Okay, talk about Vintage Gear; this is the Goodwood Revival, England Sept. ’05. A huge vintage car/motorcycle/plane weekend at Lord March’s estate, with racing all day on his private racecourse, and the car park (pictured) has hundreds of amazing vehicles which on any other day would have BEEN the show. Best aspect of the event; you’re expected to wear ‘period’ (30’s – 50’s) clothing! So almost everyone does in fact. Peter Miles gave me a ticket on short notice (usually 100 pounds), so I had to scare up an outfit pronto. I found a tiny vintage shop in the village of Louth where I was visiting Rob Drury, and the fellow had a wool tweed suit, detachable-collar shirt, wing-tip shoes, plaid tie, and ‘flat hat’, all of which fit me, for 100 pounds. The pants were a little tight, but the fellow advised skipping a meal before the event!
The bike is a ’38 BMW R51 racer, an example of which has been sitting in boxes in my garage for 19 years!
Paul d’Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
Was it Vogue Clothing Agency where you went in Louth? We used to live equidistant from Louth and Grimsby and Linda, my wife often bought retro clothes from them.
We lived in the village of Binbrook, next to an old WW11 air base. It was an active fighter base with English Electric Lightnings when we were there. We often saw the Battle of Britain memorial flight come over to put on a show for visiting big wigs and also the Red Arrows display team.
I started out on a NSU Quickly moped, followed by Lambretta, LI 150, Suzuki B120P, Suzuki Super Six 250, Norton 650SS, Suzuki 360 Trail bike, BMW 650 boxer, long break for children, then Suzuki V-strom 1000, Kawasaki ZZR1100, Suzuki V-strom 650, Honda 250 trail. We moved to south of France 13 years ago, brought the little V-Strom and the ZZR with me, bought the Honda over here. Now the rheumatoid arthritis has made me downsize to just the Honda. It’s light and fun and keeps me on two wheels. it’s ideal weather for bike riding here. Love reading the Vintagent every week, keep up the good work.
Chris Graves
Hi Chris, the shop was indeed in Louth, where Rob had his metal-pressing business, but I can’t recall the name of the outfit, ha. It was a tiny shop, and something of a miracle they could outfit me so perfectly. But I guess those suits were ubiquitous workingman’s gear for generations – made for walking in the wind and rain on the fens, or something.
Thanks for being a loyal reader!
yours, Paul