Shooting Times & Country Magazine
How much have our outfits changed?
Despite the advances in outdoor clothing, Diggory Hadoke outlines a host of styles and materials that survive from the late-victorian era
Although the sportsmen of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Hawker’s generation wore top hats and tailcoats while walking-up partridges, by the time Shooting Times first landed on the breakfast tables of the sporting gentry some 25 years later, much of the attire worn in the field would be reasonably familiar to us today. Some traditionalists may even be found clad in apparently comparable garb.
As shooting became more popular, special features began to improve performance, be that material or design alterations to regular daywear. By the 1870s, the shooting coat and knickerbockers had become a familiar look for sportsmen. The coats were high buttoned, with two front pockets and a breast pocket. Some had a cap pocket in the waist seam.
All pockets were flapped to keep out water and debris.
A leather patch on the right shoulder was provided to prevent the material from wearing where the gun was mounted. The jacket was cut long and the knickerbockers equated to what we would consider plus-twos.
In the absence of wellington boots, stout shoes or boots were worn, with leather or canvas gaiters, buttoned to the knee, protecting socks and legs from mud, thorns and the like. During the mid-victorian period, a hat similar to a bowler was popular, and shirt and tie were absolutely required. Soft, trilby-style hats became increasingly popular during the 1880s and flat caps rose from working-class attire to outdoor sporting staples, adopted by all levels of society by the 1920s.
In the 1880s, younger men cut a dash in the shooting field wearing slim-cut tweed coats, still cut long and buttoned high, providing a stylish, slim silhouette. Trousers were tight fitting, cut to below the knee and faced with leather for the last 9in.
It was in the 1880s that the Norfolk jacket began to enjoy widespread popularity. The Norfolk is a practical and stylish tweed garment, with a Prussian collar, belted waist and pleated skirts. It keeps out the weather and allows arm movement, while presenting a tailored, formal look that can still be seen today. Some shooters still wore suits not unlike the lounge suits of the day, but cut longer and from heavier cloth.
Looking over the wares of Britain’s outfitters today, we can see sartorial benchmarks everywhere that first
established themselves as shooting garments. The Macintosh, for example, was a common sight in the shooting field until well into the 20th century, often worn between drives in inclement weather. Also popular was a cloak of sorts that could be put on over a shooting jacket to provide protection from wind and rain when not shooting.
A lightweight, rainproof version of the long overcoat became a popular wet-weather shooting garment. We might recognise this today as a Macintosh or a classic Burberry trench coat in style. Burberry, by the way, was very much a provider of clothing for outdoor sports, such as golf, fishing and shooting. It pioneered the patent pivot sleeve for shooting jackets, the original actionback style still preferred by serious Shots who favour a traditional style, but demand practicality.
Sport abroad
In September 1882, many readers of Shooting Times were likely to find themselves posted abroad on military or colonial service, aboard ships or involved in expeditions to mysterious foreign territories.
These equatorial escapades provided ample opportunity for shooting the local gamebirds or hunting the inhabitants of tropical forests and mountains, with rifle in hand. For exertion in the tropical heat, rather than for keeping out a British winter, a new style of clothing developed — the safari suit.
By 1860, the safari jacket was already roughly as we know it today — khaki, made from tough cotton and cut fairly close fitting, with plenty of pockets. Colonial outfits for hunting were inspired by military jackets and the modern safari style was further cemented when Ernest Hemingway designed one for American outfitter Willis & Geiger in 1936.
The fashion world sat up and paid attention in the 1960s when Yves
“The Norfolk jacket keeps out the weather while presenting a tailored, formal look”
Saint Laurent began to include safari jackets in its summer collections. Today, every outdoorsy fashion brand from Banana Republic to Ralph Lauren has a safari-style jacket, while more serious field-orientated versions can be had from Westley Richards, Rigby or Purdey.
Illustrations from the 1870s to the 1940s show similar garb, latterly cut looser than today, with plenty of pockets and a belted waist. The fabric is generally khaki or drab. While the pith helmet is decidedly out of fashion, the modern safari style is very much as it was a century ago.
Modern stalkers’ smocks, such as those popularised by Ridgeline, Swazi and Fortis, have their origins in traditional Scottish deerstalking garments. A long
smock, cut around knee length or just above, with overstitched seams, designed to keep out wind and rain would have been familiar to Victorian gillies and stalkers in the 1880s.
Made roomy to allow for movement, with a hood and large patch pockets, these tweed coats are the direct forerunners of today’s bestsellers. The most obvious changes have been materials, with far greater levels of waterproofing and reductions in weight available to modern designers.
The reason for dispensing with long trousers and adopting the “Victorian rent boy” look — as AA
Gill memorably once called it — in the field is entirely practical. Footwear was invariably a pair of stout leather boots or shoes, rather than today’s ubiquitous wellington boots.
Wet grass would quickly saturate normal trouser legs and create an infuriating and uncomfortably cold and soggy flapping around of wet tweed below the knee.
Close-knit woollen socks, fastened with garters just below the knee avoid this discomfort. They were teamed with a canvas or leather gaiter to prevent seeds, twigs or stones falling into the boot or shoe. The full cut of old-fashioned plus-twos and plus-fours ensures that rain runs down the cloth and drips off the overhang, rather than clinging to the legs and gathering in the boots. Tighter-fitting breeks are perhaps more common today on the Guns in a line, but hill keepers’ tweeds are still often made the old way.
Hostile environment
The marsh has always been a hostile environment and the necessity was for kit to be practical rather than sartorial as it needed to keep the wearer sufficiently warm and dry so they could function when a shooting opportunity presented itself. When the rain is descending in stair rods and your only companion is your dog, it matters little how you look. How you feel is all that matters.
Looking at old photographs of wildfowlers, one wonders how they managed to shoot, though many were using static 4-bores or puntguns, rather than swinging a magnum 12-bore. On the marsh, wool provided the insulation and rubber or oilskin the waterproofing.
Modern materials have perhaps improved the wildfowler’s lot above all other areas of shooting, with lightweight, breathable, waterproof fabrics, sealed seams and layered undergarments. In exploring the traditions and developments of shooting attire, one is struck by how much the late Victorians got right.
Traditional materials such as leather, tweed and wool still feature in our world 150 years later. The techniques for making, cutting and stitching these fabrics into long-lived, comfortable, practical shooting wear remain as valid as ever.
The introduction of new materials and scientific study of the importance of active wear that breathes in order to maintain a feeling of comfort, warmth and dryness has only served to reaffirm the qualities that our great-great-grandfathers and their tailors knew well. What they needed and appreciated is what we also need and appreciate. So, whatever your preference, your own shooting attire is closer than you might think to that of past generations.
“In exploring shooting attire, one is struck by how much the late Victorians got right”