ooooh, nice jacket. You know what you need to do: trundle it over to Hadfields and go through their swatches and have them make you one. hehehe (oh dear, I hope they still do that. It was one of my favorite birthday splurges ever)
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Yes! I do love that a lot of the Euro colored shirts have white collars and cuffs. I also was heartened to hear the jumper judge at Princeton a few weeks ago request that riders button their collars before coming into the ring. Jumpers with a flapping collar is a pet peeve–I don’t know where that look got popular!
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Side note: When are we going to recognize that white/light colored breeches in a women dominated sport is the DUMBEST GD THING IN THE WORLD! What on earth is wrong with or black/dark brown/dark grey breeches as formal show attire?
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There’s an older gentleman around here who shows in the rated A/A jumpers in dark/navy breeches on his grey horse and it looks super sharp!
Right? My middle aged butt looks FAR more appropriate in black breeches and black polished boots. Add a black jacket with a little piping, or a nice burgundy with white stock/choker/tie ? Its a beautiful formal look. Navy/Midnight blue/Charcoal/Chocolate brown would all be similarly classic.
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In that photo she’s wearing a hunt coat with four buttons. I’ve been trying several different brands of show coats (for hunter under saddle classes) and honestly, the ones with four buttons often fit me better. But I thought those were traditionally for dressage?
Ohmygod, I’m 50/50 on the feel of them but what I really don’t like is the look of a lot of them. Part of it is, every time I hear “technical fabric,” I think of men wearing those shiny awful shirts when they’re nowhere near an athletic field let alone on one. And I just shudder. I have a really hard time getting past that, lol.
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Yessssss.
I wasn’t going to shop for any more non-essentials this month, in June. Though technically the purchase that prompted that self-promise occurred May 31.
But, man, I have wanted a gingham shirt my whole life.
If you ride like Amanda Steege, you can wear a coat with any number of buttons! Lol.
Similar to the way Lillie Keenan pretty much single-handedly brought the green coat back into fashion for the equitation ring some years ago. 
Seriously, I don’t think the fourth button is a big deal if the coat fits well.
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A couple of brands have been making H/J coats with 4 buttons for a few years now. Some strict trainers will still insist on 3 buttons but I don’t think anyone notices when you’re riding… plus I think the 4 button style is more flattering on some people, especially with long torsos.
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As a tall person with a long torso, can confirm that 4 buttons are more flattering than 3 on my body type.
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Thanks! The four button styles do seem to be slightly longer-waisted, which fit me better. Since I’m strictly showing Paints now, and my barn mate just ordered a burgundy and blue plaid coat with light blue piping ( 
) I don’t think I’ll be shunned if I wear a coat with four buttons.
Now if I could just find a pretty colored show shirt …
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I was so thrilled when the dressage rules opened up this year. I used to do beige for schooling shows anyway, but I’ve been doing grey for everything this year. They look just as nice, but are so much easier to keep looking clean on show day!
If I still fit into any of my colored show shirts, I’d be wearing them! I love a light blue or blue check with a navy coat.
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Hadfields can still get you anything you want in the way of traditional attire.
I wish more people would realize that there are very few people who can wear the washable/mesh/modern hunt coats. I certainly can’t. They seem to be literally designed to be unflattering.
Also, make sure you all don’t go actually hunting with four buttons!!
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I will pipe up and say that Amanda Steege was the leading lady hunter rider at Devon, as well as reserve champion in one of the divisions today. So I’m pretty sure nobody held the coat with the extra button against her. Lol.
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And what about the short cut of coats these days? Everyone is going around with their bottoms hanging out and look like pony kids who’ve grown out of their clothes. A slightly longer line in the back is so much more elegant in the saddle. Plus, the technical fabrics are so light that the backs flap around like mad when cantering. The heavier weight wools stayed in place a bit better. Perhaps adding hem weights would allow the technical fabric to stay put without all the distraction of flapping fabric.
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Ooh boy, I can’t agree with this more! Even at my “mature” age I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, figure-wise. But in mesh coats I look like a sausage stuffed into a casing made of fishnet pantyhose. Sure, the fabric “stretches.” It stretches over every lump and bump of flesh on my body.
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Once in a while I see someone who looks like they have the bottom of the coat basted (is that the right word?) so the edges don’t flap around. But that looks a little funny, too.
@Tha_Ridge, that is a good looking hunt coat. I don’t think it’s unreasonable in the hunter ring, either, if you’re not wearing it on classic day.
One of my farm’s now-graduated juniors had a sagey olive green mesh hunt coat that I absolutely coveted. What I liked best was that it didn’t look like mesh- the back flaps were strategically reinforced so that they draped like fabric, and the mesh was thick enough that it had a more tailored appearance and wasn’t clingy. I forget what brand it was but I looked it up after and the style had been discontinued.
My mom encountered this when she went shopping for her hunt coat last year. Mom’s last hunt coat was purchased during her own junior years and the styles were a wee bit different. The tack shop told her that she would be better off looking for an older model of hunt coat in consignment rather than off the rack as Mom is long-waisted and, quoth the tack shop, “We find that our senior amateur customers prefer a longer cut than is being currently made.” (It is a navy coat and she wears it with a pink ratcatcher, because she likes pink.)
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The mesh coats definitely aren’t as flattering, but some days they’re the only reason I can wear a coat and handle the heat. So if my options are looking unflattering or passing out, it’s not really an option 
. The lined coats do look a lot better though, and I wear them when it’s not crazy hot out.
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