Karen McConnell at The Royal Highland Show

The Royal Highland Show is one of our favourite- we love heading up to the area and seeing all our Scottish customers, and the King of the Road and the show team adore the scenery too. 

This year, we did something a little different during the show and teamed up with one of our brand ambassadors, Karen McConnell, who worked with us and three other brands during the event to create an amazing competition each day. More than this, Karen’s eye for detail and country style has us drooling a little… so we asked her a few questions about what she was wearing, the competitions she ran, and more… so over to Karen…

Can you talk us through the outfits you wore and why you picked the jewellery you did to go with it?

1. Thursday’s outfit was a classic equestrian look, white jeans, white silk shirt, the Holland Cooper Kempton Coat, the MacKenzie & George Badminton belt with snaffle detail, Tan Fairfax & Favor Amira boots and Fairfax & Favor Highcliffe bag - I felt as though I was dressing to compete in a horse show in the morning! It made complete sense then, that my jewellery complemented the equestrian influence and I opted for the long cherry roller necklace and my favourite cherry roller bracelet which Andrew kindly upgraded for me and replaced the rose-gold plated beads with their solid gold counterparts.

Friday’s look was really all about the Holland Cooper Knightsbridge blazer in the limited edition anniversary pink so we went for a plain navy outfit underneath. This let the jacket do all the talking. I knew with a fairly simple outfit I could wear jewellery and accessories that packed a bit of a punch so I chose the Windsor Clutch in Navy from MacKenzie & George plus the Bobbly necklace and matching bracelet. They are lovely pieces to wear, and so many people commented on the necklace in particular.

On Saturday I chose a more casual country-styled outfit wearing blue jeans, the tan Fairfax & Favor Amiras, the Baildon shirt from Toggi and the Holland Cooper Classic Cape in tawny, again with the Fairfax & Favor Highcliffe Bag and MacKenzie & George Badminton belt. Although this outfit was more casual it was a little more busy in terms of colour, pattern and texture so for my jewellery I concentrated on layering up the bracelets. I wore the Bobbly bracelet again along with the Cherry Roller bracelet and the Foxtail Bracelet. I love this layered bracelet look, there’s plenty going on but because my choices were all silver, it works.

For our final day at the show I wore a cream linen dress, paired with the Holland Cooper Cadogan Jacket in Stone Herringbone (and matching Carrie Cap), the MacKenzie & George Badminton belt and the tan heeled Amira boots and Highcliffe Bag from Fairfax & Favor once again. The Sunday was always meant to be hottest day so I knew I could get away with wearing a dress and I was keen to wear a ‘show-stopping’ outfit on the last day - if you’re running a best dressed competition, you really do have to try and dress as well as you can yourself!  I loved wearing this outfit - it felt great and I really feel all the components worked well together. I kept the layered bracelet look from the day before and added the Bumble Bee necklace too - he’s not left my neck since!

You ran a great competition where you tracked down people wearing Hiho and got your social media following to vote on the top four – what helped you decide to make these four finalists? We thought they looked fab, but wondered what your eye saw too!

2. When it came to choosing our 4 finalists, myself and Andrew looked at all the looks we’d photographed during the day and chose those customers who were true Hiho fans and who had thought about how their jewellery complemented the rest of their outfit. For the Hiho Silver day, I liked a simpler outfit that really let the jewellery shine, but I was blown away by how much Hiho customers become fans of the brand as a whole. It was really hard to choose the final 4, I’m just glad it wasn’t me who had to choose the winner!

You also had a Holland Cooper Day (Thursday), Mackenzie & George Day (Saturday) and Fairfax & Favor Day (Sunday) - all of these have great new products out at the moment… which product did you like the best from each?

3. Oooh, I could have quite happily taken home everything from each of the brands I worked with at the Royal Highland Show but, I’m in love with my new navy Windsor Maxi Clutch from MacKenzie & George, have my eyes on a pair of Kensington or Pimlico Boots from Fairfax & Favor and from Holland Cooper, I love their new mid-blue check tweed in any of their styles!

You can find Karen on her website, Facebook and Instagram and don't forget to watch her What's In My Bag - Royal Highland Show edition! 

You can also find Karen on KA Equestrian and their social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.