As Barbour teams up with hot Danish label Ganni, ALICE HARE on how to pull off… Country style if you don’t have a pony

• Here’s how to add just the right amount of country flair to your wardrobe
• READ MORE:  Gucci loafer we still adore 70 years on

Fashion houses are no strangers to the timeless elegance of country style.

Ganni, the Danish brand synonymous with Scandi cool, has recently collaborated with Barbour and earlier this month, the Princess of Wales stepped out in a jacket from the stalwart of British outerwear, Burberry.

Coming in at £900, the jacket was a re-imagined version of the quilted jacket worn by the late Queen at Balmoral.

Black kick-flare jeans and sturdy ankle boots completed Kate’s country-made-modern look.

Here’s how to add just the right amount of country flair to your wardrobe…

BOOT CAMP

Leather knee-high, £159.99, mango.com

Two equally appealing, but very different, boot options are available here.

The first? The knee-high, flat equestrian type of boot that wouldn’t look out of place at a point-to-point, or on a cavalry officer at Hyde Park Barracks.

Mango has a pair in the perfect shade of brown for £159.99 that could be Hermes. Tuck a pair of loose jeans into them for a prim-meets-cool fusion.

The other option? The track-soled, sturdy ankle-length type of boot the Princess of Wales favours. Practical enough for woodland, but stylish enough for pavements, the Princess’s go-tos are by cult Australian brand Blundstone, or the fashion crowd’s favourite, Penelope Chilvers.

SNAFFLE A SNAFFLE 

Inspired by the elegance of the racing set he encountered during his time as a bellhop at The Savoy hotel, Guccio Gucci added horsebit hardware to many of his leather goods during the 1930s.

And his son, Aldo, then added it to the brand’s loafers in the 1950s, which gained a huge and varied fanbase: not many shoes have been worn by both U.S. president George Bush and Madonna.

Snaffle headband, £27, and wristwarmers, £35, waringbrooke.com

Equestrian flair has a perennial appeal, it would seem. Diehard urbanites consider the snaffle the least scary way to inject just a small dose of country polish to your wardrobe.

Arket has a suede snaffle belt (£67, arket.com) that would be chic over a supersized blazer, while Fairfax & Favor’s loafers (£185, fairfaxandfavor.com) feature gold hardware similar to a snaffle. 

Suede snaffle belt, £67, arket.com

Or try Waring Brooke for snaffle accessories made on a traditional knitting machine in the Nottinghamshire countryside.

EMBRACE TEXTURES

Stylish: The Princess of Wales in a Burberry quilted jacket

Velvet shirt, £224, lavestelaveste.com

Velvet shoes, £79, moilondon.com

It’s no coincidence that country clothing is heavily textured: tweed, corduroy and quilted fabrics are a necessary antidote to the biting cold of the grouse moor and the draughty corridors of country houses.

Texture is another shortcut to incorporating a feeling of heritage into an urban wardrobe. 

Co-founded by agricultural student Sam Pullin and Jermyn Street apprentice Edward Bonnar, Beaufort & Blake makes a culotte-style cord trouser (£71.20, beaufort andblake.com) that the country set slide on in the city. 

Even they know there’s a time and a place for plus fours. And Oxford Street probably isn’t it. Velvet offers an opulent take on warmth by evening.

JUMP INTO JODHPURS 

L-R: Traditional, £99.95, houseofbruar.com; black velvet, £279, ralphlauren.co.uk; stirrup, £19.99, reserved.com

Earlier this month Ascot released its first-ever lookbook for the winter racing season, and it provides a modern, approachable take on the traditional equestrian style.

The city slicker’s shortcut to the country look? A jodhpur-style trouser that’s less Pony Club, and more Jilly Cooper.

Head to Mango and Reserved for stirrup legging styles for under £25 that subtly nod to the traditional jodhpur, or to Ralph Lauren for a luxurious black velvet pair (£279) that will be perfect with a statement shirt and heels for party season.

Just don’t forget the golden rule of laundry beyond the M25: don’t leave anything drying on the Aga for too long. Or maybe do, if you want the authentic orange Aga burn marks that pepper every toff’s clothing (and knickers, I might add).

GOOD GALS LOVE A GILET 

Houndstooth tweed gilet, £99.95, joules. com (available from mid-December)

Forget the padded sort of gilet that has become de rigueur for any self-respecting banker of late. This is a tailored gilet, probably in tweed. The sort of thing Katharine Hepburn would have worn tucked into high-waisted trousers.

This season, heritage brand Schoffel is branching out and has made a ladies’ gilet in British-milled Lovat tweed (£269.95, schoffelcountry.com).

Paired with jeans at the weekend or black tailored trousers during the week, the joy of a warm body and non-constricted arms is not to be scoffed at.

CHECKMATE

The easiest way to spot a country bumpkin in the wild? A check, of course.

Vest, £71.20, and shirt, £63.20, beaufortandblake.com

The check to the countryside is what camouflage is to the military: a uniform. And the check is steeped in history.

The Tattersall version is named after Tattersalls horse market, which opened in 1776 and had horses draped in check blankets.

Head to Troy London — founded by sisters Rosie van Cutsem and Lucia Ruck Keene and based up the road from the Waleses’ Norfolk home at Anmer — for a Tattersall shirt that fuses the androgyny of the check with the femininity of a pussy bow in a modern re-imagined stock shirt (£135, troylondon.com).

Paired with jeans and ballet flats, it brings perfect country flair to the city, too.

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