Goodwood Revival Costumes
Discussion
I believe Goodwood state in their literature costumes from the 40's, 50's and 60's so wide choice.
I've been a few times and it's always been of a military bias, from RAF to Naval Commander (with dolphins). If I go this year, I may go for a civi costume, so will be trawling eBay I suspect, which is also a good place for militray gear (make sure the crown is the correct one for the era.)
Just make sure it fits and you're comfortable wearing it.
Some of the 50's fashions for the ladies are stunning though.......
I've been a few times and it's always been of a military bias, from RAF to Naval Commander (with dolphins). If I go this year, I may go for a civi costume, so will be trawling eBay I suspect, which is also a good place for militray gear (make sure the crown is the correct one for the era.)
Just make sure it fits and you're comfortable wearing it.
Some of the 50's fashions for the ladies are stunning though.......
go to your local charity shop
buy....
a pair of greeny cords.
a farmer shirt.
a tweedy coat.
a tie.
wear a pair of brown shoes and buy a flat cap.
you are now a country gent - total cost 20 quid!
the best trick is offer to get your mates stuff as well, and dont show them it until the morning of goodwood! - a mate of mine spent a whole day walking round looking like a pimped mary poppins character! - total cost to me? 6 quid! - cost to him? his dignity for the day!!!
i got him a pair of black cords, a purple velveteen smoking jacket, a flouncy cream shirt and a bright yellow toad of toad hall hat - he looked horrific!!!
still, its worth it for a great day out!
buy....
a pair of greeny cords.
a farmer shirt.
a tweedy coat.
a tie.
wear a pair of brown shoes and buy a flat cap.
you are now a country gent - total cost 20 quid!
the best trick is offer to get your mates stuff as well, and dont show them it until the morning of goodwood! - a mate of mine spent a whole day walking round looking like a pimped mary poppins character! - total cost to me? 6 quid! - cost to him? his dignity for the day!!!
i got him a pair of black cords, a purple velveteen smoking jacket, a flouncy cream shirt and a bright yellow toad of toad hall hat - he looked horrific!!!
still, its worth it for a great day out!
fto2tuscan said:
What should I go as, and where do you get the costumes from?
From experience:
- Don't believe some naysayers, you should dress up. For one, competitors are more willing to chat to someone who has made an effort.
- The period is 1948-64. Generally, emphasis is on the earlier, more austere years
- Willing is more important than accuracy
At its most basic, take a look in your wardrobe (or raid the old man's). A basic outfit (gents) is shirt & tie, jacket & flannels. Modern is fine, if it is traditionally styled (e.g. white shirt, striped tie, leather shoes, blue blazer or even a modern tweed pattern jacket). Odds are that you wil turn up most of the outfit straight away. A few tips:
Shirt: white, brown, grey or olive
Tie: Plain or stripes
Jacket: Tweed, brown, blue, black. Modern stuff is fine if it's not too lairy. Think of what your English teacher wore.
Suit: A pinstripe "bank manager" suit would work
Trousers: flannels, corduroy, fairly subdued
Hat: A cheap addition, and rather useful. Flat Caps (new or charity) are actually rather good, as are other proper hats (trilby, homburg, etc.)
Shoes: Black or brown, but make them leather. For hiking round the circuit or wet weather, I've worn Timberland boots (discreet), but no trainers.
Extras: an old waistcoat (charity shop) and braces (Tie Rack) work wonders. A big old Shetland jumper can work if it's cold (though it's normally either sunny & warm, or raining). If you need to carry bstuff, a doctors bag or a wicker hamper.
Wet weather: Try and find something passably suitable. A macintosh or overcoat, but please don't take that Ferrari puffa jacket. A golfing umbrella (ideally unbranded)
There is guidance on www.goodwood.co.uk with pictures for ideas & inspiration
If your wardrobe doesn't run to this, you have several options:
- Charity Shops
- Secondhand shops (there is a list of suppliers at www.goodwood.co.uk). Old Hat have a place in Piccadilly as well as Putney Bridge, but be aware that many will have cleared a lot of Goodwood stock already. If you visit one of the suppliers recommended on the site, tell them its for Goodwood.
- Modern Shops are useful for some items like flat caps and braces. Austin Reed is a possible, and the Jermyn Street type of shirt places always have the appropriate shirt & tie combinations.
It's not necessary to have a "theme"
- Don't pretend to be a competitor or mechanic - that's for competitors & mechanics
- Going totally OTT looks a bit silly - you want to be part of the scene, not the star of the show.
- There are already spivs doing skits around the Paddock
- Adult schoolboys look stupid
If you do want an idea, just try and be the typical spectator of the period:
- Military (normally low rank) is popular
- Country squire/farmer
- Rowing regatta
All the above is for gents. Ladies gets a bit tricky, and it is worth visiting a secondhand shop. But I would suggest:
- Court shoes - there's an awful lot of grass and gravel to be walking on
- Almost certainly a dress - flowery prints are popular and period, think of the sort of dress she'd wear to a wedding
- A hat: small, large, a wedding hat
- Female military works very well, and that A-line skirt will find other uses in the boudoir later...
One additional thing on the military costume theme, if you don't have the right to wear any medal ribbons, don't wear them. Bad form otherwise.
Bit like Mugabe when he decided to wear a VC ribbon! Unfortunately for him, the secretary of the Victoria and George Cross Society saw it and gave hime a rollickking!
Bit like Mugabe when he decided to wear a VC ribbon! Unfortunately for him, the secretary of the Victoria and George Cross Society saw it and gave hime a rollickking!
ceebmoj said:
Hi,
Entirely out of interest apart from being awarded said medals are there any conditions under witch you are allowed to where them?
Entirely out of interest apart from being awarded said medals are there any conditions under witch you are allowed to where them?
I believe there are. I 'think' that there are circumstances whereby a surviving spouse can wear them and in some cases a medal is passed down to the youngest son of each successive generation. I know that I will be left my grandfathers medal by my father, but am unsure of whether I am entitled to wear it (not that I would, it's a little bug bear of mine.)
Yes, you could wear your Grandfathers, but on the right hand side.
Decorations you have been awarded are always on the left breast, normally above the pocket of tunic. Same for Grandfathers, but on right hand side. That way people who will realise it you are wearing it as a mark of respect to your grandfather rather than pretending it's yours.
Decorations you have been awarded are always on the left breast, normally above the pocket of tunic. Same for Grandfathers, but on right hand side. That way people who will realise it you are wearing it as a mark of respect to your grandfather rather than pretending it's yours.
Don't go for the flat cap! no-one rich enough to get into Goodwood at the time would have worn one, and even 'country gents' would have preferred a bowler or even a top hat when they were 'up at Gooders'.
Seriously - seek out pictures from the time - flat caps and Woodbines were for the football terraces. I very much doubt you could've got a 'motor-coach' to Goodwood from deepest darkest Burnley. Tiff Needel especially looks dreadful wearing a flat cap with his racing overalls - none of the drivers would've worn them. Flat caps as fashion accessories are a regrettable overhang of the post-Britpop Wayne Hemingway '90s.
I think if I was going I'd go for the 'international man of mystery' garb. Rock up in a big mysterious GT car - an Iso or a Montiverdi perhaps - and wear a suit with a roll-neck jumper in place of a shirt, a pair of large brown-tinted sunglasses, and black leather gloves. Watch the race action coolly through a pair of period East German Leica binoculars, and smoke a large Cuban cigar. Don't talk to anyone.
I like Martin Buckley's idea though - turn up in a '50s motor coach, dressed in scruffy shirts and braces with trousers pulled up round your nipples, get tanked on Newcastle Brown and start a fight with the '50s-dressed 'Policemen'
Seriously - seek out pictures from the time - flat caps and Woodbines were for the football terraces. I very much doubt you could've got a 'motor-coach' to Goodwood from deepest darkest Burnley. Tiff Needel especially looks dreadful wearing a flat cap with his racing overalls - none of the drivers would've worn them. Flat caps as fashion accessories are a regrettable overhang of the post-Britpop Wayne Hemingway '90s.
I think if I was going I'd go for the 'international man of mystery' garb. Rock up in a big mysterious GT car - an Iso or a Montiverdi perhaps - and wear a suit with a roll-neck jumper in place of a shirt, a pair of large brown-tinted sunglasses, and black leather gloves. Watch the race action coolly through a pair of period East German Leica binoculars, and smoke a large Cuban cigar. Don't talk to anyone.
I like Martin Buckley's idea though - turn up in a '50s motor coach, dressed in scruffy shirts and braces with trousers pulled up round your nipples, get tanked on Newcastle Brown and start a fight with the '50s-dressed 'Policemen'
Au contraire
Jim Clark was an inveterate falt cap wearer. Stewart favoured the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan courdoy style. Colin Chapman graduated from flat caps to courdroy caps. Graham Hill was a flat cap person. Mike Hawthorn loved his flat caps, usually worn with a rakish inverted "v" folded into the peak.
By all accounts, Goodwood in the old days was anything but snobbish. It was a very friendly circuit and very relaxed. If anything, snobbishness has crept in in more recent years as a result of "dress code" rules for the Revival.
Jim Clark was an inveterate falt cap wearer. Stewart favoured the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan courdoy style. Colin Chapman graduated from flat caps to courdroy caps. Graham Hill was a flat cap person. Mike Hawthorn loved his flat caps, usually worn with a rakish inverted "v" folded into the peak.
By all accounts, Goodwood in the old days was anything but snobbish. It was a very friendly circuit and very relaxed. If anything, snobbishness has crept in in more recent years as a result of "dress code" rules for the Revival.
Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 10th August 10:10
Eric Mc said:
Au contraire
Jim Clark was an inveterate falt cap wearer. Stewart favoured the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan courdoy style. Colin Chapman graduated from flat caps to courdroy caps. Graham Hill was a flat cap person. Mike Hawthorn loved his flat caps, usually worn with a rakish inverted "v" folded into the peak.
By all accounts, Goodwood in the old days was anything but snobbish. It was a very friendly circuit and very relaxed. If anything, snobbishness has crept in in more recent years as a result of "dress code" rules for the Revival.
Jim Clark was an inveterate falt cap wearer. Stewart favoured the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan courdoy style. Colin Chapman graduated from flat caps to courdroy caps. Graham Hill was a flat cap person. Mike Hawthorn loved his flat caps, usually worn with a rakish inverted "v" folded into the peak.
By all accounts, Goodwood in the old days was anything but snobbish. It was a very friendly circuit and very relaxed. If anything, snobbishness has crept in in more recent years as a result of "dress code" rules for the Revival.
Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 10th August 10:10
Second Eric's comments I'm afraid twincam16, the flat cap was pretty much de riguer for the drivers in the 40's/50's......
Brooklands was more along the lines of the circuit atmosphere that you're describing with the old adage of 'the right crowd and no crowding' it really was the motor racing equivalent of Ascot etc. Goodwood was a much more relaxed, anybody welcome kind of place where there was no dress code and no snobbery.
Eric Mc said:
That's definitely a 70s shot of Hill (1971/72ish I'd say). The flat cap survived into that decade but - as Hill so inelegantly demonstrates in that picture - flat caps and long hair did not really go together very well.
They were the only suitable(ish) pictures I could I'm afraid.
It's all academic, the dress-code at Goodwood Revival is to deter people from wearing Ferrari anoraks and day-glow North Face gore-tex jackets. If noting else the ruin the atmosphere when taking photos in the paddock and in any case it's all a bit more fun if you dress-up and enter into the spirit of it! 
richb said:
It's all academic, the dress-code at Goodwood Revival is to deter people from wearing Ferrari anoraks and day-glow North Face gore-tex jackets. If noting else the ruin the atmosphere when taking photos in the paddock and in any case it's all a bit more fun if you dress-up and enter into the spirit of it!
Well said.
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