#riding habits

[artist-ellen]

Heyyy!! Question, what was riding clothes for royal women like? I know skirt and bodice 2-pieces sort of clothing was mostly used. But like in fantasy, were breeches/pants/trousers ever popular in women's riding clothes? If so, do you happen to have any reference picture. Thank youu in advance. Have a lovely day.

I'm a little confused because... that is a very broad question. What Royal women? From what time period? From what country? From what fantasy world???

What I think you're trying to ask is if I know about historical clothing designed for riding animals (potentially horses?) that could help your research for a fantasy setting. (I also think you're asking about Europe based on the skirt-bodice description, so I'll answer mostly about that)

(Princess Lousie, Great Britain riding habit, late 1800s)

The most likely answer you are looking for is the riding habit. A riding specific outfit from Europe in the late 1700s-1800s. The Victorian ladies were getting more and more into hobbies like horse riding and their wardrobes changed to accommodate that.

(Queen Elizabeth ii in a royal riding costume)

Riding habits were gowns that were designed to maintain their modesty/fashion while they rode horses. This meant longer hemlines, and sometimes hidden pants. Looking at bicycle shorts/skirts from the Edwardian era might also help in designing or describing hidden pants.

(Obviously horses were ridden by women in Europe before the 1700s but there wasn't necessarily an associated outfit.)

(Catherine the Great riding side saddle)

A lot of older examples of women riding horses are "side-saddle", so they are able to wear their skirts and ride modestly. So if you're planning an older civilization riding horses but don't want chariot/palaquin/carriage the side-saddle is a good reference point. However if you're bringing up fantasy worlds to ride something non-horse sized, let's say a dragon, it could be too dangerous to ride side-saddle.

The weight-distribution and holding-on ability is very different to a regular saddle. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to have one saddle loop keeping my seat on a flying dragon.

Generally I want to say that (European) Royal women didn't/don't wear pants to ride horses. At least not until women in general were wearing pants (fashionably), and even then... for official duties, processions, and the like... they still wore skirts. I think Princess Anne doesn't ride side-saddle for some occasions, but Princess Anne is also often wearing her military uniform for such things.

I think if you are looking for historical women wearing trousers to ride horses the majority of references I can think of aren't from Europe. For example in West Asia we have horse-riding women, figures like Mulan, female samurai who rode horses, etc, etc.

(Nellie Brown, you can see the buttons on the front of her skirt. Think of it like a skort with modesty buttons)

TLDR: Most women wore some sort of skirt (sometimes with hidden pants, buttons to make the skirt open and close for more range of movement and modesty, longer hemlines or extra fullness to accommodate the horse in their modesty, etc.) until it was fashionable for women in general in their society to wear pants.

[realhistoricalpatterns]

Pattern for a (riding) Habit Shirt for a Dress, Lady's Magazine September 1812.

[fashionsfromhistory]

Riding Ensemble

c.1896

United States

The MET (Accession Number: 2009.300.640a–g)

[history-of-fashion]

1902 Riding ensemble by Design House Morin Blossier (French)

silk, metal thread, ostrich feathers

(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

[kizzorelli]

Lone wolf "not a babysitter" Reverto and the gaggle of young'ins that live in his house with him... taking a post-quest nap.

They mean everything to me

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Black wool riding habit, 1880-1889, Swedish.

By Augusta Lundin.

Worn by Irma von Geijer.

Hallwylska museet.

[vampirical-formula]

The hunt is on

[intergalacticfop]

This jacket is the result of more than 2 and a half years of work, entirely handsewn! It represents the interest in equestrian and equestrian-inspired clothing as fashionable attire in Europe during the late 17th and into the 18th centuries.

I copied it from a jacket held by the Met Costume Institute, accession number 1981.314.2. When I emailed out to them for more information about the jacket, one of the collections people was even kind enough to pull it out of storage and take some detailed shots of the exterior AND interior (thanks Marci!!!)

The Met dates it to the 2nd quarter of the 18th century which could be true--but there are several features of this jacket that could easily be dated earlier to the late 17th century, like the button size and layout. I plan to mull over this more in a later post. At least, I would definitely place it in the earlier end of that 1725-1750 range. However, I chose to style it for the 1730s/1740s because it's Fun For Me 🙂!

One of the most fun parts was gathering accessories to go with the jacket! I steamed a wool hat blank into the tricorn shape and applied the silver trim, made some detachable undersleeves based on paintings by Pietro Longhi, and threw together a matching neck ribbon as if I was some kind of ornamental poodle

[chic-a-gigot]

Le Petit écho de la mode, no. 40, vol. 20, 2 octobre 1898, Paris. 1. Costume d'Amazone. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

Costume d’amazone en drap uni, composé d’une jupe spéciale très collante d’en haut et taillée en deux pièces et d’un corsage-jaquette ajusté par deux pinces avec col-revers orné de piqûres en cadrant un plastron lingerie avec cravate d’homme en satin noir; pochettes de côté; manches avec piqûres simulant un revers orné de boutons. Chapeau haut de forme.

Riding habit in plain cloth, composed of a special skirt very tight on top and cut in two pieces and a jacket-bodice adjusted by two darts with a lapel collar decorated with stitching, framing a lingerie plastron with a man's tie in black satin; side pockets; sleeves with stitching simulating a lapel decorated with buttons. Top hat.

Matériaux: 6 mètres de drap.

[vellichorom]

Sorry but Currently your Narrator just looks so much like a Sexyman and Fandom-ized. I think it's the big hair that's making him look off.

currently? as in RIGHT now? as in my recent pieces? as opposed to when i was drawing him way earlier?

BECAUSE NO I AGREE, at least when i really blew up & drew him WAY more frequently, i feel i lost touch with his original design & Probably leaned way too hard into " attractivity " than i would ever want to now,

but even NOW? when i've been working so hard to correct it... /lh this is a very fair critique to have i just want to know specifically

i HAVE actually been trying to return to his earlier design one way or another but DAMN is it hard... i can't just REGRESS to an earlier artstyle like that u know... but the last thing i want to do is make that man look like every cookie cutter handsome twink i promise

i can only do so much with the bang though 😔

[artist-ellen]

Historical Mermay prompt 8: Late Victorian Mermaid

Last but not least is a Late Victorian Mermaid. I based her design around 1880s fashion, especially riding habits... but with flowing mermaid hair of course.

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram.com/ellenartistic or tiktok: @ellenartistic

[realhistoricalpatterns]

Pattern for a (riding) Habit Shirt, Lady's Magazine 1813.

[fashionsfromhistory]

Riding Jacket

c.1835

Europe

LACMA

[tetrachromate]

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Riding Habit.

Date: 1912

Designer/Maker: Redfern

Place of origin: London

[costumeloverz71]

Side Saddle Riding Habit, 1770-80