday.

Suzanne took inspiration from the blue brooch and designed her dress of cream scalloped lace over cornflower blue silk worn with a disc hat by Galway milliner Edel Ramberg .

"I put my heart into this outfit and it took a few months to get it just right after I bought the brooch on Etsy.com," the Sligo stunner told the Irish Independent's fashion editor, Bairbre Power. She teared up emotionally after being presented with her prize by Eva Maria Bucher-Haefner whose late father Walter founded the Moyglare Stud in Maynooth 50 years ago.

Her prize takes Suzanne to the White Turf races held on the snow in St Moritz in February and the sales consultant also won €5,000 of Newbridge Silverware presented to her by Gay Byrne.

An experienced fashion competitor on the racing circuit, Suzanne won Best Dressed at the Galway Races in 2011 and she confessed how she 'road tested' the outfit earlier in the summer but aimed to have it right for yesterday and the free admission to the course attracted a big crowd.
See SligoToday.ie 29/7/11

Many of the fashion hopefuls looked to the Newbridge Silverware 'Style Icon ' museum down the road for inspiration for their outfits and there were lots of family heirlooms rolled out from handbags to shoes , umbrellas to hats.

The Irish racing scene is full of the so-called 'professionals' who make a hobby, for some a career, of competiting in the Best Dressed competitions and yesterday's prize at €25,000 was the richest single win this year so it's little wonder Suzanne put in so much work and effort into her €500 outfit and later cried alittle as she contemplated the prospect of heading off to glamorous racing in the snow in Switzerland.

The fact that Suzanne won yesterday 14 months after her high profile win at Ballybrit with a black and red outfit is testimony to the Sligo's her eye for getting it right on the day.

She has acquired a skill at balancing an outfit and achieving an original look - the kind of stand-out-in-the-crowd look that gets you noticed by both photographers and judges.

She clearly has an ability to balance the whole big hat/ great dress conundrum. Call it yin and yang if you like, but on Suzanne, they are never opposing forces, almost complementary.

In this case, she designed the dress and had it made by Verona Doherty . She also liased with milliner Edel Ramberg on the hat which featured stiffened lace similar to that used in her dress. If the scalloped lace was easy, finding the cornflower blue fabric for the underdress was not but when it came together, she accessorised with simple nude accessories including a clutch from high street store Barratts.

Always be first with Sligo news - Never miss a story - Join us on Facebook