Anna Harvey Timeless Style
Dressing for a relaxing weekend in the country
An invitation for a country weekend is always a pleasure. Once you have put the wellies and a waterproof in the boot, what to pack is the challenge. Weekends should be about taking a break – and that means what you wear as much as what you do. If you work then chances are you spend most of your time in restrictive, tailored clothes, sober colours and shoes that pinch.
A weekend in the country – or anywhere else – means a chance to relax and escape from all that. You can bring out items you feel relaxed in and enjoy wearing, with possibly a dash more colour. It doesn’t mean breaking out the trackies – they should be confined to your own four walls. Here are some suggestions as to what to wear for a weekend in the country, even if you live in the country yourself.
When I pack
I lay my clothes on the bed, arranged into outfits. This way I avoid over-packing. I might also make a list of what to wear when, if it is to be a long weekend. I doubt most people go to this trouble but they are probably more organised than I am.
There is often a dinner party one evening that will require something smart but not too formal (“smart casual” seems to appear regularly on invitations today). A visit to the farmers’ market on Saturday morning might be proposed, a walk after Sunday lunch perhaps, and sometimes drinks at a neighbour’s house. If you do need to invest in country-appropriate labels without wanting to go down the tweed and headscarf route, then good labels to look at for attractive, smarter casual clothes include J by Jasper Conran at Debenhams, Bruce Oldfield at John Lewis, Winser London, Jaeger, Jigsaw, Whistles and Toast, among others.
I don’t like rules about what to wear when, but outside a city environment it is better to be comfortable. This doesn’t mean looking frumpy, far from it: it means looking great but at the same time not attracting too much attention
for the wrong reasons. Extremes like very tight trousers, too short skirts and very low necklines after a certain age don’t necessarily work well.
I always pack a couple of pairs of trousers, possibly jeans or chinos and a smarter pair in gabardine. You might prefer to wear skirts, in which case, this season I would suggest a dress or mid-calf pleated skirt for smart wear and a cotton twill or denim one for that country ramble. Start at Uniqlo, M&S, Zara and Mango for these. Juliet Dunn is a great source of decorative tunic tops, as is Monsoon. A knitted jacket from Brora or the White Company is a good idea in case of a change in the weather. I also always pack a dress (which I hope won’t need ironing), and evening trousers and a top, to give myself a choice when the moment for decisionmaking comes.
Having packed the wellies (mine are very old but brilliantly comfortable Chameau), you need a pair of flat day shoes and a more glamorous pair for the evening, medium or flat heels (vertiginous heels do not work in the country as a general rule and are an example of drawing the wrong kind of attention to yourself, unless you are young enough to carry them off) and perhaps a small clutch bag.
It might also be a good idea to pack a pair of warm pyjamas, since we all know what nights in cold houses can be like.