A cut above
Anna Arco
It’s a curious fact about 21st-century England that as we get more and more uppity about animal rights, so blood sports (especially pheasant shooting) become more and more fashionable. Shooting is no longer just for posh folk, or for farmers — it has become a sport for the helicopter crowd: film directors, actors, models, pop stars.
So, gone are the days when women could pitch up on the field dressed in their sons’ discarded plus fours looking frumpy, a straining Labrador in one hand and a camera in the other. A modern shooting party includes at least one leggy beauty wielding a Purdey and dressed to the nines, so the field has become a place where women as well as men need to get their kit right.
This has not always been the case. When I started shooting as a wee 16-year-old, practical but elegant shooting clothes were almost as rare as lady guns. I remember my first slightly grand shoot, which I attended armed with a 20-bore and my grandfather’s battered loden (a traditional southern German material made of boiled wool) plus fours. I looked like a bag lady and kept getting the extra fabric caught in brambles. All eyes were on me, the only girl with a gun, as I tripped, muddled and missed. By the end of the day, my socks and my plus fours had slipped down to my ankles (both the socks and the breeches being too big). I was frozen, bedraggled and demoralised. And worse still, the men looked band-box trim in their carefully tailored tweeds, their socks warmly encircling their calves.
But now that tweeds are so trendy, (remember Madonna’s famous appearance in purple plus fours?) there is no longer an excuse for lady guns to emulate the dreary plumage of female game-birds. If men can dress up as popinjays, in brightly coloured jumpers and socks, discussing the merits of their tailor as much as the merits of a halfchoke, then so can women.
Fortunately, Holland & Holland and Purdey now cater for women who haven’t got the time to get a suit made but still want to cut a dash. I have been lusting, this year, over a shooting suit comprising lilac-andpale-green-checked plus fours and a well-cut jacket that leaves enough room to move a gun easily. A matching tailored gilet with suede padding and waterproof tweed shooting coat with beautifully detailed pockets and a suede-lined collar is also available, though too much of the same tweed looks a bit as though one has jumped out of a cata logue. I am in love with my own Holland & Holland shooting coat, from last season’s range, which is a lovely caramel-coloured tweed and does not look like a shapeless bulky bag despite the fact that there is room to wear a jacket and a jumper underneath.
If you’re off to shoot big game this summer or planning a spot of dove-shooting in Argentina next February, then I recommend you cast an eye over Holland & Holland’s choice of khaki safari shirts, trousers and of course, the ubiquitous padded suede shooting gilet. The glory of Holland & Holland is that you can also pick up some gun-slips and extraordinarily brightly coloured socks and garters while you’re in its shop on Bruton Street.
Purdey’s ladies’ range is for the more conservative among us — those who would perhaps prefer to give Madonna’s more exotic colour sense a miss. They do sensible mushroom-coloured shooting suits, and you can choose skirts as an alternative to breeches. The skirts emphasise femininity of course, and are particularly satisfying when worn by a good shot. Oliver Brown on Lower Sloane Street also sells more conservative but pretty tweed plus fours and beautifully fitted calflength coats for girls who are happy to sit by and cheer on their man.
But the greatest luxury of all, if you have the cash and the time, is getting a shooting suit especially made for you. The bespoke shooting suit is a subtle but powerful fashion statement on the field, and its cut is unmistakable to those in the know. It fits perfectly of course, it flatters you, and it says more about you to the assembled party than anything you can buy off the peg. It also minimises the risk of another girl gun looking better in the same pair of breeches. Depending on the fabric, it costs a little less than a Roberto Cavalli evening frock, and will impress more.
Watching the suit progress from the first appointment, when your measurements are taken, to the final product is a joy in itself. I lingered over swatches of fabric, luxuriating in colours, textures and materials, before choosing the one that I liked best. Discussing the shape of the jacket and breeches, the colour of the lining and the best places for pockets gave that sense of control and the certainty of individuality that is a rare luxury these days.
Savile Row is the best place to start Huntsman has a trademark house-tweed, which is made at the Islay Woollen Mill in Scotland. Four designs are produced every other year. For a newcomer, a suit will take three to four different fittings and a minimum of 12 weeks to finish. Dege and Skinner, another Savile Row tailors, have a history of making sporting clothes and a trademark design for a shooting suit which gives the wearer the movement needed to swing a gun, while retaining the shape.
But whether your shooting kit is bespoke or not, remember that accessories are as important to shooting as they are to the catwalk, if not more so, because they actually serve a practical purpose. A Hermès Carré under a flat cap tied tightly round head and neck not only adds colour, but keeps ears warm and hair out of the face.
Gloves can be a nuisance as they slip along the gun shaft or are too bulky to get fingers around the trigger. While there are gloves made especially for shooting, with a digit missing on the right hand, these tend to be quite ugly. Brora, the Scottish cashmere company, makes lovely fingerless cashmere gloves and wrist-warmers in subdued colours as well as delicious cashmere shooting socks.
It is best to avoid snazzily coloured or patterned wellies. These were fashionable a few years back and are dated. Classic Hunter wellies or Le Chameau neoprene-lined ones fulfil the snobbery requirements for boots — unless of course you go for handmade Spanish shooting boots.
There is one more thing that must come with the right outfit: a lot of shooting practise. Nothing looks better than a lady gun who can hit her mark.
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