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Kentucky Derby Dress: The Sack Suit Option

Kentucky Derby Dress: The Sack Suit Option

The first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs has, in recent decades, become the occasion for a particular kind of American costume. Pastel seersucker in colours unknown to nature, fedoras with hatbands picking up a fourth and unrelated hue, trousers in mint or coral, ties printed with tiny mint juleps.

The Boat Race 2026: Dark Blues, Light Blues and a Long Run of Cambridge Dominance

The Boat Race 2026: Dark Blues, Light Blues and a Long Run of Cambridge Dominance

Cambridge arrive as favourites for today's Boat Race, but Oxford have been waiting a long time. Our preview of the 2026 race from Putney to Mortlake.

The Boat Race: A Short History of Britain's Long Rivalry on the Thames

The Boat Race: A Short History of Britain's Long Rivalry on the Thames

It began, as so many English traditions do, with two friends and a disagreement about where to hold the party. In 1829, Charles Merivale of St John's College, Cambridge, and his old school friend Charles Wordsworth of Christ Church, Oxford, arranged a race at Henley-on-Thames between their respective

Boxing Day hunt meet in an English village street with hounds, mounted field in red coats, and spectators lining the road

The Boxing Day Meet

The day after Christmas is the great day in all the hunting counties," wrote Trollope. St. Stephen's Day brings out the regulars, the once-a-season followers, visiting relations in borrowed boots, and half the village. It's magnificent chaos, and not remotely about the actual hunting.

Woodcock Shooting: Two Men with three Dogs

The Last Wild Game

Ask a keeper to promise woodcock and watch the evasion begin. They arrive from Scandinavia when weather pushes them south, refuse to be managed, and preserve what most shooting has eliminated: genuine uncertainty.

The Pheasant

The pheasant is not English. It arrived from somewhere between the Black Sea and China, yet has become the definition of traditional country sport. A look at the bird's odd position in English culture and literature.

Ritual Notes: The Barbers and Bars of St. James's

Ritual Notes: The Barbers and Bars of St. James's

The barbers and bars of St. James's have been doing things properly for rather a long time. Which is why people keep going back...Three bars, two barbers. Makes a pleasant afternoon - haircut, shave, then round to the bar. The same combination each month, or vary it.

Grey partridge among winter grasses in British farmland.

The Grey Partridge and What It Tells Us

The grey partridge belongs to a particular kind of English countryside – one that existed before intensive farming, before broad-spectrum pesticides, and before the landscape was asked to produce quite so much, quite so quickly.

Christmas Cards Without Leaving the House

Christmas Cards Without Leaving the House

Not everyone can make it to a London stationer before the Christmas run begins. Fortunately, several sources worth knowing have made it rather easy to order quality cards without leaving one's desk. These are not the digital print-on-demand services that clutter the internet, but rather...

Photo of Stationers' Hall in London.

London's Stationers: A Short Guide to Paper, Ink, and the Christmas Post

There is a moment in November when London begins to feel like itself again. The clocks have gone back, the evenings draw in early, and somewhere in Mayfair the scent of ink and warm paper drifts into the street. Christmas cards need writing, and a proper card deserves proper stationery.

A richly textured digital oil painting depicting the Melbourne Cup horse race at Flemington in the rain, with jockeys and horses charging down the track as spectators under umbrellas..

Cup Day, Melbourne 2025

Cup Day always sneaks up, even when one knows it's coming. By the time one glances at the morning papers, half of Melbourne seems to have found a hat, a horse, and a reason to take the day off.

The Four Days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival: Dress, Decorum, and Distinction

The Four Days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival: Dress, Decorum, and Distinction

ach November, the lawns of Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne become a theatre of sport, ceremony, and style. The Melbourne Cup Carnival extends across four days, each with its own rhythm, colour, and unwritten dress code. To attend the Carnival well is to understand its sequence

A Tradition in Motion: The History of the Melbourne Cup

A Tradition in Motion: The History of the Melbourne Cup

From colonial paddock to global stage, the Melbourne Cup has traced Australia’s rise from frontier to modernity — one furlong at a time. The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, when the city was still a young colonial settlement.

The Season Under Other Stars

The Season Under Other Stars

While the northern countryside settles into mist and pheasant calls, the Southern Hemisphere is bright with its own anticipation. In Melbourne, the air sharpens, the jacarandas bloom, and the lawns of Flemington Racecourse are cut to a billiard's smoothness.

Historical print of the 1838 St Leger Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse showing horses and jockeys racing on the Town Moor with Victorian spectators watching from the rails

St Leger Stakes

The St Leger Stakes 2025: Why Yesterday's Classic Proves the Best Horse Still Wins at Doncaster

Yesterday's St Leger Stakes reminded one why this particular afternoon in September continues to matter. As the oldest Classic settled into its familiar rhythm at Doncaster Racecourse, there was that satisfying sense of witnessing something...

Glorious Twelfth, grouse shooting, shotgun, country clothing, shooting equipment, British field sports

The Glorious Twelfth: Grouse Season Upon Us

There is something rather magical about the twelfth of August. Not merely because it marks the official opening of grouse season across Britain's moorlands, but because it represents one of those moments when the countryside seems to exhale after the long summer months.

Field of racehorses galloping down a green turf track at Glorious Goodwood, with crowds watching from behind white railings and trees in the background.

Glorious Goodwood: A Garden Party with Racing Tacked On

"A garden party with racing tacked on" — King Edward VII's memorable description of Glorious Goodwood remains as apt today as it was over a century ago.

Guests in formal evening dress socialising with drinks on a country lawn, with sheep grazing in the background and rolling hills at Glyndebourne Opera.

Notes from Glyndebourne: The Country House Opera

There are places one returns to not only for what they offer, but for how they unfold. Glyndebourne is one of them. Opera, yes—but framed by clipped hedges, lengthened intervals, and the quiet rhythm of summer days in Sussex. Since 1934, when the first notes were sung in the

A lively group of young men in colourful rowing blazers, ties, and summer suits cheering on the riverbank at Henley Royal Regatta, with crowds and blue-and-white marquees behind them.

Henley Royal Regatta

Between the Banks: The Regatta Unfiltered

There's something rather English about turning a river into a theatre. At Henley Royal Regatta, the Thames becomes a coveted viewing platform in rowing, where champagne glasses catch the afternoon light and some of the best seats happen to float on the very waters where careers are made.

Spectators in blazers and straw hats watching rowing crews compete on the Thames at Henley Royal Regatta, with boats and crowds lining the opposite riverbank.

Henley Royal Regatta

What Is Henley Royal Regatta? A Primer on Boats, Blazers, and the Riverbank

🛶 Each July, Henley-on-Thames becomes the stage for a most English sort of spectacle. Henley Royal Regatta may be one of the great rowing events of the year, yet many who attend have never set foot in a scull. What they do know is the quiet thrill of seeing a perfect

Royal procession at Royal Ascot featuring four Windsor Greys drawing a carriage, followed by additional carriages and attendants in red livery on the grass track.

Four Carriages at Two O'Clock

In an age when most traditions have been focus-grouped to death or abandoned entirely, the Royal Procession at Royal Ascot remains deliciously, defiantly unchanged.

Victorian cartoon from 1884 showing a lively crowd of men and women betting and socialising at Royal Ascot, with bookmakers, racegoers in top hats, and period dress.

How to Bet at Royal Ascot (Without Looking Like a Fool)

Royal Ascot may be known for waistcoats and wide brims, but at its heart, it is a meeting of horses—and those who wish to back them. Betting is as much a part of the tradition as the pageantry, and for many, it's part of the fun.

Ascot accessories including green tie, paisley pocket square, cufflinks, stickpin, and pale yellow lapel flower, arranged on a blue jacket, with “Ascot Accessories” text overlay.

Last‑Minute Accessories for Ascot

With Royal Ascot approaching, the core elements of your morning dress—coat, waistcoat, trousers—are likely in place. But it's the Royal Ascot accessories that set the tone.

Man in a blue suit, pink shirt, and patterned tie, with text overlayDressing for Queen Anne Enclosure—Sartorial tips and a directory of London menswear shops.

Dressing for the Queen Anne Enclosure at Royal Ascot

As Royal Ascot draws near, most attention turns—as it always does—to the Royal Enclosure, with its morning coats, silk toppers, and well-starched ceremony. But for many racegoers, the Queen Anne Enclosure offers the perfect balance: formal, sociable, and elegant without being overly theatrical.