Royal-Approved Brand Cara Cara Just Launched an Equestrian-Themed Capsule

For the past few years, horse-girl fashion, if you will, has leapt into the spotlight each fall like clockwork. And this autumn is certainly no different. The latest brand making a case for the enduring equestrian-inspired craze is New York-based Cara Cara, whose sophisticated designs have even made a fan of Princess Beatrice.

Inspired by co-founder Julia Brown’s lifelong passion for horseback riding, the 24-piece capsule blends elements of riding heritage with the brand’s signature glamorous aesthetic. Details borrowed from the iconic hacking jacket—nipped waists, flared skirts, and deep vents—appear in feminine blazers, coats, and dresses. Other highlights include jodhpur-inspired trousers, a Fair Isle sweater detailed with horses, as well as wide-leg jeans and a matching barn jacket featuring a blown-out stirrup-link and bridle-inspired print.

Claiborne Swanson Frank

Claiborne Swanson Frank

“Riding has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I love everything around it just as much: fog lifting off the fields, a tweed jacket that’s seen 20 seasons, the long lunch after a morning out,” Brown shares over email. “There’s a romance to that world that has nothing to do with whether you can post a trot, and that’s what I wanted to capture. The collection is for the woman who lives for country pursuits and for the one who daydreams about a weekend away. We took the spirit of that life, its ease, its polish, and that slightly undone elegance, and wove it into what our community knows us for: the defined waist, the custom prints, the movement in a skirt. Then we moved the palette toward saddle brown, hunter green, oxblood, and oatmeal and borrowed shapes from the tack room.”

Claiborne Swanson Frank

Rich shearling accents, Italian wool, velvet, and suede also play prominently throughout the capsule. Fittingly, the campaign was shot at a polo farm in upstate New York, near Brown’s own home, against the backdrop of rolling green hills, crisp white fencing, and, naturally, a horse trailer.

“We’ve always designed for every season, of the year and of life, and fall in the country is a setting we keep coming back to,” Brown adds. “I pictured a woman who rides in the morning, has lunch in town, and goes to a dinner party that night without fully changing. They’re the kind of pieces that feel like heirlooms the first time you put them on, and get better the more you live in them.”

The full collection drops today in the brand’s Madison Avenue store and on its website, with prices ranging from $195 for a gold chain-link belt to $2,995 for a genuine suede, cocoa-colored trench. Sizes are already dwindling, so don’t hesitate to jump on whatever catches your eye.

Sam Peters is the Senior Fashion and Luxury Commerce Editor at Hearst Magazines, where she edits and writes across Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Esquire, and more. She has nearly a decade of experience covering style, beauty, and home interiors, with bylines in numerous other major publications including Women’s Wear Daily, Pop Sugar, and Real Simple. She has reported on everything from cutting-edge skincare brands to fashion’s brightest emerging talents, while logging in hundreds of hours researching and testing products and consulting leading experts to uncover the best items on the market. In 2024, she co-launched ELLE’s first-ever advisory board—featuring over 45 top authorities in beauty, wellness, and medicine who ensure that ELLE’s content is of the highest quality and integrity. When she’s not poring over a beauty formula’s ingredients list or curating the chicest designer finds for a story, you might find her surfing in the Rockaways or re-watching episodes of Sex and the City.

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