Forget the horses (for an hour). Hats take the prize at Devon Horse Show’s Ladies Day

Two hundred and fifty women in fascinators, perchers, derby and sun hats descended on the Devon Horse Show on Wednesday to compete — graciously, and for charity, but not without an underlying ferocity to win — in the annual Ladies Day contest. The theme was “J’Adore Devon,” i.e. Paris, resulting in a sea of red, white, and blue. The unserious were not participating.

The Devon Horse Show bills itself as the oldest and largest outdoor multi-breed horse show in the nation; ever since it launched in 1896, it has been a prestige Main Line experience. All the proceeds from the 12-day event, which runs through June 2, go to Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Ladies Day was packed: Mrs. New Jersey, in sash and tiara, wandered the event snapping photos. Someone had left a bottle of champagne tucked into a gold sequin purse in the gravel by the stage. The nearby stables smelled sweetly of manure and grass, and a brightly colored Ferris wheel made its rounds in the distance.

The women were competing for, among other things, a gift card to the Springfield Mall, a Lilly Pulitzer gift basket, a Tiffany and Co. necklace set valued at $2,000, and a package of three facials “that uses the same cooling technology of Cryoskin alongside new warmer temperatures.”

The stakes were high and the judges would be examining not only the hats.

“I’m going to be looking out for the whole look,” said George Brescia, a celebrity stylist who appears on QVC and was one of the event’s seven judges. “The dress, the jewelry, the attention to detail, and the statement that’s being made.”

He pointed to a woman, Evie Romanova, standing nearby; she had won a few times in the past. Brescia explained: Her blue satin jewel buckle Manolo Blahnik pumps picked up on the blue in her custom-made striped taffeta dress, which picked up on the blue in her earrings, which matched her sky blue nails.

“The red lip!” Brescia exclaimed. “That’s how they do it.”

Romanova thanked him and pulled out her blue bejeweled purse, which was in the shape of a French poodle.

Nearby, Ella Vasko, 18, and her sister, Jenna, 21, were attempting to register. They had decorated their straw hats with flowers in the morning, and Ella, who was skipping out on classes at the end of the school year, had tied remote-controlled LED lights around the brim. But upon learning the entry fee for the contest — $65 each, and no swag bag because of the late registration — they decided to forgo participation. They could watch.

Ten at a time, the contestants walked across a red carpet in front of Brescia and the other judges. One wore a fascinator that looked like a plate of painted pastel macarons; another wore a stuffed croissant atop her head.

Wawa Ingersoll, 88, had affixed a motley collection of mermaid-related items, including a plaque that read “Kinda pissed about not being a mermaid,” to a blue-gray straw hat. She knew that it was unlikely to fit the judges’ aesthetics.

“I thought my hat was too homemade to win,” she said.

But in fact, homemade hats stood a chance.

Carolyn Slota, 57, made her own: a towering stack of black and white silk flowers in the front, and red, white, and blue ones in the back, all constructed around a miniature Eiffel Tower.

When they announced the winner of the “Best in Theme” category, Slota clutched the roses atop her head and gasped. (She directs the spring shows at Sacred Heart Academy in Bryn Mawr and has a flair for the dramatic.)

She was a winner.

“When they called my name — I was clapping for whoever it was. It was me!” Slota said. “I think it’s the most fantastic category to win.”