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Would "Goodwood Revival rules" on clothes work in the U.S.?


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I never went to the recent Goodwood Revival events but I understand that Lord March is a man of great taste and culture and he tries to have all of those who attend--maybe some 40,000--wear vintage clothes in keeping with the era of the cars raced and shown. Even his own daugthter was dressed in a WWII Wren uniform (appropriate since theere were WWIi aircraft at the show since the Lord's estate was a RAF base in WWII). Now switching to America, when I go to Pebble Beach concours, I see only about 10% of the people showing cars making an effort to dress in pre-war or early '50s attire, most just wearing modern clothes and particularly boring stuff like ski parkas, etc. I would be in favor of a movement to have concours entrants dress up in period clothes so we can envision the cars more as they looked with the owners back then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Goodwood Revival policy works quite well - visitors are encouraged to dress the part, but probably no more than 20% make a real effort. Only the inner paddock is restricted to those in period dress, which produces scenes like this:

IMG_8621800_zps31e09dd9.jpg

Elsewhere there is a complete mix of fashions, period and contemporary:

IMG_8629800_zps89914ac6.jpg

But I think this only works because Lord March is trying to recreate a very specific period - the late 1950s - whereas most events have a more widespread timescale; mixing Victorian dress with 1970s fashion probably wouldn't work at all well!

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The Airflow Club of America has a judging class for period dress and as the period is narrow - 1934-37 - it is relatively easy to stay to the period if one wants to participate. Again mainly the ladies like to do this but a few gents did as well. This can be a fun challenge that involves the girls who often complain that they have no part in the cars or restorations and just come along for the ride. My wife spent 3 months researching mid-30s styles, locating patterns and sewing outfits to wear to the meet. Antique shops were not safe as she scoured them for appropriate hats and accessories. She even created a display binder illustrating period costumes for the others to look at. All this and we no longer have an Airflow. But it added to the event and we sure had a lot of fun!

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I heartily applaud your effort. I have a lot of trouble getting my wife, who has no interest in old cars, to go to Pebble but at least she sees some interesting clothes. I myself would like to find a shirtmaker who could, for under $50, make me a long sleeve shirt with stand up collar similar to what writer Tom Wolfe has made his trademark for at least 40 years. I feel that for those who don't own a classic car, dressing in period with the cars you like , makes the event more fun and involving for all concerned. At a recent concours near Arcadia I saw a guy with a Hispano Suiza paying a professional photographer to shoot pics of a live model in 1920s clothing posing with his car--he was going all out, figuring it was a real occasion. Her clothes even matched the car! I applaud Lord March's daughter at Goodwood wearing a wartime WREN uniform, so fitting because the estate had a landing strip used by the RAF in WWII for the defense of the realm.

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... At a recent concours near Arcadia I saw a guy with a Hispano Suiza paying a professional photographer to shoot pics of a live model in 1920s clothing posing with his car--he was going all out, figuring it was a real occasion. Her clothes even matched the car! ...

Indeed! When I have been to shows with participants in period clothing, it has produced some excellent photo opportunities:

Crich9.jpg

Crich2.jpg

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