Why Do Middle Class Women Dress as Horse Riders?

Thanks to companies like Reebok, Nike and Puma, people who have never participated in a sport in their life can cheaply and stylishly dress like track and field athletes. Typically, this sports and leisure wear is favoured by lower working class people, who are often demonised and branded with the word ‘chav’ just because they wear tracksuits to do their shopping. People are so quick to call somebody wearing sportswear a tramp or chav without knowing anything about them. So if people can be brandished poor and classless for going out in Nike Airs and Adidas tracksuit bottoms, why can middle class women dress like they’re on their way to Dressage class when they don’t even own a horse?

In case you’re a little unsure what I mean, think about how many women you’ve seen that wear things like this:

The only thing missing is a riding crop, a helmet and Brandy the horse. The amount of women you see wandering around Tesco (ready with their Waitrose bags so that their neighbours think that’s where they do their weekly shop) looking as though they’re on their way to jump some fences. You may see them picking the kids (Gemima, Oscar and Timothy) up from school in their Range Rovers or maybe sitting enjoying a nice latte in Costa with a similarly dressed friend (probably called Fiona) in this attire. Sorry, but unless your horse is parked outside, there is no reason why anyone – middle class wannabe or not – should be wearing suede jackets and breeches.

If the lower working class can’t get away with dressing like sprinters, why can the (wannabe) middle class get away with this equine style?