A History of Equestrian Style
Why you're wearing what you're wearing
I took a hike yesterday down to the old barns on my mother’s farm in the Finger Lakes. This barn is over 200 years old!
Fall season brings the best of East Coast aesthetic. This year takes quiet luxury one step further with English equestrian. Why am I saying “English” equestrian? Because it’s influenced by the English riding style, as opposed to Western riding. (I feel like Western had a blip in the fashion scene and then it was gone again. Blink and you missed it). It’s easy to understand why certain trends and aesthetics come and go, but English equestrian one should be immune to consumerism’s flighty, ADD nature.
I am not a fashion influencer, nor do I typically write about fashion, but this is a special occasion that as a horse girl, I feel entitled to speak on the latest equestrian trend.
We know the barn coat and field jacket are in, but keep reading and you’ll be able to drop historical context I guarantee the average fashion influencer you’re seeing all over NYFW won’t know about the clothes they’re wearing.
Does equestrian ever really go out of style? To me, this aesthetic is classic, timeless, and elegant. It rises above the showy, over-indulgent trends and cheap, fast-fashion with the staying power of hundreds of years of history as a horse-centric society.
Coach, for example, which I’m happy to report is making a comeback thanks to this Brooklyn bag recently worn by miss Bella Hadid, was established in 1941 and takes inspiration from equestrian themes.
Personally, I think Coach’s branding is built to last. The stage coach graphic is so classic and looks amazing as hardware on a bag, and the typeface is super strong. To me, the Coach logo sits up there with Hermès and Burberry logos that depict the elegance and sophistication of the old money and quiet luxury aesthetic we’ve all been trying to copy since Sofia Richie’s wedding. Again, something that never really goes out of style.
French luxury brand Hermès was created in 1837 as a saddlery company before expanding into other leather goods like handbags and eventually accessories and ready-to-wear. The Duc Carriage logo mark established in the 1950s is an homage to the brand’s roots in saddlery and harnesses.
Burberry’s resurrected 1901 Equestrian Knight Design by Daniel Lee. “Prorsum,” meaning “fowards.”
In 2023, Burberry revealed a return to their 1901 Equestrian Knight logo mark, this time designed by Daniel Lee, a tribute to the brand’s British heritage. With most brands opting for painfully minimalist, modernistic sans serif logos, the move was a welcome return to ornate luxury. It makes me wonder if we are entering a movement away from modern minimalism, looking back in reverence at the opulence of our Gilded Age past. (You can read about my reverence for the Gilded Age that defined luxury here).
I’m completely taken with the equestrian design aesthetic. It feels like design with integrity; clothing created to be both elegant and functional. The classic lines, earthy colors, functional fabrics, utilitarian pockets and sturdy buttons are reminiscent of the days when horsemanship was deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life - when knowing how to care for, groom, tack, and mount a horse were common knowledge.
It’s a bit melancholy how distant our society has grown from this way of life. I moved back to my home town in the Finger Lakes region of New York earlier this year after living in Texas for the last decade. I’ve been counting down the days to experience an East Coast Fall again. I missed the changing seasons (and wardrobe) of the Northeast.
Moreover, this small town can feel like you’re stepping back in time. It’s an equestrian community rich in history, bookended by 200 year old homestead estates that saw the likes of George Washington and other notable characters pass through. Main street is quaint with one stoplight, and the surrounding land is mostly rural with stables for Hunters or Dressage riders and cross-country courses for the many equine events that take place throughout the year.
Like it or not, much of the equestrian aesthetic is influenced by barn chores, fox hunting and British military style, so if you’re wearing pieces inspired by old English horsemanship, you should know what that means. The town I live in has the oldest fox hunting club in the United States, founded in 1876. Each September, the hunt marches down main street to kick off the opening meet.
Opening meet march down main street [photo by Lauren Wadsworth]
The group consists of the Hunt Master, who controls the pack of hounds using special calls, cheers, and a copper horn to instruct the hounds and keep them on the scent of the fox. The master is flanked by whippers-in, huntsman who assist in reconnaissance and in keeping the hounds together as a pack. A sound of the horn or “Tally-ho!” marks the start of the hunt, and they’re off at a fast clip.
Depending on the cries of the hounds, the hunt master can tell if they have lost the scent or caught the tracks of a deer or other animal, and he or she directs the hounds back to get back on track. After the hunt, riders congregate at one of the town’s historic homesteads for tea. It’s all very civilized.
Call me elitist, but in a world where BRAT culture and TikTokers dictate the sort of rhetoric and behaviors displayed by our young people, I look for polite refinement wherever I can. *That is not a shade to CharliXCX so don’t come for me. It is a commentary on the lost art of etiquette and demure sophistication.
Let’s talk foxhunting fashion. The hunt is all about hierarchy. I learned my lesson years ago when I was atop my uncle’s draft-cross named Starr. She was a total potato in the arena, but once you got her out in the hunt field she was an absolute freight train. When we were off at a gallop, we started passing other horses and their riders of higher and higher rank, one by one, until we were on the heels of the Hunt Master herself. Proper etiquette says you shall not pass those of higher rank than you, but despite my desperate attempts to slow her, Starr was determined to be, well, a star. All I remember is yelling “I’m sorryyyyy!” as I passed the master, and saw her mouth drop open at the audacity.
Needless to say I never hunted my uncle’s horse again.
Oops. [List from R.J. Classics]
I love the dedication to formality, tradition, and proper etiquette that the hunt clubs require. Here are some of my favorite rules:
Greet people “good morning” (so simple yet rare these days).
If you bring a guest you must introduce them to the Hunt Master and Field Masters.
Cell phones on silent (I love riding because it’s *nearly* impossible to hold your phone and take selfies while doing anything above a walk).
Alert the rider behind you of anything they need beware, e.g. “ware hole!” (Look out for your fellow man).
Keep chatter to a minimum while the hunt is underway (stfu for once).
Junior riders always hang back to get the gate for the rest of the party (Respect your elders! What a concept).
Always greet landowners and seek out opportunities to thank them.
Greet all farm workers.
Wave and greet cars passing on the road.
I think everyone could use a little more etiquette in their life.
The clothing is fitting to the formality of the sport. The hunt master, huntsman, and whippers-in usually wear a scarlet coat with a white stock tie and black velvet cap, strictly reserved for those working directly with the hounds. Other members of the hunt are invited to wear scarlet, with the individual buttons of the hunt or black coats, with top hats or bowlers. For some ancestral hunts run by noble families, the uniform may be green, yellow, or gray instead of scarlet.
Standard attire includes white or tan breeches, a white or light-colored show shirt, a vest, a white or solid color stock tie fastened with a horizontal pin, a hunting coat, typically tweed or wool, tall black riding boots, and of course a helmet.
Formal events demand a stricter dress code with specific requirements around the color of the show shirt, vest, dress coats, and buttons on the coat. Hair nets must be worn if you have long hair, male or female.
The Hunt Master and whips. [Photo by Aaron Winters]
Regardless of where you stand morally on the sport, there is something beautiful about the horses, hounds, and humans, all working together on one common goal, and all are having fun doing it. Images of horses, riders, and hounds clearing fences, plunging down steep embankments, and galloping across open fields are iconic depictions of the heart-pumping chase deeply rooted in US (and English) history.
If it makes you feel any better, the objective of the sport in modern times is not to catch the fox, but merely to run it aground, meaning it takes the hunt on a big chase (the sport of it all), before it circles back to the safety of its den.
Me on Ringo (not Starr) left, and my aunt Beth, right, at one of the hunt meets ages ago.
This brings me back to equestrian fashion. Unlike so many trends that come and go, I love how practical this style is. They’re all pieces you can actually wear during a chilly East Coast Fall, and they’re timeless. I would wear any of these at age 50 as I would now, at 35.
Here are my favorites.
Filson work jacket
Emerson Fry Atelier Equestrian Boot
Coach soft empire carryall bag
LL Bean 1924 Field Coat (*I used to hate how much LL Bean my mom would buy as a kid, but now I dig through our closets to pull out the jackets that are still holding strong years later).
Veronica Beard long and lean dickey jacket crimson
Ralph Lauren wool blend herringbone tweed blazer
I also did something out of character and made a mood board for Fall inspiration, which basically turned into one giant RL campaign. And for that I am sorry.
Thanks to real fashion writer
and her deep dive on the Q3 trend forecast, I’m told this season’s colors are red, green, and chocolate brown. Plus, suede is trending. Nothing could be more equestrian than that!I’ll end things here before I venture further into dangerous territory of actual fashion writers and reporters.
What I hope you took from this is a reverence and curiosity for the influence the equine world has had on fashion and lifestyle. I think I’ll write a separate post about my urban exodus, and the ways in which country life, helping out on my family’s farm, and being afforded the opportunity to ride regularly again, has changed my health, priorities, fashion choices, and outlook. Would that be interesting? Let me know in the comments.
I’ve decided the new version of “touch grass” is to get out there and “touch horse”.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll pass on my LLBean field jacket to my son, who will pass it onto his son, so it is written.
This was so good! I learned so much and really enjoyed how you wove your own story with the history of equestrian style.