Period Dress

The following contacts are listed in a wartime weekend booklet I picked up in Pickering last year when I stumbled on a wartime weekend.

Uniforms, Civilian Dress & Equipment

The Aerodrom (Hire)
Garden Cottage
Outgang Road
PICKERING
YO18 7EL
01751 476339
Specialist in wartime RAF Uniforms & accessories

Biba Lives (Purchase)
0207 v482 4994
www.bibalives.com
Vintage clothing mainly civilian

Johnsons of Leeds (Purchase)
Unit 2 Vulcan Foundry
Haigh Park Road
Stourton
LEEDS
LS10 1RT
01132 775237
Anything from armbands to armoured cars!

Just Military (Purchase)
701 Abbeydale Road
SHEFFIELD
0114 255536

Memories (Hire & Purchase)
20 Market Place
ALFORD
Lincs
LN13 9EB
01507 462541
Military & Civilian

Wartime Wardrobe (Purchase)
01773 744427
Clothing & Accessories, military & civilian

Yep – try Soldier of Fortune- UK based, on the web – they will kit you out with wartime army or RAF battledress for about £100- they do a complete soldier kit inc tin hat and webbing for about £150….i used to hire the kit, better off buying, you’ll always get your money back and have it in the wardrobe if you need it – must make sure in a sealed suit fold with anti-moth stuff tho…

Otherwise try charity shops for a demob suit – they are about!

TT

Was that the suit you were wearing at the last FOSA meeting then?

re enactors

Some of these guys go a long way to recreate accuracy

Seen at Reading WW2 Weekend in 2002 – I recall it was a hot day !!

a year later I returned and had a flight in that shiny B17

Great Airshow and event

Yep – try Soldier of Fortune- UK based, on the web – they will kit you out with wartime army or RAF battledress for about £100- they do a complete soldier kit inc tin hat and webbing for about £150….i used to hire the kit, better off buying, you’ll always get your money back and have it in the wardrobe if you need it – must make sure in a sealed suit fold with anti-moth stuff tho…

Otherwise try charity shops for a demob suit – they are about!

TT

🙂 😎

Yanks Event

Ha Dave – if u are ever in Manchester UK in Mid August drop me a line and I will take you to Yanks Event and even buy you a pint …or three – considering you would pay so much to get over here thats the least I could do 😀

There are some great photos on that YANKS link that go4b17 put up. Thanks for that. I notice even a Home Guard who looks a lot like a certain Private Frazer!

For people interested in WWII re-enactment and nostalgia this is a great site too, with a guest book that can help you find what you need
http://www.cc41.net/guestbook.html

1930s garb is a bit early for Goodwood really. The best costume “fit” is anything from the 1940s (wartime uniforms etc) and on into the 1950s and 1960s. To be honest, some of the gear worn at the Revival is slightly over the top. We had The Beatles wandering about in their Sargeant Pepper’s outfits one year – not quite what you would have seen at Goodwood, even in 1966.

Great uniform go4b17, you look to have stepped straight out of Twelve O’clock High

I wish they had such events here in NZ.

Period Dress

Well here’s one of me in my original USAAF Officers Uniform

Yanks Event at Uppermill , Saddleworth ,Manchester

see www.yanksevent.com

pretty great weekend with a great 40’s dance

Here is one of my father (on the left of pic) in airmens garb whilst stationed at RAF Hawkinge 1930, the dress of the day was puttees, high dog collar and a riding crop

http://image24.webshots.com/25/3/81/46/40338146nbHCCc_ph.jpg

I presume the Gordon-Bennett comment related to the series of Gordon-Bennett Trophy Races which were held on public road circuits in the early part of the 20th Century rather than anything to do with Goodwood per se. Many racing afficianados think that “real” racing died when these types of unfettered road races were abandoned after the disastrous 1903 Paris-Madrid race.

In fact, “road” racing continued right through to the early 1970s – the Targo Florio in Sicily being very much based on the original concept.. Indeed Spa, Monaco and Pau which are essentially road circuits, are still used for car racing. In fact, Dublin’s Phoenix Park road circuit, which was used in the 1903 Gordon-Bennett Trophy is still in use today, including a section of the “track” that was used in the 1903 event. Probably the last true great road venue is the Isle of Man TT circuit.

Regarding Goodwood’s history as a race track, it hosted motor racing from 1948 through to early 1966 after which it was used mainly for testing, sprinting and track days. Racing recommenced in 1998 although limited to the types of cars that raced in the original period of the circuit’s use.

Nice photos, Flood– I understand now. 😉

I think a certain James Gordon-Bennett would take issue with you on that one!

Surely he died in 1918…?
From http://www.barchetta.cc/english/All.Ferraris/Events/98.Goodwood.Revival/980920.e.Goodwood.htm

…The Goodwood Motor Circuit had then soon become the site of the famous RAC Tourist Trophy, but racing activities had come to an end in 1966, the track being used for testing only since…
…Cars to be entered in the event had – of course – to have been built not later than 1966, and every person wishing to enter the paddock had to be dressed in 1960’s fashion (for gentlemen, at least jacket, shirt and tie were obligatory if period fashion was not on hand). There were no cars at all allowed to enter the paddock which were built after 1966 – even the track’s doctor drove around in a period Mercedes-Benz…

So may I qualify that the last ‘real’ motor race, according to the circuits own press releases, took place in or around 1966 and this was the case until the revival meetings started.
A few costumed pictures from the 2001 meeting, below.

Flood

You can buy repro battledress from theatrical costumiers or militaria specialists – two good points. They are made for the modern ‘fuller’ figure 😉 and you’re not risking damaging historic clothing. Think it will set you back about £100+

But if you’ve spent £1000s on your own Spitfire a few quid won’t make much difference!

http://www.stby.com/airdigger/repro.htm

http://www.replicaters.com/ww2rafuniforms.html

Just two I found doing a ‘google’

extends to the mid 60s, when the last ‘real’ motor race took place

I think a certain James Gordon-Bennett would take issue with you on that one!

My ‘wedding garb’ was borrowed from a collector, so no, it doesn’t ever surface again.

I had immense admiration for the poor sods who attended the D-Day 60 in Normandy last year dressed in authentic, heavy serge, pongo uniforms. The temperatures were up in the 100s (Or whatever that is in decimal money). The term ‘old sweats’ was truly brought to life.

As my aircraft is late fifties, early sixties I should maybe source some teddy-boy drapes, or early Beatle-era black shirts and leather jackets? On the other hand, maybe not.

Moggy

uniforms

I have a very nice ORIGINAL USAAF Jacket , pinks and Garrison Cap ,if you wanna see it maybe I will add a photo

At Molesworth one year I saw a guy in an Original Polish Airforce Uniform from WW2 – very authentic and brought a real period feel to that dance , at one point I thought I was in a timewarp

Don’t forget that period dress extends to the mid 60s, when the last ‘real’ motor race took place.
The first year I did it the Duke of Richmond (or maybe Lord March, I forget which) graciously allowed gentlemen to remove their jackets due to inclement weather – scolding sunshine and rather high temperatures (this is Britain, after all!). Having worn a tweed jacket that year I invested in a set of painter and decorators white overalls for the following event, worn over a t-shirt and shorts; this was perfectly acceptable since quite a few of the mechanics were dressed in this manner. Other press photographers on the start/finish line were probably the smartest dressed they had ever been for a job (fortunately the smell of moth balls was dampened by the scent of hot oil and exhaust fumes…), although there was one dressed seemingly as a 1920s film director – complete with cowpat flat cap and knickerbockers, plate camera and tripod…
Have a look on Ebay – there are several uniforms from various services on there now (nothing old air force, but ‘GI Glen Miller’ uniform – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21577&item=5373871296&rd=1, WWII Royal Engineers No2 uniform http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=70988&item=6518018770&rd=1, that sort of thing).
Just remember that just having a period uniform won’t get you into the paddock unless you have the right arm band…

Flood