Fashion for Equine Photography // 2023
One of the questions I get asked most often before my sessions is “What should I wear”? My clients get an entire welcome guide dedicated to answering this question, as well as so many others, not to mention one on one advice about outfits and style, but I thought I would share a few tips and tricks with all of you! Whether you have a session with another photographer, are getting pictures taken by a barn buddy or are debating booking a session with me, here are my top 10 tips on how to dress to look your best for your equine portraits.
1. Dress for the season!
Before you should think about coordinating with your horse, picking out patterns or textures or matching your outfit with your partner, it is important to pick a colour pallet that goes with the season. I’m sure your regular fashion changes with the seasons and you may retire certain items to the back of your closet in Fall and bring them back out in the Spring, the same rules apply to styling for a photo session. Light and airy colours work best with Spring and Summer, while dark and moody colours look excellent in Fall and Winter. I recommend maroon, navy, red, orange, muted yellows and browns for these seasons, depending on the colour of your horse. For Summer and Spring, more pastel and colourful tones look beautiful against the blooming foliage. I suggest staying away from green and yellow during these months, as they can tend to be lost in the background. Lilac, baby blue, pastel pink, white, grey and turquoise are beautiful colours in the warmer seasons.
A perfect soft colour palette that fits perfectly with a Spring or Summer evening. The light pink complements the green foliage beautifully and the black jeans are less distracting than blue.
A perfect outfit and colour pallet for Winter or Fall. The jewel tones stand out beautifully and the black jeans add nice contrast to the outfit.
2. Pick colours that complement your horse!
I’m sure you know from trying to pick the right colour saddle pad that not all horses look good in every colour! While you might be able to get away with putting bright orange on a chestnut in the show ring, you should be a bit more careful when selecting your colour pallet for your session. When coordinating colours with your horse, it is important to remember that you want to pop out, not blend in. With a darker horse, wear a lighter colour, whereas, with a white horse, it is best to choose a darker colour. Chestnuts are the most difficult to colour match with and I recommend sticking to a pastel shade when photographing with a chestnut, as well as staying away from green. If you have a patterned horse, such as a paint or appaloosa, stay away from wearing a pattern yourself so that the images don't appear overly busy. With more golden tones, such as palomino, buckskin and dun, try and chose something that contrasts, such as blue, purple or pink. Most other colours such as bay, black and grey are easy to colour coordinate with.
Since this can be a bit tricky, I have created a free Equine Colour Coordination guide to help make your life a little easier! Scroll to the bottom to find it!
Jewel tones or neutrals compliment chestnuts really beautifully! I recommend cream, black, white, tan, emerald green, hunter green, navy blue and maroon.
Keeping it simple with patterned horses is a best bet! You don’t want to distract from their natural beauty but playing with accessories and layers can help elevate your outfit.
Dark colours and neutrals compliment light coloured horses best!
3. Don’t be afraid to go bold!
Almost all of my packages come with the option for my ladies to wear more than one outfit during their session. This gives the opportunity to showcase different personalities, vibes and styles. It can sound intimidating to have to pick out not just one beautiful outfit but two! I always tell my clients that they shouldn’t be afraid to go bold in their outfit choices and pick out two completely different looks. I recommend picking an equestrian style outfit, a casual outfit and a dress, if three outfit changes are available.
An equestrian style outfit shows off class and elegance, while highlighting the discipline that you practice.
Dresses are fun, playful and stunning and can add an element of magic and glamour to a session.
Casual outfits are fun to style and bring an element of comfort to the session. They also present opportunity for accessorizing and layering.
4. Patterns
As mentioned above, patterns can easily make an image look distracting or take focus away from you, but they can also add an element of intrigue, if done right. I recommend from staying away from anything overly brash or busy, as well as those with small detail. Very fine plaid or stripes can easily become lost and distorted on camera. If choosing to wear a pattern, try and keep the rest of the outfit simple so that it doesn't become overwhelming. Patterns can be excellent to accentuate certain features, add an interesting element to an outfit and show a bit of personality, but we don't want them to take away from the bond we are capturing between horse and rider.
This patterned shirt helps to bring the rider out from the busy background of grass and adds meaningful detail to the shot, without being distracting, bothersome or stealing focus from where the viewers attention should be going, which is the beautiful connection unfolding with the horse.
5. Textures and layering
Textures and layers can add depth and interest to an outfit without worrying about pattern or colour. Layering is the easiest way to make an outfit more interesting and also has an added benefit of keeping you warm if the weather is not in your favour! It can be as simple as a blazer or more complex with multiple layers and added accessories like scarves. It’s an easy way to add pops of colour to an outfit, without overwhelming it. Textures are another way to add intrigue to an outfit, and they are particularly beneficial for Fall and Winter styles. Fur(preferably fake) is a very popular styling element for these seasons and can complement a fuzzy horse’s Winter coat. Other interesting textures include velvet, tule, velour, corduroy and large knit wool.
This simple example of layering adds colour and class to the outfit. While the white shirt on it’s own would have been a nice outfit, the blazer elevates it and adds a more elegant quality to the image.
This is a good example of using texture to elevate an outfit. The colour pallet is very simple and understated but the fur jacket adds intrigue and complements the horse’s Winter coat beautifully.
6. Accessories
If you’re anything like me, you find accessorizing to be the hardest part of putting together an outfit. I’ll be honest, I don’t know a lot about good accessorizing but I will share the little that I have learned from photographing so many different riders with their horses. Overall, I think you should keep it simple and play around with 3 different types of accessories. These include scarves, hats and mitts as accessories for the winter months. Not only do they make a session more bearable but they can accentuate an outfit if done right. Second, necklaces. I think they should be kept small and in taste with the rest of your outfit and colour pallet. Finally, belts. Belts are a great way to elevate a simple outfit and help to frame the figure. I’ve left out two categories of generally common accessories, bracelets and earrings. Bracelets I think should generally be left out of your outfit for a session as they can be distracting for detail shots that are focused on the hands. Earrings I think are particularly beautiful and should be included, however I have don’t have my ears pierced and don’t know the first thing about styling earrings so I don’t think I am in any place to give advice on those.
An excellent example of using accessories to make an outfit! The base of this outfit is just a black dress but the accessories add dimension and a colour pallet.
In my opinion, this is perfect styling of a necklace. It is simple, elegant and the star details add an intriguing element to this image.
This bulky belt is styled beautifully to separate the outfit, add an intriguing element to the outfit and frame the top half of the body as the focus, drawing attention to the face.
7. Foot wear!
Footwear is a very important consideration around horses. For safety, I recommend close toed boots but I also understand that your open sandals or heels would just look so cute with your outfit! If this is the case, please bring them as well as a pair of boots and I will make sure to help handle your horse as much as possible so we can avoid any toes getting stepped on! If your feet will be covered by a long dress or skirt, I recommend wearing boots for safety.
8. Dressing for the Weather
Maybe where you live there isn’t 6 months of endless snow, but where I and most of my clients live that is certainly the case. I think there are two things to consider when dressing for the weather. First of all, how cold/wet will it be and secondly, how long will your client be in those conditions. If it can be done right, with an indoor location nearby and small intervals spent outside, I think cany outfit can be worn in any conditions (take this with a grain of salt, this is coming from someone who wants to get married in the Winter, in the snow and thinks Winter is the best season). If there is no indoor location, or it is just too cold, the session either needs to be re-scheduled or you will need to dress for the weather. There are a couple of ways to dress for the weather and still achieve a fashionable and beautiful look. Focus on adding layers and warm accessories, as mentioned above or try and style your warmest Winter jacket. If your horse will put up with it, an umbrella can add a fun and interesting object to a session and open up new posing opportunities. What I have found most important is the footwear and socks. The extremities (feet and hands) get cold the fastest and once your toes freeze, you’re not going to be having fun anymore. Warm boots, extra socks and hand warmers are all a good idea so that you can stay comfortable and happy as long as possible.
Humans aren’t the only ones who get cold and if your horse is clipped and used to living in a barn, they might need to wear a cooler or stable blanket outside to keep them comfortable. These can be styled to match your outfit.
Accessories like hats and mittens don’t have to take away from an outfit but can add to it and add a warm and cozy aura to the images. As long as they are styled appropriately with the rest of the outfit, they can perfectly complement and make sure you stay warm.
9. Hair and Makeup
This is a tricky one, since I think hair and makeup is so much up to personal preference. Take me for example, when I got my photos done I only put on mascara and just let my hair be down and natural, but that’s just the kind of person I am, I never wear makeup and I’ve curled my hair maybe 5 times in my whole life. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to style your hair and makeup for the session but only that it should complement your outfit and style. If you are going for a casual style, keep your hair and makeup simple and complementary. If you are going for glamour or high fashion, then maybe put a bit more effort into hair and makeup to add to the drama of the overall style. The best option for hair and makeup for your session is having it professionally done, however this is not always an option, and let's face it, it's expensive! If you are confident with makeup, feel free to do your own, I bet it will look fantastic! If you are not very comfortable with makeup, like me, please don't try anything that you are not confident with, I want you to look your best, and that might mean no makeup at all! Alternatively, you can ask a friend or parent to do your makeup for you if you would feel more confident with makeup on for your session. It's important to remember that you want to be able to look back at these images in 10 years and still appreciate them, so it is best to go with a classic and timeless look for hair and makeup. For hair, my recommendations are similar to makeup, and I strongly suggest only doing your own hair if you are comfortable, and otherwise asking for the help of a friend or parent. A loose curl can look beautiful, as well as a half up, half down look. If you would like a more styled look, braids can look beautiful and provide a more done-up look. I suggest staying away from high ponytails, buns and other styles that slick the hair back against the head, as these don't appear the most flattering on camera. If you are able, I recommend trying out your hair and makeup look a day or two before the session, with your outfit, so you can make sure you are happy, comfortable and confident in it. I'm sure you will look beautiful!
10. Inspiration
One of the most helpful things to do when planning an outfit is to find inspiration, look at what other people are wearing, find what you like and don’t like. You can check out the images on this blog or website but one of the most useful tools for this sort of visual inspiration is Pinterest and I have created just the resource to help you find inspiration! Here is the link to my personally curated Pinterest board, with over 300 pins and 7 different categories of style inspiration. You can find outfits based on style and season easily. Hopefully it will help you figure out exactly what you want to wear!
Well that’s it! Hopefully there was some helpful tips and you’re feeling a bit more prepared for your day in front of the camera. I’m sure that whatever you wear, you will look beautiful and capture the most magical memories! At the end of the day, what is most important is not to stress and to wear what you feel most comfortable and genuine in!
Here is the link to the free equine colour guide! It is visually laid out to show what colours to pair with your horse and what colours you should avoid, like yellow on a palomino! Simply enter your name and email to grab this awesome resource!
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