Through the drizzle and clouds of vape smoke I combed the crowds at The Everest with every intention of compiling a top five best dressed list. Hopes were high with general admission tickets having sold out for the first time in the race’s history, but like over-eager punters at the betting machines, I came up short.

By the last race I had scraped home with three contenders.

Despite the enduring hope that King Charles and Queen Camilla might make an appearance at Royal Randwick, the sea of young women with cans of White Claw outside The Winx Stand chose clinging fabrics and cleavage over pomp and circumstance. Pale colours dominated the queues to the women’s toilets, with more butter yellow on show than a dairy farm.

At the other extreme, women in the members’ areas maintained a mother-of-the-bride approach to their outfit choices, with conservative Zimmermann, Aje and Alemais-inspired dresses. The polish and poise was contained to tried and true trends from seasons past, such as murky florals, power red, horse motifs and bedazzled bows.

The meticulously well-dressed were evenly balanced by the barely dressed, but those with an eye to the international runways would have struggled to find anything vaguely Parisienne, Milanese or even Melburnian about the approach to fashion.

Here is the fashion trifecta.

Kate Waterhouse
Racing royalty Kate Waterhouse ran rings around the competition in a white halter-neck dress by Melbourne designer Toni Maticevski with festive tinsel trimmings. “It might be a little bit Christmas but I love it,” said Waterhouse, who let the blue jewels of her bracelet and white Somewhere Here headpiece complete The Everest’s colour theme. The glass-half-full Waterhouse remained optimistic about other outfits at Randwick. “I think everyone has stepped their game up over the years. It gets better each time.”

Viera Macikova
Despite turning heads in a long-sleeved floral dress with a relaxed silhouette from Reiss, former Fashions on the Field winner Viera Macikova worried that she had missed The Everest’s spring brief. “Is it too autumnal?” she asked, the ribbons of her By Lilian hat catching the breeze. A bit of controversy is always in season, with this masthead’s article about the relaxing of dress standards causing a stir among regular entrants in best-dressed competitions around the country. “I’m just glad we are talking about it,” Macikova said. “Everyone should have a say.”

Lucinda Pikkat
“I kept it very regal, just in case the royals were here,” said content creator Lucinda Pikkat. Bucking the trend towards bitumen-scraping dresses, Pikkat chose an off-white, short-sleeved Meshki coat mini-dress, completing the look with Fendi heels and a boater hat from Ford Millinery. Having just had a baby 12 weeks ago, Pikkat prioritised a dress with buttons. “It’s about comfort, to a point,” she said. “Even the possibility of royalty requires extra effort.”