Riding habit

Since the mid-17th century, a formal habit for riding sidesaddle usually consisted of: Low-heeled boots, gloves, and often a necktie or stock complete the ensemble.

Typically, throughout the period the riding habit used details from male dress, whether large turned cuffs, gold trims or buttons.

[4] In his diary for June 12, 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote: Walking in the galleries at White Hall, I find the Ladies of Honour dressed in their riding garbs, with coats and doublets with deep skirts, just, for all the world, like mine; and buttoned their doublets up to the breast, with periwigs under their hats; so that, only for a long petticoat dragging under their men's coats, nobody could take them for women in any point whatever; which was an odde sight, and a sight did not please me.

[5]Two and a half centuries later, Emily Post would write: A riding habit, no matter what the fashion happens to be, is like a uniform, in that it must be made and worn according to regulations.

Whether coat skirts are long or short, full or plain, and waists wasp-like or square, the above admonitions have held for many decades, and are likely to hold for many more.