The Story of the Face of EQUUS 2014

You’ve had a sneak-peak at some of the photographs, now read the story behind the photo shoot of the two lucky winners of our recent competition to be the Face of Equus 2014 and find out how you too can get some exclusive offers on the prizes Rachel and Amanda won…

How did it all begin?

It all began when Steve and I decided that we wanted to create a ‘Look Book’ for the equestrian clothing that we offer here at Equus.co.uk  Look Books are a technique used to sell fashion on the High Street and are simply a collection of photographs designed to showcase the products or ‘looks’ for the month or the season. From the customer’s perspective, they’re a way of inspiring customers and showing them how our products could fit into their lives.  

Where we found the photographers

Both winners knew of equine photographers.  Emily Fleur, based in the Devonshire countryside, and Laura Ness from Wiltshire guided us through both photo shoots.  After an initial discussion about the sort of themes that we wanted, e.g. photographs of the competition wear in the school, off we went!  Both took control of the shoot and guided both winners through the whole caboodle while we stood by and looked on.

What we wanted

Our aim was to try to feature all the brands that we sold on the website in our Look Books as this would be a very clear way to let our customers know what we offered.  Equally we wanted to put together ‘Looks’ made up from more than one brand as it’s very rare for anyone to have a Look made up completely of Kingsland Equestrian or say Tredstep products.  This is partly to do with cost but more importantly we wanted to convey the message that we believe different brands have different strengths.   

Plus we wanted our winners to feel truly spoilt for a day.  It’s not often any of us win anything…I certainly don’t!  Most importantly though we wanted them to have fun and love their prizes.

What the winners wanted

The winners won £250 of equestrian clothing that would be selected from the products that we sold on the site.  We had two very different winners:  Amanda, a dressage and event rider, was quite conservative in her taste. While Rachel, a true show jumper, had an eye for bold colours and lots of bling.  

What the winners got! 

So our challenge at EQUUS was to pick prizes that reflected the personality of our winners still demonstrating the strengths of the brand at the same time.  See if you can identify what the strengths were for the prizes below that our winners got!

For the ‘"Hacking Looks" we wanted to use quality yet functional products that were affordable and hard wearing and that catered for all types of spring and summer weather.  So Amanda’s Hacking Look consisted of the stylish Mountain Horse Lauren Riding Breeches in red,  the Toggi Langley Polo Shirt in blue that proved polo shirts aren’t dead after all these years(!) and the Toggi Bellingham Gilet in the beautiful Bretton blue.  While for our show jumper Rachel, we went for the great value Horze Grand Prix riding breeches with the full seat in dark grey and teamed it with the great quality Kingsland Brooklyn T-shirt.   

For the ‘Competition Look’ we wanted to convey the range of products that we offer from the quality and value of our show shirts down to the extensive choice of competition breeches.  So Amanda’s Competition Look included Tredstep's Azzura riding breeches teamed with a Kingsland show shirt while Rachel’s featured Cavallino Marino breeches and a Horze show shirt.  To complete Rachel’s Look, she also got this season’s Mountain Horse Sonata jacket which is perfect for any competitor to travel to show in.

We mustn’t forget the accessories either.  Both got a fabulous pair of Tredstep gloves.  Amanda choose the Eventer glove while Rachel obviously went for the Jumper Pro!  And finally both had great value pair of HKM socks.  

How the winners felt

The winners both tell us that they felt truly spoilt the whole day even down to the picnic that we took for them!  From our part, this is hopefully just the start of a long term relationship with the two, first-ever winners of the Face of Equus annual competition. Already Amanda and Rachel are writing reviews of the products so you can all get an idea of what the products on our website are really like and how they stand up to the day-to-day rigours of riding.  And over the coming weeks they'll be giving us an insight into their riding lives and how they're getting on.

Would you like an exclusive offer?

We're busy preparing the new Equus Look Books and they'll be on the site very soon. Whilst we can't give all of you such a fabulous set of prizes (sorry!), we can offer you the chance to be among the first to know when the new Look Books are published and to get some exclusive offers on the clothing Rachel and Amanda won.  Simply sign up for our newsletter by clicking this link - if you haven't done so already!