Outfit Day! And I had a little fun this week. The outfit itself isn't terribly exciting, but putting it together was incredibly entertaining for me. I recently acquired a new pair of breeches in the color "Dirt Road". Which is exactly the same shade of vomit green that all the cool kids wore back in the late 90's and early 00's to show. Most of you might not recall, but fear not, I have photos! And you'll see them in this post as we get going, because this is a very special edition of Thursday's Threads. A first of it's kind even! Today I will be recreating an outfit reminiscent of outfits of my youth. I know you're excited. Eros is our model today because he's chestnut and I had a chestnut horse named Cosmo during this outfit's era.
Here's what E and I had on this week:
It's an ACTION SHOT! Because we were attempting to recreate this photo:
I mean... it's similar... Ish. It's not easy to get hunter Eros to look like jumper Cosmo. But we made a solid effort.
Bridle: Winner's Special
I couldn't exactly match up bridles with the era because most all of mine now are either wide or padded or both. But I figured this clincher bridle was reminiscent of the time when many people used clincher browbands in the jumpers. Cosmo actually wore a thin hunter bridle (which was cool then!) with a flash as seen below:
Back then thin bridles were the thing to have. I probably still have some in my mom's garage, but I can't imagine they're safe to use as this point after sitting around for all these years.
Saddle: Butet
Half Pad: Mattes
Baby Pad: Smartpak
My saddle is much nicer than the one I had back in the day for Cosmo (sorry old buddy), and the half pads we used were these big thick wool ones from Beval. But I used a similar baby pad, even back in the old days. Cosmo's saddle was a Pessoa Jubilee and the baby pad was probably Franconia.
I no longer have the open front bell boots Cosmo is donning in his show photos, and while I DO have some similar leather show boots in my trailer, I thought it would be more fun to use an actual vintage pair of boots for Eros this week. These Heidi boots were for my horse Bud that I had in high school. They sure don't make things like this anymore! They are at least 28 years old, and while I haven't used then much in the last many years, they were used daily back in the day. And they still are pretty perfect.
That's what Eros was wearing for our throwback edition, and here's what I had on:
It's giving 90's meets 2010's... I felt nostalgic the whole day I had this on.
Helmet: Current Samshield, late 90's version was a Patey
I had a tough time deciding which helmet to use today. I actually still have the Patey helmet, but it's definitely not safe to wear anymore. Honestly, it probably never was. I'm not sure if you all knew of these helmets? They were, for the times, VERY expensive, and they were custom shaped to your head. I saved all my braiding money that summer to buy one. I think they were around $700 which is what a lot of helmets cost these days. Whatever they were made of could be heated and then shaped to your head. If you left it in the hot car you'd have to get it reshaped because it would melt out of shape. I loved this helmet. Eventually it turned completely brown. I only stopped wearing it when the rule changed requiring approved helmets. (Young Stacie loved her helmet more than her brain evidently.) I have it displayed in my house next to a vintage pair of Vogel boots, some old puke green TS breeches, and a wool coat. Boy am I old. Anyway... I decided to go with this Samshield for the outfit because it's alcantra which is kind of similar to the velvet cap from my youth.
Shirt: Ralph Lauren
I was all into striped polos for the non classic classes at shows back in the day. And I wore them pretty much all the non show days too. This one is more modern, but it's probably still 8 or 10 years old. It definitely gives early 00's vibes though.
Belt: Brighton
This is another vintage piece, and another of the things I saved braiding money for. I thought these were the coolest belts ever when I saw them. I had a choker I wore with the same beads. (The 90's were a time, let me tell you.) I think I only had to braid two horses for this, so not nearly as big a deal as the helmet. But I was younger for this one. I got this the summer before college which was the most amazing summer of my youth. Some day I'll have to tell you guys all about it. I couldn't find a throwback photo with this belt because usually I had a hunt coat on. Most of the old photos I am wearing a silver belt, which I also still have, but couldn't dig it up for this post. I'm also not sure it would still fit. Our breeches sat ridiculously high back then, and I was MUCH thinner. This one just barely made it around me as it was! It looks a little funny here with my new breeches because back in the day the waistband and belt loops were narrow. These days we like a wide belt.
Breeches: Tailored Sportsman Trophy Hunter in Dirt Road
I really can't get over this color... It's so close to the old pants. But like a million times better. The old TS had no stretch. NONE. They were just thick unforgiving pants. They had weird seams all over them that might wound you if your legs swelled in the heat. The patches were actual leather which were always ruined at the dry cleaner. Oh yeah, they had to be dry cleaned. And no lie, they came up to your rib cage. They were pretty awful. But we all wore them. EVERYONE. All the cool kids. The famous grand prix riders. Everyone. I'm so glad we now have tech fabrics and STRETCH! And slightly lower rises. Lol! Photo below for late 90's reference:
That rise doesn't seem as high as I recall. Perhaps my memory is skewed a little. I will admit to missing having that body though! I think I was like 110 lbs here. And also like 19. Can't expect 45 year old me to look like 19 year old me.
Boots: currently day Parlanti, throwback boots were Vogels
My Parlantis are the definitely the most similar looking in my collection to the old Vogels, short of wearing the actual old Vogels. But the old ones didn't have zippers. You had to pull those suckers on and get two people to help you remove them. Kids these days don't know the struggle! They were custom, TIGHT, with no elastic anywhere. If your legs swelled in those forget feeling your feet for the rest of the day. And you might need three people to get them off. But the quality? Nothing compares. They were heavy duty leather that shined BEAUTIFULLY. They lasted for years, and you could get the soles replaced to extend their life. I'd say of all the boots I have now, Celeris is definitely the closest match in quality.
Alright, that's it for today's special edition of Thursday's Threads. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Makes me nostalgic for my heyday of showing all summer long. But I'm so glad breeches have stretch now and boots have zippers! I guess I'm also glad helmets are safer. But I do kinda miss that helmet.
