SHOOTING FASHION A wry look at the quintessential etiquette of country style

Shooting fashion What do you do with a jumper that has fed a large family of moths? If you’re a first-class shot and possibly ducal then, of course, you continue wearing it, says Jonathan Young

One of the odder aspects of country life is the addiction to knackered clothing, especially in the shooting field – a truth epitomised by the Prince of Wales’ old Barbour coat, a tapestry of patches held together by love and the original zip. To some, it looks like something rescued from a scarecrow, but to shooting types it whispers, subtly, “He’s one of us.”

As easily as a Man United shirt declares the wearer’s affiliation, a battered ensemble of tweeds and gumboots tells everyone that you are home team, someone who can distinguish a redleg partridge from a grey one, handle a gun well, and keep exact count of how many pheasants were dropped in the kale on the last drive.

But while the kit may look as though it’s lost a wrestling bout with a blackthorn hedge, you can guarantee it’s of the best quality and probably bespoke. And at one stage, many seasons ago, it was actually rather smart. So, given that everything has to be horribly new at some stage, what do keen game shots buy and from whom?

Given that you need to be fairly invisible to the birds, warm and dry, most people start with the shooting coat. They were once made of heavy waxed cotton, but today, they all have a waterproof membrane and you can chuck them in the washing machine. The best have bellows pockets for cartridges and can withstand heavy rain. Popular models for men include Barbour Bransdale, Musto Highland and Schoffel Ptarmigan, and for women the Schoffel Rockingham, Musto Burnham and Harkila Stornoway.

Gumboots come next, as every other type of footwear just won’t cope with the standard mud and

Above These days, shooting coats like the Barbour Bransdale can be chucked in the washing machine if you slip on a cowpat

muck of Britain in winter (though leather boots work well on August grouse moors and September partridge stubbles). Mostly, they’re green, with those made by Le Chameau and Aigle ever popular. My favourites, however, are Gumleaf, which are extremely

comfortable and hard-wearing. If you spot someone wearing black ones, don’t assume he’s a farmer; black gumboots are also country code for: “I do own rather a lot of agricultural England”.

With feet properly shod, it’s time to consider the head. Everyone who shoots wears a hat, both to keep their head dry and warm and to shield their eyes from the sun so they can see the birds. It has to be of a style that allows you to wear full ear-defenders. Anyone who doesn’t want to be partly deaf – tricky at dinner parties – must wear them every time they shoot. There are types that can be worn in the ear, but I’m not convinced they are as effective. So, given the need to wear the muff type, you need an appropriate cap.

While a man can wear a baseball cap on a clay shoot, they don’t work well with formal shooting dress. The bigger, traditional tweed caps – à la Peaky Blinders – are favoured by men above 5ft 10in. Large caps on smaller chaps can give an unfortunate walkingmushroom appearance. I love caps by Olney Bond, Cordings, and the Westley Richards Bond Prince of Wales model.

With coat, boots and cap sorted, some lady shots in warm, dry weather abandon traditional country clothing and team the basics with cashmeres, silk shirts and skinny jeans. Most are careful not to choose white as it scares the birds (which can see in the ultra-violet-light range). The more hardcore ladies, however, usually stick to tweed or loden, either made into breeches or culottes.

Bella Hoskyns, owned by Arabella Hoskyns-Abrahall, has

Left: The more hardcore lady shooters choose tweed, like these breeks in checked houndstooth from Bella Hoskyns Country Clothing Right: Gumboots, like the ones by Gumleaf, are necessary to battle winter mud and muck Above Right: Traditional tweed caps like this one from Cordings keep you warm and dry Left: The combination of breeks, matching vest and jacket, like these stylish choices from Schoffel, is extremely popular with those shooting grouse or partridge

produced a glamorous range of women’s breeks and culottes that are both practical and stylish, and many accomplished female shooters swear allegiance to the ladies’ range from James Purdey & Sons. Both culottes and tweed breeks are often worn in fine weather with a matching tweed shooting vest, with large cartridge pockets and an inserted pad to reduce recoil.

That combination of breeks and matching tweed vest is also extremely popular with men, especially when grouse or

Left For the whole ensemble to work properly you need shooting socks (stockings) like these by Wendy Keith Right Schoffel Buckingham tweed breeks are a wardrobe staple Below Left A versatile Olney Bond cap will complete the look

“Given that you need to be fairly invisible to the birds, warm and dry, most people start with the shooting coat”

partridge shooting. The Schoffel Buckingham breeks and shooting vest are very good, but for bespoke I think it’s hard to beat those made by Jeremy Shaw of Carters Countrywear, a familyowned business in Helmsley, in Yorkshire. Jeremy can make anything, from City suits to smoking jackets, but specialises in shooting attire. With his very wide range of tweed samples, he can build breek and shooting vest sets that can range from quietly elegant to “Blimey, pass the sunglasses!” He often recommends customers to order four-piece tweed suits – vest, breeks, jacket and trousers – so that the two last items can double as casualwear.

Most of his customers’ breeks are plus-fours, which means they hang four inches below the knee, though they can be had in anything from plus-two (two inches) to plus-nine (nine inches). Lately, plus-sixes have come into fashion, which means that when the shooting socks are tied around the bottom of the breeks, just below the knee, there’s a good hang of material over your gumboots, stopping rain running down into your boots. It also looks satisfactorily Edwardian. For this all to work properly, though, you need shooting socks (‘stockings’) that are really long, ideally coming well over your knee, before the tops are turned down and secured with knitted wool garters. Wendy Keith’s are among the best and she holds The Prince of Wales’ Royal Warrant.

However tempting, it is unwise to wear shooting stockings with ‘amusing’ slogans such as ‘Bang Bang Bugger’. You will be under close scrutiny all day on the shoot. Neither should you opt to go tieless, nor sport one festooned with any type of gamebird. It’s considered trying too hard, akin to wearing horseshoe cufflinks at a point-to-point.

Far better to wear a sludgecoloured knitted tie with a similarly nondescript shirt worn under a green V-neck. And if that’s got frayed sleeves and a plethora of moth holes, so much the better. Add some truly wrecked tweeds and you really will be of one of the boys.

Jonathan Young was editor of Shooting Times, 1986-1991, and The Field, 1991-2020. He is currently the founder and owner of Young & Game Media.

Left Understated style and warmth thanks to Schoffel’s Rockingham Coat II teamed here with cotton trousers and shirt and woollen jumper