Goodwood Revival...

I am unsure as to how my all things vintage radar has never picked up on this event - The Goodwood Revival.

Once a year a group of like minded individuals come together to bond over their love of vintage motor sport and clothing (circa 1940-1960) and looking at the photos from previous events, it is right up my retro alley. Last Sunday was an extremely lazy day glued to the sofa while I trawled the internet for information and images of the best dressed attendees, gazing on in awe as wave upon wave of outfits  presented themselves. Poor John was informed almost instantly that next September we will be attending and that we (emphasis on he), shall be dressing up accordingly. After several sighs and a lowering of the head he nodded as though he knew putting up a fight would be pointless. The thought of him dressing up as an old RAF officer or any other period uniform gentleman (note the use of the word Gentleman), is so exciting. I haven't seen him dressed smart since our wedding and if he could have got married in shorts and flip flops, he would have.

So now that this is firmly on the Merchant-Locke calendar, so too is the search for the dress. THE dress. The one and only, totally unique, genuine vintage piece that will knock his socks off (and mine).  I would never really call myself competitive, it's never been something that drives me (compared to others), but for some reason, as soon as I saw that there is a best dressed competition each day of the festival, that was it. The gauntlet has been well and truly laid down, grabbed and held high.

A thousand ideas are going through my already very crammed mind such as where can I procure such a piece? Do I design it myself and have it made (although that does somewhat go against the whole vintage concept). Do I keep scouring charity shops in the hope that I will find that little gem that nobody else has noticed? Do I up my game at vintage fairs and pay a little bit more for that totally unique piece? Or do I wear something I already have (John's favourite option) and be happy with it. I do have a couple of genuinely lovely things I could wear but neither would be 'winners', when comparing them to what some of the ladies seem to sport. Here are a few pictures to help put you in the picture!

The lady here in the hat won the Best Dressed title in 2013. 

Men in uniform......no comment required. 

And here are some of the dresses that I love and that will be my inspiration when out there hunting around second-hand emporiums...

The ultimate. Absolutely beautiful. Strangely, this very picture is featured in one of my many vintage

 books but sadly it  doesn't give me any history about it which is a shame as it obviously has a 

wonderful story to tell. 

I would give anything  to find a dress such as this. What a conversation starter. 

Another hooded number. 

Embellishments and corsages.....I can never have enough. 

So there you have it. A somewhat large challenge but definitely achievable. What john doesn't know however is that if we stay overnight and go for two days then I think I may even have to find two outfits. Thank god I have 9 months.