Smiles as wide as their hats

WHILE there were plenty of punters enjoying a flutter and a look at what waddled or whizzed by in varying length hemlines, the gazes of the West’s growing number of milliners were fixed from the shoulders up.
There is a core of innovative, skilled and passionate hatmakers in Galway and Mayo but it seems they have inspired their own clutch of wannabe milliners who naively believe they can do just as well with their own make and do sets.
But this certainly doesn’t apply to the creations of bubbly mum Marilyn Dunne from Abbeyknockmoy who was surrounded by her three stunning daughters who were each proudly wearing their 'made by mammy’ headpieces.
There wasn’t anything home-made looking about these hats and while Marilyn assured me that it’s only a hobby, the true talent behind the many years of late and long nights hand embroidering her daughters’ Irish dancing costumes shone through in her contemporary designs.
This group of happy smiling Abbeyknockmoy women reflected what Ladies’ Day and the Galway Races is all about. “It’s like our second Christmas,” explained Lorena. She and her sisters Gabrielle and Barbara may have moved away from home but the Races brings them all back together again and it’s a fixed date on the family calendar.
“Ladies’ Day is brilliant,” says Barbara, who enjoys the girls’ day out with their mother while watching the fashion and relishing the style commentary and banter.
“I love the day and making the hats for the girls. It’s always a wonderful day out we all come together for,” said Marilyn.
Standing out from the crowd was Roscommon milliner Martha Lynn who wore a bold statement hat featuring a blast of bright contrasting geometric prints. It was very much a touchy-feely hat in that each print was made in a flock fabric and was a welcome contrast to the sea of swirls, twirls, feathers and frills on thousands of other heads.

Read the full feature in this week's edition.