Jolly jodhpurs!

LET’S get the sniggers out of the way right now: jodhpurs are fashionable.

No, you didn’t misread that – unlikely as it may sound, upscale department stores Harvey Nichols and Selfridges both have waiting lists for jodhpurs that cost hundreds of dinars.
Meanwhile, the high street is hot on the jodhpur case too. Stores are either expecting deliveries of fashion versions of the classic equestrian pants, or they are busy running them up this very minute.
Even Sarah Jessica Parker, a woman with a doctorate in the strapless cocktail dress, is smiling out from the cover of American Elle wearing white jodhpurs.
This isn’t to say that fashion is embarking on some sort of ill-advised gymkhana frenzy. These jodhpurs aren’t the traditional creamy stretch trousers that strain at the thigh and are padded at the bottom, and they owe little to Princess Anne’s leisure wardrobe.
This is a trend, like many before it, that was kick-started on the catwalk of Balenciaga.
Back in February the influential French label showcased the unlikely sounding combination of colourful boyish blazers with narrow, neutral-coloured pants that curved outwards over the hip and upper thigh, then tapered considerably from the back of the knee to the ankle. They were unmistakably jodhpur-ish.
“The look stood out immediately,” says Peter Robinson, press manager at Harvey Nichols. “The label is one of our biggest sellers and we knew that Balenciaga fans would be on the phone straight away reserving a pair.”
Consequently, every single one of the store’s quota of £645 trousers are going straight to the personal shopping department, bypassing the shop floor entirely. It’s the same story at Selfridges, too, where so many customers have pre-ordered the jodhpurs that buyers have been forced to re-order. And all this before anyone has so much as tried a pair on.
This could all be dismissed as a piece of high-fashion madness were it not for the fact that the high street will soon be awash with myriad interpretations of the shape; albeit most have focused more on the distinctive inner-thigh seaming and button details at the ankle, and less on excess fabric at the hips.
At Warehouse they are cropped in thick black cotton, Diesel has used denim and Benetton has gone all experimental and made them in cream wool. For once Topshop has been caught napping, though an insider says that they are “in the pipeline”.
This season’s version of the garment is not particularly horsey, but all the high-street interpretations distinctly fit the basic jodhpur profile.
At Gap there is so much confidence in the shape that by next month two versions will be on sale.
For jodhpur-sceptics there is a slim-legged chino in moss green that merely nods to the outline and a more extreme cut that has lots of volume at the hip, then tapers to a crop below the knee.
So why is Gap, a mainstream purveyor of casual chic, pushing a fashion-forward shape?
“The ideal of the utilitarian khaki pant is the heartland of what Gap does,” explains the store’s Anita Borzyszkowska. “We’ve re-invented that to make it relevant for the season. Combine that with the fact that the jodhpur is a classic, and the shape makes perfect sense.”
How a shape sells is the real measure of how well-judged it is. If women have embraced other “difficult” shapes – most recently tulip skirts and smock dresses – there is no reason to assume that they won’t embrace jodhpurs.
While it isn’t enough to predict a trend’s potential purely on the basis of whether it is flattering or not (otherwise how could the popularity of the smock dress be explained), it is a decent indicator. And this is the trump card of jodhpurs: they are surprisingly flattering.
Rebecca Haynes, the personal shopping manager at Harvey Nichols who will be advising her designer-jodhpur hungry clients over the next few weeks, agrees. She believes the shape is more flattering than expected.
“They’re easier to wear than leggings,” she tells me, “and they work well with belted tops that emphasise the waist.”
She is doubtless right - even the high-voltage fashion girl isn’t going to spend hundreds of pounds on something that makes her look dumpy.
If jodhpurs triumph in the mainstream it won’t be the first time a utilitarian shape has cracked the fashion market.