Great Britain and her roses have the best country style: timeless, appropriate for the weather, and more elegant and better made than anything my own country can come up with. Great Britain has given the rest of us Wellington boots, mackintoshes, trench coats, and variations on utility chic over the decades.
While the U.S. has her share of Filson and REI (both Seattle-based), we haven't quite matched the classic looks coming from Britain. For one thing, we call it "outdoors" instead of country, and perhaps that singular word difference is what inspires a heartier look to outdoor fashion in the U.S. I don't care for the U.S. look very much, especially when those gals across the pond are doing the same activities as we are, and are looking so much sharper doing it.
Two modern-day muses I follow happen to be in England--one of them English and the other an American transplant. Both of them named Amanda, and both residents of the countryside. They are also both long-time insiders of the fashion industry, so admittedly their style has an edge on most people. But they realize sartorial greatness when they see it and live in it, and happily for us they are frequently photographed.
Amanda Harlech is a fashion consultant and collaborator with Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel. She owns a home in Shropshire, England, where she spends half her time, riding horses and walking her land, by the look of it.
Amanda Harlech. Image by Mark C. O'Flaherty.
Harlech in a fab layered look. Photo by her son Jasset Harlech, from thenowness.com.
Harlech wearing a hipster, baggy look only a teeny tiny woman can get away with. Image from thesartorialist.com.
Amanda Brooks, author, shop owner and fashion consultant, lives in Oxfordshire, England with her family. An American, she married an Englishman and eventually they made their way back to his country when their kids were preteens in 2012. She has totally embraced the English country life and both writes and Instagram s about it.
I find her writing about her life in fashion to be fascinating and a trip down memory lane as far as life as a twenty-something in the 1990s and early aughts (Brooks and I are the same age). She is the author of three enjoyable books, I Love Your Style, Always Pack a Party Dress, and Farm from Home (the latter two going into detail—in true plummy, aspirational spirit—her current expat life).
Amanda Brooks on the family farm. I love her choice of the oversized blazer for the Sunday walk. Image from her blog, I Love your Style
Brooks photographed at her family farm by Todd Selby for a Zara campaign. I love darker fitted khakis like these, both utilitarian and elegant.
Another image by Todd Selby, this one for his own site.
More Selby. Why not wear awesome clothes while cutting flowers?!
Brooks outside her kitchen. Image by Carol Sachs.
If you might like more suggestions for gear and clothing for a day of birding, please visit my Birding Plumage page for more ideas.