FASHION PAGE

This is the page where Country People In General and Beaters and Beatressess in Particular, find out what the latest trends are. This page is a must for the well-dressed beater! Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, Cheltenham, horse-trials, tweed knickerbockers are a must for under-keepers.
cricket, golf, we do our best! Cricket has it’s own page.Wooly wedding.

The Holiday look for 2010. What to wear in the way of shorts? 05.07.10

Having missed Royal Ascot our observers have to move on to the Glastonbury Music Festival, nowadays a meetingplace for the middleaged. This year it is warm! There is no mud and the wellington boot traders are despondent but sandals should flourish.
Don’t go barefoot, you may catch a long lasting fungal infection.
Tomorrow we’ll find some more exciting photos for our devoted followers of fashion.

Tweed skirts is the country must for the eventing spectators and the County Shows.08.05.10
Our reporters are mortified that they had not kept up with the change in hose-trials fashionin time for Badminton. Whilst jeans, as ever, can go anywhere, the smart set are all wearing short, sexy tweed skirts. They look really stunning. These are worn with cashmere pullovers or tweed jackets, or shirts..Long, soft suede boots with flat heels were the Badminton must have’s to complete the outfits. These were so stunning that we’re not sure what the men were actually wearing, the reporters were busy noting skirt-lenghts and costs in the various shops. The type of trouser outfit worn by the wonderful rider Karen Donkers below shows that even foreign competitors had slipped up and didn’t realize that the short tweed skirt was an absolute must...We are glad to at least be able to tell our readers before the county show season starts in earnest.

totally correct for 2010

If correctly turned out in this type of tweed skirt it is nearly impossible for a trotter to fail the veterinary inspections at horse trials.

Aintree Fashion 2010 can be seen on the right: Very bare in the freezing weather but very happy.
The weather, which started nippy warmed up for National day itself. The spirits of the formidable Liverpudlian ladies were never chilled however. Bravely they bared the flesh and had fun. It was adifferent style from Royal Ascot but none the worse for that! 11.04.10

There are various ways tackling the big fashon occassions.
Most women start with the dress or skirt, or maybe the jacket.
Others, as our lady above shows, find such a good hat that they have to match the rest of the outfit to the hat. other ladies may have an outfit already, a favourite, which canbe perked up with a change of accessories, Teenagers, of course, always start with the distressed jeans . But they are not waiting at the bus-stop for that mid-life romance to come along. The middle-aged tend to try to catch the bus-driver’s eye, to make him stop for them.

 Top Outfit Prizes Awarded for 2009:
The winning hat for Special Occassions is the Liqourice Allsorts modelled here by Daniella. It gets extra points for being edible, in case of a crisis or a very long sermon in a cold church..

The most Disstressed Prize went to these jeans, without a moments hesitation. The section for Beater Hats was very diffiult for the judges. After much discussion it was decided the Nesting hat is the most encouraging for beatressess to wear as it combines good camouflage with kindness to animals in that tired birds can rest on it for a while. later on, it can be used for nesting.The two beaters below are showing us the winning cold weather hats which are eminentty suitable in the current conditions

The cat-suit above is awarded the Special Prize for the Gamekeeper’s Favourite. Our Game-keeper Judge said these outfits should really help get even the laziest of birds up in the air. It will also activate one or two lazy under-keepers.

Underkeepers and Beatresses: Is it time for a change?
These charming outfits date from around 1885. They would look fine on today’s shoots. Perhaps it is indeed these we see on today’s shoots? We feel sure that the 1885 Underkeeper would step out and drive off in today’s 4-wheeldrive Mule with alacricity. Is it time to move ahead or should the Underkeepers be proud of their slightly Oldfashioned Image? What do our readers think?

23/10/09

 Wedding dresses are very in the news.The best ones are very eco-concious. (Eco stands for Economical and Earth Friendly_) Posssily they could be coloure bluebery blue? For slightly frigid brides, that is.The charming wedding dress on the right is ade from Longwool wool, not from the pricey Texel seen below. But wool is a very warm and excellent natural material that we feel is underutilized.
We hope to soon present the perfect Eco-house, knitted variety. Wool is a terrific insulator and it would be possible...

Tweed Knicker-bockers live forever.

Royal Ascot Week this week

One of the solutions to the dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd is to wear a live ferret around your neck. This certainly catches the eye. A slight problem is that the ferret gets quite tired and then has to be carried around in the hand-bag for the remainder of the day. Nevertheless, seen, as here, with a summer dress, it is one of the most striking accessories for Beatressess.

Badminton Horse-Trials

 What to wear for Badminton?
 We fear the answer is crystal clear: Top temperature of 14 C is forecast, with 28 miles/hr winds. Not totally warm, so wear your ordinary beating outfits, with, perhaps a spring-like hat or scarf. Take gloves and hot soup for the picnic. If desperate, eat the gloves. You have been warned! Fashion reports will follow, if our reporter succeeds in getting interesting information. We’re confident that we’re the only site combining information on what to wear, who to back, and which pet is the most suitable for the occassion. ( DO NOT TAKE THE RABBIT TO BADMINTON.)

Full marks to the gentleman on the left. He has the required 3 dogs, the latest hat, the sunshades and just looks an ideal spectator at Badminton. The lady on the right is also wonderfully dressed for cross-country day with the leater cowboy hat, the boots, the large bag and look properly, the small dog in another bag. She also appears to be tuning in to Radio Badminton. She is our Winner for Style 2009! Our sponsors will give her a prize, if she sends in he name. It is a great honour to be Best Dressed Spectator, selected by our Fashion Experts..

 Below , we can see that the situation is becoming clear: For dressage day, the accessory is a dachs-hound with suitable misstress collar.
Obviously, only dogs with a genuine interest in dressage should be brought on the two dressage days..

One of our readers, ( male, no prizes for guessing that) has sent in this very fashionable wedding dress for Beatresses. It could certainly prove a talking point at the wedding..

The genteman above only misses out on the award by having 2 dogs. Not quite enough, not this year. And no hat. Still, a good effort which is sure to gain a prize at the Beater-trials where it would be eminently suitable. At Beater-Trials two dogs is the recommended number, three would be regarded as irritating.

Moreover, he suggests that the Beatresses wear it for early Partridge Drives.
Personally, our fashion Editor thinks the shoes and leg-wear will fail the Health and Safety Standards Tick Protection Tests.Still, there you are, all the more reason to come beating! Above and to the right are two severe cases of the wrong trousers.. Say no more. Nice dogs.

Hunter-Trials: Is there a Fashion?

 Our hard-working reporters did not only enjoy their assessment of the Adrenalin-junkie aspect of cross-country riding, they found time to study the fashions. To start with, our reporters were horrified and there appeared to be no stylish outfits at all. But, once they started to look more closely at the competitors in the 12 and under class they realized they were totally wrong. These little girls and the odd boy, perhaps, were dressed BETTER than the riders at Powderham Castle a few days earlier. Yes, the saddlecloth would match the ponies boots, which in turn were harmonious with the riders colours and her cap.It was quite stunning, how much time must have been spent preparing the outfits. The proper little competitor must also arrive in alorry or 4x4, with her name written on the vehicle, her sponsors, her web-site adress and so forth. The sponsores appeared, in most cases, to be her very own parents, but it was all very nicely done.
 The same parents ( of which only the mothers were out on display) were remarkably ill-dressed. Even the dogs were of the oriinary Jack Russell type and not a single ant-eater or Chekoslovakian Wolf-dog was seen. As for the reporters themselves, they were not the best dressed pair , not by a distance. Their horses boots were not even matching, nor their saddle-cloths, and as for Annie’s red jodphurs, you can see Fleur’s comments on Stable-talk... A photo of the offending garment will appear in due course. Annie’s Mannerly Mare is, however, of a very fashionable colour and was the only countrytalk participant that fully passed muster, if we disregard the un-matching boots etc.

Horse Trials Fashions: Do they exist?

Our Horse-Trials Reporter is sorry to state that Fashion amongs the Spectators of horse-trials is very poor indeed. The only important accessory that we have so far discovered is to have a smart dog or an ant-eater attached by a fashionable lead.( For currently acceptable collars for mistressis, see Dog Discussion)

Compared to racing, the fashion scene is a desert. Although, the dog-scene is very interesting and clearly important. A dog is a MUST. The only other acceptable accesory is a camera, the bigger, the better. The crowd is not as jolly or as happy as a racing or point- to- point crowd. This is probably due to the fact that there appears to be no dress-code.
For Royakl Ascot, you have to be dressed to the Nines and possibly rob a bank in order to acheive passability. Unsuitable clothing will result in a refusal to enter the course! . At Cheltenham and Liverpool, you have to be as smart as you can manage whilst wearing thermal under -garments. At point- to-points you just have to be warm and have a good picnic with you. But, at horse trials there seems to be nothing but unhappiness and confusion. This leads to very poor business in the trade-stands ,Gamebird was informed. The Traders all regretted not going to the point-to-point. This is the price of uncertainty: nobody knows what to buy or what to do! Before the most important Horse Trial of the Season, Badminton Itself, our Fashion Expert will issue some guide-lines to help the shoppers along.
Countrytalk Staff feel very certain that this will help to generate a happy crowd.

The Problems with Weddings.

Here we see the uncertain spectators with their accessories.
photos A. Ratcliff.

The Beaters manage to express to express their personalities very well. A longstanding favourite for the well-dressed beater is the the FLAT CAP. It doesn’t change much from year to year but is always popular. The colour may change, but only in the approved camouflage type patterns of green/grey/yellowish or brown.Last season saw some pink and purply variations and one or two beatressess with a rather oversized version.

Other Beaters favour the Woolly Hat in it’s various shapes and forms. These include some modern fleece hats which are remarkably warm and water-resistant. The older generation of beater sometimes prefers a proper knitted hat however.