Traditional Saddlery Blends with High Fashion

Dragonfly Saddlery is a small saddlery business based in the heart of rural Mid-Sussex. Established over 20 years ago by husband & wife Richard & Sue Paine, who are both qualified saddlers, they run their shop, selling & fitting saddles, washing & repairing rugs & providing a service which would be recognised by saddlers of years gone by.

This sense of an old fashioned trade is belied by their embracing of new technology, & in fact they are celebrating 10 years of internet trading in 2009. One unexpected by product of this, is that Richard & Sue have been supplying an ever growing number of requests for saddlery & clothing by the fashion world. POP magazine (for the uber trendy) has used long leather riding boots from Dragonfly Saddlery for their fashion shoots & SHE magazine features some of their childrens riding wear in their March 2009 issue.

The latest to seek a collaboration, however is fashion house Ralph Lauren, who first sought them out in 2008 with a request for some saddles to dress the window of their New Bond Street flagship shop. In partnership with GFS, Dragonfly Saddlery were happy to assist.

In 2009, another request was made & saddles, bridlewear & accessories from their Pessoa & Prestige ranges were duly despatched. Then, yet another request, this time for their Home Store in Brompton Cross. This time, a partnership with Black Country Saddles has secured a selection of top quality saddles to dress the room sets. Dragonfly Saddlery make no bones about the help they have received from their saddler suppliers to meet Ralph Laurens needs. We are thrilled to be working with Black Country this time & we feel that to be able to raise our joint profile with such a prestigious name as Ralph Lauren is a tremendous confirmation that we are able to supply top quality goods to wherever they are needed around the world.

We are pleased that Ralph Lauren has asked that we be involved again & if any readers are passing (or indeed shopping) there, make sure you see what they have done with the window displays, they are out of this world. We look foward to more opportunities to bring a little of the traditional saddler to the high fashion world in London & elsewhere.

Sue & Richard Paine