Roosa's Horsey Life: Aztec Diamond Equestrian - 'Behind The Scenes' press day & interview with Jordan McCabe

What a day this was! The lovely people at Aztec Diamond Equestrian and Sam Forrest PR invited me to an afternoon in London for a Behind The Scenes press day in the amazing Core Clapton building, in Upper Clapton London. This equestrian brand has been hugely successful since launching in 2014, and now Aztec Diamond Equestrian are doing a 5 year anniversary re-brand and had invited the media to come to view the brand new collection at an exclusive “behind the scenes” media day. The event was held at an absolutely beautiful Edwardian space that is also used for yoga and wellness – it was such a nice place to visit, even if it took me hours to get there and hours to get back! One of the problems of living deep in the countryside in Wiltshire... But anyway, the lovely founder of the brand Jordan McCabe opened the doors for the media & bloggers to come along, meet her and her team and to see what goes on behind the scenes as they worked to create all the content the new collection for their new 5 year re-brand 🎉🎊

It was amazing to have Jordan walk me through the new collection on the rails, telling me about the styles, colours, new branding. She was incredibly busy, but still had the time to chat to me about the new products for ten minutes - you can tell just how passionate she is about all the products and how much it means to her to have these designs come to life! As a long time fan, it was lovely to see the new products but to also have the chance to touch & feel them and to see just how well made they are. My biggest worry with buying online products is that they won't feel as nice as you think they should when you're looking at the photos online, but trust me the AD stuff really is well made!

What I'm most excited about are the new style of the riding leggings - an updated version of my favourite leggings. As someone who rides a lot, I'm always on the look out for new, comfortable but stylish breeches or leggings and as I refuse to pay hundreds and hundreds for a pair of breeches it's an on-going process. My Aztec Diamond Equestrian leggings are just over a year old and they are my current favourites with the only added feature that I'd like is grippy knee sticky bits because they can be slippy when one of my horses is testing out some new dance moves. And what do you know... the new leggings from AD have got them! Honestly I was SO excited when I saw them and I will be purchasing some as soon as they are launched 😍 And as much as I adore the technical training tops, what really caught my eye was the t-shirts that are new in this collection. They are made from such soft cotton material that I know it'll feel lovely on your skin and the cut of the t-shirts is just so flattering.

I also got the chance to interview Jordan and although there was an opportunity to video it I thought as I'm not a vlogger it would be better to have it written down, so a big thank you to Jordan for taking the time to answer my questions!

Q1. What’s your inspiration and motivation for founding the brand? What made you start an equestrian clothing company?
All I had ever wanted to do from as young as 10 was have my own equestrian clothing brand. It was in my teens when I realised there was a huge niche in the market for a fashionable yet affordable, almost high street version of equestrian apparel. I came from a working class family and with show jumping being such a financially driven sport I struggled with the upkeep of my horse and being able to afford everything that you needed to compete and feel confident. There was nothing like this in the market at the time, Aztec Diamond was the first of its kind!

Q2. What advice would you give to others maybe young girls like you were who are dreaming of starting their own company and achieving the things you’ve achieved?
Make sure if you’re going to start a business you’re offering something completely unique to the market. There is a lot of competition these days!

Q3. Where do you get the inspiration for designing the collections? Is it just you designing or is it a team effort?
I design all the products myself, I lock myself in my office for a month when the time comes around. Luckily for me designing comes very naturally and I usually have an idea in my head of what I’m going to design before I start. I sit down with a pencil and paper and just start drawing, it flows.

Q4. Can you tell me all about the process from start to finish of a collection? How long does it take until the drawing becomes a reality and you have an actual product in your hands?
The design process is so much more than just drawing a product, especially when you do the full process like me. I design 10-12 months before the product goes on sale. It starts with pencil drawings which then need to be transferred onto a computer in CAD (computer aided design) form. I then create specification files for every product which contain any technical information the manufacturer will need to create a product i.e. measurements, fabric, stitch count, trim packs etc. The factory will then sample the product according to my specs and send me back the garment and any colour options which we call lap dips. After this are all feedback / changes documents, various model fittings, pattern changes, alterations, fabric changes etc. After this we have testing and sample sign off which is when scale production will begin. There are so many things you would never think about, like wash care labels for example. It’s the most satisfying process when you have physically drawn something with a pencil and it comes to life.

Q5. What is your favourite moment/part of having your own business?
I think it either has to be seeing my designs come to life or seeing customers wearing and enjoying my products!

Q6. And this new collection with the re-brand, what inspired you to go in this new direction?
5 years is such a huge milestone, I feel like not just the brand but me personally have grown so much in this time. I thought it would be the perfect time to make a real statement showing what and who we are, I have taken everything I have learnt over the past 5 years and put it into my perfect collection.

Q7. What’s your favourite piece in this new collection? (You can pick a few if you can't decide!)
100% has to be the leggings, they are levels above anything I’ve done before and im super proud. They fit absolutely perfect and are honestly amazing, they make you feel so good wearing them. Having invented the first pair of riding leggings back in 2014 I feel like this is the biggest evolution of the brand

Q8. Would you say the brand is most popular in the UK or does it have more of an international audience? What countries have you sold to that you didn't expect to?
We ship world wide every day, our largest market is still UK but US and Germany are quickly creeping up. We are moving into US ware houseing very soon meaning cheaper and faster shipping for US customers.

Q9. Where would you like your brand to be in another five years’ time? Any big goals/aspirations?
My current goal is to expand and scale correctly into America, as for another 5 years time I really couldn’t say, but if we do the same amount of growth we’ve done every year for the past 5 years again I will be extremely happy!

Here are some more photo of the products from the day of the photo shoot ⤵️