The Uniform of the Field

What are you actually supposed to wear for a day in the field?

Jake Woolf, Avian Sandercock and Sam Turner work their way through the strange mixture of tradition, practicality and unwritten rules that governs sporting clothing.

They start with driven shooting: tweed caps, ties, cravats, breeks, plus fours, shooting coats, estate tweeds and the question of whether matching tweed is smart or simply too much.

From there they move onto fly fishing, where technical clothing, waders, polarised glasses and enormous pockets full of flies take over, before looking at stalking, camouflage and wildfowling.

Along the way they ask whether function should come before fashion, why so many countryside traditions survive long after their original purpose has disappeared, and whether worrying about the “right” clothes risks putting newcomers off altogether.

Plus inappropriate fishing shorts, the Chelsea life jacket, technical tweed, self-propelled Barbour jackets and why wildfowling in tweed is probably something you only try once.

In this episode:

• Why clothing and presentation still matter on a driven shooting day
• Whether function should come before fashion in the field
• Tweed caps, ties, cravats, breeks, plus fours and shooting coats
• Why traditional shooting clothing developed the way it did
• Estate tweeds, keeper uniforms and camouflage
• Why clothing should not become a barrier for newcomers to shooting
• What to wear for river and salmon fly fishing
• Waders, fishing vests, fly boxes and polarised sunglasses
• The idea of “matching the hatch” when choosing flies
• Technical fabrics versus traditional outdoor clothing
• Modern shooting clothing and the rise of technical tweed
• Why women’s shooting clothing is finally becoming more practical
• Clothing for lowland and hill deer stalking
• Camouflage, concealment and breaking up the human outline
• What to wear for wildfowling on the foreshore
• The importance of staying warm, dry, windproof and able to move

• Matching the Hatch by Pat O’Reilly — the fly-fishing guide mentioned by Avian
• Frederic M. Halford — influential writer and pioneer of modern dry-fly fishing
• River Test fishing — the Hampshire chalk stream discussed in the episode
• Barbour — traditional waxed outdoor clothing
• Dubarry of Ireland — country boots and outdoor clothing
• GORE-TEX — waterproof and breathable technical fabrics

Part of the SideCountry Network.




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