hunting party
He looks English. He seems to like beer. He even looks pretty cool. And yet… This gentleman is called Nigel Farage. A figure of the English far right, a great architect of Brexit, he devotes his life to fighting against immigration and defending the traditions threatened, according to him, by Brussels and the ” wokism “. This year, like almost every year, he spent Boxing Day at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent, where lovers of hunting with hounds like to meet to demand the rehabilitation of the practice, banned in the United Kingdom since 2005. .
royal vintage
For the occasion, Farage had put on his panoply of perfect English. He wore a Barbour waxed cotton jacket—probably the Bedale, a few years old, judging by the wear on the sleeves. To date it, one would have to look at the inside label of said jacket. The English brand benefited from three royal warrants (royal warrants) during its history, in 1974, 1982 and 1987. Each time, it was able to add a crest (escutcheon) authenticating its status as a supplier to the court. The Barbours exhibiting none of these three crests were therefore manufactured before 1974.
Wool on top
Nigel Farage had chosen to wear a flat-cap, or “flat cap”, thus appropriating another part of English history. In 1571, the local Parliament decided to boost the trade and the production of wool in the country by obliging all men over the age of 6 to wear a headgear on Sundays and holidays, at the risk of incurring a fine of 0.75 cents. Thus, in the space of only a few years (the law was abolished twenty-six years after its introduction), the flat cap became one of the mainstays of the English male wardrobe.
follow the tweed
That day, Farage had also opted for pieces made in the most rustic, and most English, fabrics available. Like his cap, his blazer was cut in a very classic hunting tweed, with a windowpane pattern (the couple on his right and the man behind him made the same choice); his shirt was made in a fabric with small squares called tattersall, named after the London horse market where it was first sold, in the 18the century. And downstairs ? The likelihood that the man was wearing anything other than brown corduroy pants is extremely low.
North-South mixing
Finally, note that Nigel Farage, in perfect English, was holding a beer in his hand, and not just any beer. In this case, this type of top-fermented beer called brown ale is one of the great prides of the country. It’s in London, in the XVIIe century, that the brown ales were developed, before imposing themselves in the country, not without preserving some geographical particularities. Thus, the brown ales from the South remain darker, sweeter and higher in alcohol than their northern cousins. As evidenced, presumably, by this silly smile.
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