There is nothing quite like Goodwood Revival.
For one weekend, the clocks appear to misbehave. Historic racing cars return to the track, Spitfires appear overhead, paddocks fill with mechanics and drivers, and an extraordinary number of people discover that they own braces, headscarves and exceptionally high-waisted trousers.
We love it. Part of the pleasure of Revival is that people make an effort. Dressing well is part of the occasion, and Goodwood is one of the increasingly rare places where turning up in whatever happened to be nearest the bed that morning can feel positively contrary.
But if you are wondering what to wear to Goodwood Revival, there is a difference between dressing for the occasion and dressing as somebody else. Our preferred approach to Goodwood Revival style is simple: dial yourself up rather than disappear into costume.
The 80/20 rule for Goodwood Revival outfits
We have an entirely unscientific formula for dressing for Goodwood Revival: 80% you, 20% Revival.
That might mean the jacket you already love, a white shirt, jeans or beautifully cut trousers and a Bakerboy cap. Perhaps an old leather jacket with a fine wool Newsboy, or a knitted polo with pleated trousers and a cap in a cloth with a little texture.
For women, Goodwood Revival outfits needn’t default to the familiar vintage dress either. A pair of wide trousers, oversized sunglasses, a silk shirt and a Bakerboy can say considerably more about its wearer than something assembled according to the rules of a particular decade.
Likewise, the best men’s Goodwood Revival outfits rarely need to involve a complete period look. A good jacket, proper trousers, knitwear, denim or a well-worn leather layer can all sit comfortably in the setting.
Choose one or two references to the past and let the rest remain resolutely yours. The cars are quite capable of doing the historical accuracy for everyone.
Start with the clothes you actually like wearing
This sounds obvious, but Revival has an extraordinary ability to persuade otherwise rational people that they urgently need clothes they would never contemplate wearing anywhere else.
Before buying anything, look at what you already own. That battered suede jacket that improves every year? Excellent. The navy blazer that somehow works with everything? Bring it. Denim, old military jackets, soft tailoring, good knitwear, white shirts, flannels and loafers all have enough history behind them to sit happily at Goodwood without requiring an explanatory plaque.
Then add something that changes the character of the whole thing. This is where a hat earns its keep.
A Bakerboy cap for Goodwood Revival or a slim Newsboy can take perfectly contemporary clothes and give them just enough connection to the setting. The trick is not to continue adding period references once the point has been made.
White shirt, good jacket, jeans, great cap. Nothing terribly 1948 about any of it. Funny, that.
Goodwood Revival hats: buy for Sunday, wear on Monday
There are things one buys for an occasion, and there are things one buys because an occasion has provided an extremely convenient excuse. We prefer the latter.
If you’re buying a hat for Goodwood Revival, choose the one you can already imagine wearing afterwards: with your winter coat, with denim, driving, walking the dog, on a train, at lunch, or on a morning when your hair has staged a small rebellion.
A proper wool, tweed or cashmere cap will do Goodwood very nicely indeed, but its usefulness shouldn’t expire when the bunting comes down. This is one reason we resist treating traditional hat shapes as costume.
Bakerboy caps and Newsboy caps have been around for generations precisely because they keep finding a place in contemporary wardrobes. Put a Bakerboy with a leather jacket and denim and it becomes one thing. Wear the same hat with tailoring and it becomes another. Put it on a woman with a great coat, loose shirt and enormous sunglasses and the whole conversation changes again.
Good design doesn’t require reenactment.
What if I don’t suit hats?
We hear this surprisingly often, usually from somebody who has tried approximately three hats in their lifetime, disliked all three and accepted this as compelling evidence against an entire category of clothing.
The problem is rarely hats. It is usually the hat.
Shape matters. Proportion matters. Depth matters. The amount of volume around the crown matters. Where the peak sits matters. And the way you wear it can make an extraordinary difference.
A fuller Bakerboy cap has a completely different character from a slimmer Newsboy cap. A cap worn square can look quite proper; shift it slightly, soften it, tilt it or push it back and suddenly it belongs to the person underneath it.
The right hat shouldn’t feel as though it arrived five minutes before you did. Try it on, move it around, and then stop thinking about it. If, twenty minutes later, you catch yourself in a window looking annoyingly good, our work here is done.
Dressing for Goodwood Revival weather
There is also the small matter of the English climate.
Goodwood in September can produce glorious sunshine, drizzle, wind, mud and something approaching November, occasionally before lunch. This makes layers considerably more useful than historical purity.
Wool, cashmere, tweed, moleskin and weather-resistant cloths make sense because they feel good, wear well and cope with a day spent moving between grandstands, paddocks, lawns and fields. Proper shoes are advisable, and a jacket with pockets is even better.
This is also why a well-made cap is such a useful part of a Goodwood Revival outfit. It gives the look character, keeps its place in wind far better than something overly theatrical and can still be worn long after the weekend is over.
And while goggles can look magnificent in the right circumstances, unless you’re actually driving something open-topped at speed, they are not compulsory. Neither is a pipe, nor an emergency purchase of plus fours.
Borrow from the past. Don’t get stuck in it.
Some of the most enjoyable examples of Goodwood Revival style are difficult to assign to any single year because they contain references rather than reproductions.
Perhaps the trousers are generous, the jacket has seen a few adventures and the hat could have appeared at Goodwood seventy years ago. But the sunglasses are modern, the shirt is loose, the shoes are today’s and the person wearing all of it looks entirely at ease.
That last part matters. The best-dressed people rarely look as though getting dressed required a committee meeting.
There is confidence in familiarity. Clothes become better when we know how they behave and stop adjusting them. Hats are much the same. The one that gets thrown onto the passenger seat, stuffed into a coat pocket and instinctively reached for as you leave the house will eventually acquire something no stylist can supply: a little bit of you.
That is far more interesting to us than perfect period correctness.
Goodwood Revival style for men and women
One of the best things about Revival is that it gives everyone permission to lean a little further into personal style.
For men, that may mean soft tailoring, denim, an old leather jacket, knitted polos, proper shoes and a Bakerboy and Newsboy cap rather than a head-to-toe reproduction of a particular decade.
For women, it might mean wide trousers, tailoring, silk shirts, denim, loafers, oversized sunglasses and a cap worn slightly off-centre. The most interesting women’s Goodwood Revival outfits tend to borrow from the past without surrendering completely to it.
The point is not to eliminate vintage references. They are part of the pleasure. It is simply to leave enough room for the person wearing them.
A note on character
Goodwood Revival is full of character, and that is partly why hats work so well there. They have always belonged to musicians, actors, racing drivers, artists, mechanics, dandies, rebels and people who simply discovered that life was marginally more entertaining with something good on their head.
A hat can change the rhythm of otherwise familiar clothes without demanding that the wearer change personality, and perhaps that is the distinction worth making.
Dressing up can be enormous fun. But dressing well is something else. It is knowing what feels like you and occasionally turning the volume up half a notch.
Revival gives us a particularly good excuse.
The Miller approach to Goodwood Revival
For Mister Miller, that means Bakerboy and Newsboy caps for Goodwood Revival in cloths worth touching: wool, cashmere, tweed, moleskin and other fabrics chosen as much for how they feel and age as for how they photograph.
They are handmade by skilled artisans and intended to acquire a life beyond the weekend for which you might initially buy them. Choose the proportion that suits your face, choose a cloth that works with clothes you already own, and wear it enough that you eventually stop noticing you’re wearing it.
So by all means dress for Revival. Enjoy the racing, admire the cars, drink something cold and look skywards when the engines overhead tell you to. Wear the jacket you save for good days and put something excellent on your head.
Just leave enough of the 21st century about your person that nobody asks what time your next performance starts.
Goodwood Sunday. Real life Monday.
Not sure which shape suits you? Read our Hat Shape Guide or get in touch for personal advice themasterhatter@mistermiller.co.uk. We have yet to meet a head beyond help.