May always offers country and horse-mad people plenty to look forward to - long days, light evenings and (hopefully) plenty of warm and sunny weather as we count down to the imminent arrival of summer. And this year, the month of May delivered something even more special: the return of Badminton Horse Trials after a three-year break (thank you, Covid-19!). Here at Hayfield, we’ve been looking forward to Badminton pretty much since we drove out the gate on the Sunday evening of the event in 2019! This iconic event is a firm fixture in the calendars for many fans of equestrian sport and offers thrilling action, incredible precision and amazing horsemanship as well as plenty of opportunities for shopping, eating and drinking.
Anyone who has ever been part of a trade stand team at Badminton will know that the atmosphere during setup and in the evenings is amazing too, chatting with other business owners and getting ready for the crazy rush of visitors as the week goes on. Hayley had been busy preparing for Badminton for months (really since around Christmas time…) ensuring that there were plenty of our signature feather pins in all shapes and sizes ready for visitors to the Hayfield England trade stand. We also took our range of silk scrunchies and pillowcases, country accessories and of course, oodles of fedora hats in all colours and sizes! Our new Luxury Collection also made an appearance, with these three seriously chic summer hats selling well thanks to the gorgeous weather during the event. The classic Henley Summer Fedora was our overall best-seller, with visitors snapping this one up with game bird feather trims, ribbons and with feather pins for a little extra
We were over the moon to see Laura Collett and her beloved London 52 put in an amazing display in all three phases of the event to take the title. This tough determined lady makes no secret of her aims and ambitions, and we just adore that it was seeing the legendary Pippa Funnell win Badminton many years ago which set Laura on the path to where she is today. We’re already looking forward to Badminton 2023 and this year’s event has only reminded us of how important our trade stand is.
We are grateful to every single one of our customers for their support, whether they buy from us online or in person at an event. Online sales saw us through the pandemic and introduced the Hayfield brand and our feather pin-and-fedora combination to a wider range of customers, but we really did miss taking the trade stand out and about. Badminton once again reminded us of why seeing customers face to face and catching up with fellow business owners is so important. We’ll keep you updated on social media and our blog about our future events and where you can find our trade stand over the coming months.
For now, if you were one of the people who visited our stand at Badminton and snapped up something lovely to take home, don’t forget to tag us into your social media pictures when you’re out and about rocking your Hayfield goodies!
