A ringmaster is traditionally attired in a bright tailcoat, often red with gold trim and with a top hat. The outfit is designed to look like an 18th-century gentleman's riding habit, and often includes a whip, a relic of when the ringmaster directed the performance, not as an announcer and host but as director of the many equestrian acts. It is generally accepted that this costume was first adopted by George Claude Lockhart on the orders of Bertram Mills in 1928, when Lockhart worked as ringmaster for his circus at Olympia, London.[1] A female circus leader is known as a ringmistress, and often wears a red skirt and knee-high black boots, and either the same topcoat and tails as a ringmaster or a blouse.[2]