The Game Fair – Hatfield House – 2019
Good Morning! Apologies for the delay with my Game Fair round up blog, but what a Game Fair it has been! Have we not experienced every possible weather during that weekend? From soaring heatwave temperatures whilst setting up – to torrential rain and sinking tents during the show itself! That’s why we love the English weather, is it not?!
I chose to spend the weekend at The Game Fair this year. I’ve only ever done one day in the past, but there is so much to see and do that I wanted to make the most of it all this year! I travelled up on Saturday morning and stayed over locally – I wasn’t camping thankfully – it sounds as though it wasn’t for the faint hearted!
I love The Game Fair, I always have, and there were many demonstrations I wanted to see, and exhibitors that I wanted to visit. If there is a dog to stroke, I am the first one there. So, of course, meeting the hounds was something I was definitely going to do! I also watched some of the heavy horses, Shetland pony Grand National and the falconry displays. The organisation that goes in to producing such an extensive range of demonstrations at The Game Fair is phenomenal – there really is something for everyone.
It was great to see In The Country Magazine with a stand again at The Game Fair this year. I featured on the Summer front cover so I was really keen to catch up with Hollie-Ella to see how things were going. I loved doing this photo shoot – if you haven’t read my behind the scenes blog, go and have a read to see what went into the cover you saw at The Game Fair. I had a bit of a proud moment having a picture with the cover in the flesh!
I also caught up with some of my favourite brands at The Game Fair this year to find out how they have found the show, and which pieces have been flying out for them.
Welligogs
Welligogs is one of my favourite stands to visit at any show, every single piece is beautiful and if you try something on it is most definitely going to be going home with you. Welligogs hosted the Best Dressed Ladies competition on the Friday of The Game Fair – the winner, also a Lucinda, looked absolutely fabulous and won a lovely bundle of goodies. I caught up with Tess to find out how they were finding the wet weather, and which was a best seller during the event!
“So it’s been great, very wet obviously – there is mud surrounding the whole stand – but that has been really good for us as we sell quite a lot of raincoats! One of our most popular coats we’ve had this year has been the Louise. The Louise is a style that we have been doing for quite a few years now, but the khaki was brought out for this Spring/Summer collection. It is in a lightweight wax, so it is not as heavy as the traditional British wax. It also machine washable, so when you get muddy on a day like today or with muddy paws, or falling over, you can throw it in the wash at 30 degrees. It also has the lovely back on it, the traditional Edwardian riding style, which a lot of our jackets are based on. This is adjustable so if the mornings are cold and you want to wear a jumper or extra layers you can let it out a bit, and then when the day warms up you can bring it in, giving a lovely feminine shape. We are looking forward to next year, we always enjoy this show and we had a great ladies day. There was lots of contestants, and the winner and runners up were really pleased – we have had a really wonderful time!”
Nattily
I chose to wear my Nattily gilet on the Saturday of The Game Fair. I love wearing a gilet for added warmth and the Nattily gilets are striking and unique. Natalie was telling me that the term ‘Nattily’ actually means some one is dressed stylishly – and stylish is something you will definitely look in one of these gilets!
There are currently four colour combinations for the gilets, navy and pink, navy and green, grey and pink and grey and green. The colour pop in the piping means these gilets really do stand out. Natalie and I had a catch up about how the event has been, and which colour combination was in highest demand during the event.
“Hi I’m Natalie from Nattily Dressed and we are currently at The Game Fair. We’ve had a great weekend, it was a little bit hot setting up on Thursday, but with the thunderstorms and rain, we’ve been able to keep nice and cool, and it has been perfect gilet weather. We have had loads of lovely people come to visit the stand. Lots of people have seen the gilets before and they wanted to buy one which is fab! One of our favourites at this event has been the grey gilet with the green piping, and matching pom-pom. The gilets are all made out of recycled plastic bottles, so the fleece that is used is made by Polartec, roughly 20 plastic bottles make every gilet, all post consumer use. A lot of people do ask how they are made, Polartec work with a company who collect the plastic bottles and break them down, they are then melted and made into a yarn which is then I used by Polartec to weave into fleece. The gilets are breatheable and really good quality, they wear really well and are anti-pill. They are lightweight but warm – and sustainable too! These gilets are super bright and really fun!”
Wandering Bee
I wore my Wandering Bee pocket jumper poncho on the Sunday of The Game Fair. There was a bit of a chill in the air so this jumper was perfect to keep that off- whilst still looking stylish! Wandering Bee have some beautiful items and I was excited to hear from Wendy which products were best sellers at The Game Fair this year.
“So we are on Day Three, the final day of The Game Fair, and it has been a good fair, with completely changeable weather! I think we have had every seasons weather in three days! The pocket ponchos have been selling really well, but the main seller for the three days has been the Union Jack vintage print scarves, this has sold mostly in the blue style, then the grey, and the traditional red, white and blue. It’s been a really good show for us for sales of those scarves”.
How amazing do these Union Jack scarves look? I want one in every colour!
Purdey and Sloane
Described as ‘Embrace the Elements’, this luxury skincare brand launched on the Friday of The Game Fair, developed for those involved in rural life. I was so pleased to catch Clare for a few minutes to find out how she has found her first show with Purdey and Sloane, and how the launch went!
“Hi, I’m Clare, the founder of Purdey and Sloane, a brand new skin care range that we launched on Friday. We have had an amazing, incredible response and we’ve worked hard with instagram over the past year, so people have really come to find us, which has been great. We have launched three main products, all skincare for the field. The one hit that has been a massive success has been the little discovery bags. So you get a little tweed bag with all of the miniatures in there so people can actually take the product away and try and test it. The key selling point for us is the fact that it is all British, so we make it all in house, we have developed it in house, we use British oils from British farmers and I think we are quite unique with that, and we are also really different on Gun Makers Row this year which is just amazing. The show has been fantastic, the weather has been a little bit choice, but you can’t change that, we are all used to that being out in the field anyway. The show has been absolutely amazing!”
I am going to be writing a blog on this amazing skincare brand so keep your eyes peeled for that coming soon, I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you!
County Equestrian Jewellers
This jewellery has been a firm favourite of mine for years now. If you follow my Instagram account, and have read my previous blogs, you will know how much I love the jewellery, and I am normally wearing something from this brand! Some of the popular cartridge jewellery featured in my ‘Get the Look Game Fair Blog’. I caught up with Christina from the brand to see how they have found the show this year.
“The Game Fair at Hatfield House has proven really popular for us this year. Our Shotgun cartridge jewellery range has gone down a treat, with the shotgun cartridge rings being the most popular. Chris hand makes every silver band and then solders a cartridge onto the ring. The stone set ones have also been really popular, you can either have them with a clear stone or a blue stone, or if there is a specific colour you wanted, we can always get this for you. Prices start at £35 for the cartridge rings, going up to £45, or you can have them all in silver for £50”.
So what did I wear to The Game Fair in the end? I’ve said a few times before that I don’t tend to plan my outfits weeks in advance. And this years Game Fair proved exactly why- we had the scorching set up temperatures, to the cooler, wet show days. This meant my outfit changed slightly from what I was planning on wearing- but I had been prepared for this! Below is a breakdown of the outfits I wore each day.
Get The Look – The Game Fair Saturday Style
The weather was awful on Saturday. We had rain consistently throughout the day- and the ground was incredibly muddy! I always tend to opt for a Fedora on a day out – my hair is usually a mess and this helps to control it, but they are also perfect for wet weather and keeping your head dry! Despite the rain, it wasn’t overly cold so I wore a white shirt under my gilet. I had chosen a tweed skirt as I had been hoping for the warm weather, but chose to compliment this with long boots, should the weather play up – as it did! These Welligog boots were perfect with the ground being a little muddy as the bottom part of the boot is leather, meaning they clean up easily!
Full outfit details below.
Hat: High Bird Designs
Gilet: Nattily
Shirt: Welligogs
Skirt: Joules
Boots: Welligogs
Jewellery: County Equestrian Jewellers
Watch: Morris Richardson Watches
Handbag: Fairfax and Favor
Get The Look – The Game Fair Sunday Style
The ground had dried up a little today, and the rain has eased off following a morning downpour. It was just a little cooler in temperature which needed dressing for. I worse a fedora again, of course! I then chose to wear my lovely Wandering Bee poncho which I layered over a white shirt. I popped a silk scarf which matched my fedora to add in some colour and additional class to the outfit. I opted for a tweed skirt, again, who doesn’t love tweed? And the welligogs long boots.
Full outfit details below.
Hat: High Bird Designs
Jumper: Wandering Bee
Shirt: Welligogs
Skirt: Holland Cooper Clothing
Boots: Welligogs
Scarf: Clare Haggas Fine Art
Jewellery: County Equestrian Jewellers
Watch: Morris Richardson Watches
Handbag: Grays
So that’s another Game Fair over for this year. I have had such a lovely time being out at an event, watching some great demonstrations and catching up with fabulous brands.
I have a couple of exciting country clothing style blogs coming up, so keep an eye out for these!
Lots of Love Lucinda xo
‘All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us’ – J.R.R. Tolkien
