Dressing FOr the seaSON
Summer is one of the most popular times for a photoshoot.Our summers are cool, green, and beautifully soft in tone, which makes it great
season for your photoshoot. Summer is all about golden light, warm breezes, and natural elegance. These outfit ideas are designed to keep you cool, comfortable, and stunning next to your horse—without sacrificing comfort or practicality.
Why colours and textures matter
Your styling sets the tone for the entire portrait. The right colours and textures elevate your images by creating visual harmony between you, your horse, and the background. We have ever changing light in the UK, from bright summer days, to overcast ones, so we have to make sure we have styling options for both.
Starting casual
We always plan our outfits starting from some casual choices:
- Jeans - Pick out 1 or 2 favourite pairs of Jeans. Ideally your nice ones that come out for special occasions only, you want to feel amazing in these, and for them to be super comfortable as well.
- Pastel jumpers/shirts - Summer is full of colour, so soft pastels like sky blues, pastel pinks, beiges and creams are a great place to start. Whether they are knitted jumpers, or flowy shirts is up to what you prefer!
- Accessories - Belts ( bring all the belts you own!), hats, and scarves can all be fabulous additions. Scarves can add a pop of colour to your outfits with overpowering them, and hats are fab props.
smarten things up?
Keep the same colours and ideas in mind, however let's upscale slightly. Flowy dresses, tweed ponchos, super smart denim or leather jackets. These all add character and texture to your images without too many clashing colours. Smarter shoes like nice loafers, or white trainers ( and I mean white) are all practical and smart options for a summer shoot.
Keep your horse in mind
Horses coat colours are also something we need to keep in mind, especially if we have the sun out and about too making them shine.
- Black horses - I try to stay away from bright white. If you have a lovely white flowy shirt, let's tone it down with a poncho, or a tweed blazer ontop!
- Chestnuts - Keep it simple. White, beige and light blues are fab. Purples can be difficult here.
- Bays\Greys - These are the easiest and go with most things. If you love a pop of colour ( oranges, yellows etc) bay horses can make a great match to these.
exceptions
As mentioned above, busy patterns and big logs are usually not what we aim to go with. However, sometimes these rules are broken. Susan on the right had a lovely patterned shawl/jacket that went brilliantly with her fitted trousers. We kept the backdrop simple, and the greens soft. This helped the outfit have the spotlight it deserved, while beautifully adding to the image and the moment captured as well!
does Summer sound like you?
Grab one of my remaining spring spots today, I can't wait to hear from you!
