SPEAKER_02 0:12

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Menswear Style Podcast with me, your host, Pete Brooker. And on this week's episode, we're gonna have a look at Best of Britannia, Britain's largest pop-up department store. Now in its fourth year, Best of Britannia celebrates British design and manufacturing and will be transforming Victoria House in London this weekend. I'm gonna be speaking to one of the co-founders of Best of Britannia, or Bob, as it's affectionately known, Joe Pigeon. He's gonna tell me exactly how it all started.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

A very, very successful Olympics after all the doom and gloom prior to it, which I think the country came out of that feeling very good about itself.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

And by Doom and Gloom, are you referring to the George Michael song that he played at the ceremony?

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Um I've I've I've shut that out of my mind.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yes, I believe we've all tried to forget about that one. But we're also gonna be talking about what it is that makes us British. And we're gonna be referring from one Bob to another Bob.

SPEAKER_06 1:08

That's British. We used to have a bit more vitality, imagination, catching a dunk cloak spirit. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

No what do you mean, Bob? We're also gonna be talking to David Evans, the editor of Grey Fox Blog, who's going to be curating the menswear section. He's gonna give us the rundown on what he thinks it is that makes us British.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

I also think uh, you know, some of the brands and uh the products you tend to think of when you think of British, such as some tweed and uh and flannel uh and and knitwear. Uh uh and I wanted to cover all of those things really. Um and Carling. And car booting.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Also on the show, we're gonna have fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, and Wayne's gonna tell me about his love affair with car boot sales.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

For me, uh I loved it when car boot sales started, and I used to buy a lot of really good records. I mean, I collect records, I've got over ten and a half thousand, no, no, no, over eleven thousand now slabs of vinyl records, and I used to be able to pick up great things at uh at carboots and can't wait to get into that.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

So it should be a good show. Are you ready for this one, Bob?

SPEAKER_06 2:16

The days when Yates could come over here and buy up Nelson's car, and an early street surgeon, and a couple of windmill girls are definitely out of another me.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

I know what you mean, Bob, but let's kick things off now with that interview with co-founder of Best of Britannia, Joe Pidgeon. Okay, so on the podcast now we have Joe Pidgeon, the co-founder of Best of Britannia. How are you doing, Joe? I'm very well, thank you, Peter. How are you? I'm fine. Thanks for taking the time out to speak to me. Uh Joe, please just tell us a little bit about yourself, brag a little bit, and then we'll get into the best of Britannia.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Okay, um Wow, okay. I'm I as as I said, uh co-founded Best of Britannia back in 2012. Um, but prior to that I did have a life um publishing music magazines and organizing uh music, mainly music events, but also lifestyle brand launches and so on. Um but my uh colleague Anthony Wallace and I have known each other about 20 years and and met actually uh working on a fashion trade show called 40 Degrees in the late 90s, which was a kind of it sort of set the um set a new agenda for uh fashion trade events, really, which made them a little bit more edgy. And for example, Levi's exhibited for the first time in years and brought in a load of bathtubs and got people like JK from Chimuraquai to sit and shrink to fit their jeans in a bath um on their stand. So it was it was basically that's how we kind of met and um and became friends and sort of were talking in 2012 really about well moaning actually about the uh uh the fact that in the year of the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, how ridiculous it was that there wasn't anything that really was championing British made product in in that year of all years, really. Um, you know, and you've had things like Boris bike contracts being uh given to overseas countries, you know, Canada and so on and so forth. So it just felt a bit like that's horrible. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. So I mean obviously with all the especially with the bike making that we have got here. I mean, that's one industry where there really wasn't an excuse to give it to, you know, not not to give it to a British company, to be honest. Um, you know, you could argue that in other spheres there are other manufacturers abroad that that might be able to produce something better, but certainly not in cycling, certainly not in shoemaking, and so on. So um so essentially we we we we set up um we decided to do something about it rather than just chatting about it. We did something about it and set up the first event um which took place in Clarkenwell in October 2012 on the back of what was actually luckily a very, very successful Olympics after all the doom and gloom prior to it. Which I think the country came out of that feeling very good about itself.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

And by doom and gloom, are you referring to the George Michael song that he played at the ceremony?

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Um I've I've I've shut that out of my mind.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

I couldn't believe that George Michael was up there singing a brand new song.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

God, yeah, you've done see, I couldn't remember that, but now you've reminded me fully. I I have, yeah, I rem I remember the scandal of that. But I was I'm more referring to the fact that the radio on all over the media they were just saying that London was going to be gridlocked, it was gonna be shut down, it was gonna be a disaster, and and and actually people have forgotten how much the media were anti the Olympics before it happened, and then suddenly it was the best thing ever after everyone realised, well, I think they scared every all Londoners out of London, so it was the quietest it's ever been, I think.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Well, that's quite interesting. I guess the narrative of the British media is always to be slightly, if not entirely, pessimistic about anything that's happening. And when that narrative disappears because the Olympics was so well run, what else do they have to really talk about except the actual subject?

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Yeah, exactly. And um and I think because the country got so behind it with the painting of the genius, really, the painting of the post boxes gold and all of that stuff. I mean, it didn't matter where you were in the country, people kind of got really into it. And I think so really we came out of the back of that a month later um and actually had Olympians there, we had Paralympians there at the event at a launch, we had you know a a holographic live music stage with performances from Paloma Faith, who was just before she became as as big as she is. But essentially it was a very, very lively, um, lively event, and people came along and they and they loved what we were doing, and it was all the right ingredients were there from music and film to right through to obviously all the all the brand products that were there. So we had, you know, Deborah Meaden launched it with her label Merchant Fox. Um so there was a serious side to it as well, um, and it and it all worked, and um, and obviously we then took it that little bit more seriously um and decided to take it forward obviously for for future events. Initially, we didn't know whether it would be a one-off or whether it would continue, but because it did so well, we decided no, let's let's carry on.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Right. So and so now that it's four years on, how has it grown? Uh, how has it expanded? What what's new to this one?

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Um well this one we've really just strengthened the the ingredients. So it's it's the the the kind of the brands obviously what it takes people take a little bit of time to take you seriously, I guess, um, from a trade brand point of view. So uh menswear particularly is very strong this time. We've formed an alliance with um David Evans, who's the Grey Fox, who um and and he's he's you know championed uh specific menswear brands with us. Um but we've just we've just sharpened it up a bit really. The venue is is more central London, but it is in central London, so essentially it's easier to get to. Clark and well is a fantastic building, but um for whatever reason people think Clark and Well is the you know difficult to get to, but um you know, so we've we've moved into central London and we've twinned it, um, as you as your conversation with our co-director Wayne Emingway um uh uh stated obviously with with the classic car boot sale that takes place at King's Cross to give it a little bit more range. So we've got um the cars and boats that we've had on a small scale in previous years are um firmly represented at King's Cross as well as um 150 brands at the uh at the Hoban venue.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Awesome. So how do you actually vet the brands? I mean I'm guessing they're coming to you by this point now and wanting to be a part of this.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Uh yeah, both. I mean we obviously reach out to people as well as um them coming to us, but then it's very simple really. They they first of all have to manufacture here. Um that's the key. So it's not it's not about British ininverted commerce brands like you know, Marmite and AHP sauce and Levi Road roots reggae reggae sauce, etc., that aren't made in Britain.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Is HP not made in Britain?

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Not anymore. Oh you're kidding.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Poland. Oh my god. Do you know what I love uh my my favourite thing to do in uh in Greasy Spoons and Cafes is to tell people guess what HP stands for while showing them the bottle. And I I swear to you, man, it's like it's only about 10% of people that will get it right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

I've got a uh graffiti art poster painting on my wall that um which is HP saucy, actually. But uh but so yes, that's how that's how disappointed I was basically. So you have to you have to be British. If our cuisine isn't as good as other countries, but there we are.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Exactly, exactly. How dare they?

SPEAKER_03 9:36

I know. And that's actually something we remedy at the at the event. We our food and drink offering has always been fantastic. Street food award winning and and so on.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

So the food, uh what kind of food and what kind of drink can we be expecting?

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Um, again, a range of street foods, but also um tastes like you know, chutneys and and and cheeses and so on, uh, and then obviously uh bespoke cocktails and craft ales on the bar side of things. Um so we've got pinkster gin, raspberry infused gin, we've got a a pr a new company called Longflit who do really lovely um pre-mixed cocktails um and uh crate brewery providing ales so from Hackney. So yeah, keeping it keeping it um real, so to speak. Um but it's but a yeah, a great range of uh of tastes as well as everything else.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Cool. Uh Joe, I I I guess this is more of a tenuous question and but slightly related. But to you, what in your mind, what is British? Uh for me, I I was saying this way, and for me it's like sideburns, it's the jam, it's it's pretty much that sort of ilk, maybe the mid-90s and the late 60s, you know, the kind of mod movement. In your mind, what what is British?

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Um, I think music, I think you've definitely tapped into that. I mean, if you think about all the different music genres that are that have been uniquely created here from, as you say, uh mod genres through to um more the more modern day sort of grime, you know, speed garage, uh actually underground garage, they'd kill me if they said speed garage. Um yeah, and so basically that I I think music has very much always been at the forefront of of British creativity along with film, but I think from a manufacturing point of view, um I just think the the quality of the of the man of the making of the product is is what is what sets us apart. It's it's the it's the attention to detail and the you know the almost obsessive nature of of of the product being um different, but also um yeah very well made. So I think the craft has come back into fashion um and the way things are made and people caring about that is is much more important now than it was, I think, five years ago. Still still a long way to go. There's a long way to go before the average British person thinks that things that are made in Britain are better than they are, you know, from Italy or wherever. Um but it's changing, and I think that for me it's it's about I think if you walk down a street in America, everybody wears the same sort of click you pretty much they all wear the same. There isn't there it's very unusual to see someone with their own sense of style in most of America, for example. Whereas in Britain, you know, I mean I live in Brighton and and it's quite terrifying how many um different ranges of uh image, style image are on display here.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

And you know, obviously, if you go you know, there are obviously the the followers and there are the sheep and the the beard being quite an example an example of how how rapidly that became the um the the style uh yeah it was it was a must-have for anyone and every model and uh yeah I think it's I think that the high water mark has started to recede as um yeah who said that was it H Lomax or something. Um but it's as in I think the trend has now either plateaued or it's just in regards to beards. I mean I think I talk from this from a like a jealous standpoint because I couldn't actually grow a consistently good beard, so it was more out of envy than anything else.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

But yeah, no, I I I can grow various I I can actually grow a beard, but I I resisted the temptation of growing a full sculpted um work of art on my face. Um I I kind of think the Raald Dahl book did it for me, the twitch basically. I've never really, never really I've always envisaged bits of food being in there for days. Yeah, bits of grub.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Yeah. Well it's but also in regards to trends, it's how it's it gets to a point where you're not sticking it to the man anymore. I always have this theory about tattoos, how you used to get a tattoo to rebel or to stick it to the man, but now that everyone's got one, who are you actually sticking it to anymore?

SPEAKER_03 13:52

So Yeah, because almost I I I now find tattoos quite ugly because people are just chucking them on wherever, as as a as you say, almost as a as like a it's a decision which is very lightly taken, I think, having a tattoo these days, which which I think it ought to be taken a bit more seriously, really. I mean, you are if essentially stuck with it for life. Well, you can obviously have them removed or adapted, but but yeah, and I think it's obviously each to their own, but um for me, I think it's quite um quite mad how many people are having you know a lot of tattoos.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Um it is it is insane the level and also the age that we're introducing them to. So I see my niece, my eight-year-old niece with a henna tattoo uh right on the back of her palm. And I'm thinking, well, good luck with that, because that's that's only gonna go one way. Uh but anyway, sorry, I've gone slightly off piece, my fault entirely. Um just uh Joe, would you mind just rounding up? I know that you've got some really great brands there. Which brands are you looking to get in maybe for future events?

SPEAKER_03 14:54

Um, well, we've we've tried repeatedly very hard to get um private white VC to well, they have actually taken part, but not not fully. So um for us, for me anyway, personally, that their story of of taking um literally wool from their own herd of sheep from 30 miles outside Manchester, bringing it into a factory, producing their product, in is the you know, is the is the great is a great story. Um and so we we would love to have them. Um John Smedley, um, again, for the not just for the product, but also for the fact that they've got the longest running um factory in the world, yeah, been manufacturing there since 1782. So again, we've we've they've dipped their toe in the water with us, but not you know, not fully, so to speak, with a with a with a with a major stand presence. But other than that, really, we've we've we we've been very blessed in that we've got we've had some fantastic brands exhibit with us. Um we've we've got it ongoing fantastic support from the likes of Cheney, um uh Taylor, Clarken Wells Taylor, Susanna Hall, um, and we've got this year you know brands like Johnston's Elgin and Harry Stedman and Walker Slater, Kruots, Loakes, um taking part in the event for the first time, and then and we're delighted to have them as well as people like Mercy and Cycles and Reynolds, um Reynolds England, who produce these amazing leather cycling shoes. So there's the innovation there as well as you know the the the heritage brands.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Excellent. Uh I'm just thinking that so far down the line for this, it's um again, I want to keep calling it an exhibition. I know it's not, it's a it's a culmination of pop-ups and workshops. Um unless you want to phrase that better than I am, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Um but it's a it's it's a we like to think see it as a as a as a very good pop-up department store where it's very obviously very focused on on the standards of manufacturing, but essentially you you can walk around Vester Britannia, you can meet the people who make the product, you can you can see it being made in some cases, you can actually there's actually workshops on site where you can actually learn how to um weave using one of the British made, one of the last British made look well, it is the last British made Lumen company in in the you know in the country. Um and and and textiles and pattern cutting and so on. So there's a there's a whole range of of activities that people can get involved with.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

What you got on after this? So after the after the Best of Britannia's done?

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Uh well we do we do it all year round. So the next we've actually we're doing Best of Britannia Bristol um November the 5th and 6th. So we we're doing regional events as well as the main London one. Uh when are you coming to Cambridge? Uh we're coming to Norwich actually next year, so not too far away. Oh, sorry. At our eastern destination. We're working with um a shoemaker called Van Dahl, who's got a fantastic factory building in Norwich. So we're we're taking it there.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Well, it will only be a lateral move for you to get Alan Partridge to kind of open the ceremony. Uh-huh. It's gotta be done. Okay, thanks, Joe. I'll let you go. Um good luck. Um I'm hoping to make it down there, so I'll perhaps uh if if you're about, I'll drop your line and uh we'll press the flesh and have a drink.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Nice one. All right, Peter. Do do come down. I mean, Lori Anne will send you the invitations and so on, but it'd be great to see you.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. Thanks, Joe. Bye. See you late, mate. Bye. Joe Pigeon there. And now time for a word from our sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Not nose. English giant works, scumbag, faced, dickhead, asshole.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Excellent stuff. And now we're gonna hear from David Evans, the creator for the menswear section of Best of Britannia and editor of Grey Fox Blog. Okay, so on the podcast now we have David Evans, editor of Grey Fox Blog. How are you doing, David? I'm fine, thank you. Good to speak to you, Pete. Excellent, you too. Um so, David, could you just give us a little intro about yourself, brag a little bit, if you will, and then we'll get into the best of Britannia.

SPEAKER_04 18:58

Okay, sure, right. Well, I, as you said, um edit Grey Fox Blog, which uh is a blog I started nearly five years ago now. Uh and it came about really as I aged, like we all do, and I decided I didn't know what to wear or how to look or where to buy clothes. So I thought I'd write about it. And it was a subject I thought that that I'd um run out of steam on after about six months. But uh lo and behold, here I am five years later, still talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Excellent. Do you mind me being so personal and asking your age? I'm 61. Oh wow, okay, great. So um what kind of things do you look for when you write about clothes? What kind of brands or sort of stipulation for you?

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Well, uh early on, I didn't really know much about High Street or what was available anywhere for men to wear, to be quite honest. I d I didn't have any sort of background in menswear or clothing or fashion. So it really was starting from scratch and looking around. And one of the things I was quite excited about quite early on was what I saw was a resurgence in um the manufacture in Britain of menswear. And I found some really interesting and exciting little brands. Um and although it's not all I talk about on the blog, it is quite a large part. Um, because I also talk about things like quality and style and so on. And I found that quite a lot of these British black brands were introducing just those elements to menswear, and that's what I liked about them.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Excellent. So, I mean, you don't just talk about the brands, I understand you're getting into the design element of those as well.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Um yes, indeed. Yes. Well, I was very lucky recently to do some work with um Johnstons of Elgin, uh, who in who are one of the brands that uh appear in my curated section at Bob. Um and alongside them we designed a cloth which uh I then had tailored into a suit by Deijan Skinner on Saville Row. So it was probably the most exciting project I've yet done on the blog, and I really enjoyed that. And it was just great to see to see the extent of the skills um that there are in this country, not only in the design, but also the manufacture of um products like cloth and also you know putting it together in the tailoring process. It was really fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, it looks really good. I I had a look at the blog earlier today, and if anyone else is interested in that, they should head over to greyfoxblog.com and see how the process is done. Um But David, if we can just uh skip on to Bob, as it's officially known. Um so you've been invited to curate the menswear section. Tell us a little bit about that, please.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Well, um I was invited by uh Joe and Anthony to curate the section earlier this year. Um and what I wanted to do was to just introduce um people who visit Bob to some of these wonderful brands, both large and small, that I've come to admire over the last few years. Course, Bob has already got quite a lot of um menswear brands uh already signed up to it, and many have been going loyally since um um Bob started. But there were one or two others I just thought it'd be interesting to introduce to Bob and um to Bob's visitors and uh uh so that they could see sort of some of the variety and and the skills and the and the quality that's out there.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And uh how many were you allowed to have? Did they put a cap on you? No. Well uh what's the uh vetting process as well, other than being British? What was something that you were looking for?

SPEAKER_04 22:34

What was I look well for start? There was a bit of um restriction in terms of space. So uh I think we were restricting it to sort of six, seven, eight, something like that. But I was looking for a variety of sizes uh of brands, but in particular smaller ones, because um obviously to attend something like Bob, it does cost the brand some money. And I just felt there's some really quite exciting little brands out there who have some of whom haven't been around for very long or are quite small. Um, and I really wanted to give them an opportunity to be able to appear at something like Bob within their budgets. So that was part of my um my thinking. Um but having said that, of course, there are some quite large brands who are also part of my creative section, such as Johnston's and Elgin. So it wasn't um the only requirement that I was looking for. I think you know, beyond it, really, I was looking for quality and brands which are representative of that sort of um that hard to define Britishness, really, that I think we look for in in menswear and in clothing.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Uh that leads me on to my next question, actually, David. I was going to ask you what it in your mind, what sums up being British, maybe a vision, maybe Frank Bruno, maybe Thatcher. I mean, what kind of conjures up in your mind when you hear the word British and what it means to you?

SPEAKER_04 23:57

I I think when it comes are you thinking are you thinking particularly of menswear?

SPEAKER_02 24:01

I know it's quite a broad question. I was hoping you could colour it in somehow, but just kind of your immediate thoughts of yes, yes, menswear, but also kind of what the infrastructure in your mind is of something British.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Looking at it from a sort of macro point of view, I suppose it's difficult to think of British manufacture without going back over the history and thinking how this country started off the Industrial Revolution, what was it, 200 years ago, um and really designed and made some of the earliest sort of machinery, um, built the earliest factories to manufacture many of the things that we now take for granted in menswear, such as you know, knitting machines to make knitware, um, looms to weave cloth and all that sort of thing. And it's very difficult to look at even very modern processes in British manufacturing without thinking of this incredible history and and richness um which created the skills we've got here. So I suppose that's part of my thinking. I also think of you know some of the brands and the products you tend to think of when you think of British, such as sort of tweed and uh and flannel uh and and knitware. Uh and I wanted to cover all of those things really. Um and carling? And carling. Possibly not carling.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Well, maybe in not in the top five, but it will be there.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

There are some very nice beers though.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Unfortunately not Carling.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Yeah, yeah, lots of those.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Um Lastly, David, I just wanted to uh mention also something that I found on your website that I wasn't going to ask you, but after I saw it, I thought, yeah, that's actually a really good point. So there's a few things that you have in the small print as to what makes a British brand or a British label. If I could just quote your little paragraph here. It says, There is a list of suppliers of menswear and accessories made in the UK. I haven't defined this term. Is a shoe assembled here from leather and rubber parts made in India any less a UK product than a tailor-made shirt cut and sewn in London from Italian-made cotton fabric? And it goes on a little bit, but you get obviously you get what I mean. So kind of can you crystallise what you think is actually made in the UK and what that constitutes?

SPEAKER_04 26:11

Well, of course, there is a legal definition to this, which I don't want to go into because I'm not entirely familiar with it, and it's all rather tedious anyway. But to me, um I'm looking for something that has shown some skills, uh, some manufacturing processes within this country. Um like with the example of shirting, for example, shirt cloth. It might be made in Italy, but it seems to me that the shirt that is produced from it is just as British if it's made over here using British skills on the machines that uh that make it. So I I'm not looking for something that is totally made uh in this country. Most of the suiting, the cloth on Saval Row, has to be from outside of the country simply because, or at least the the the raw material for it has to be from outside the country because merino wool is used so much in suiting, and that's not something that we can um produce in any great volume in this country. So you're always going to find that everything is a mix of stuff, whether it's in terms of the skills that have gone into it or the materials that make it, but you know, as long as most of the processes are carried out here, I would say it's British made.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

I would say as long as it's been worn by a James Bond, then then we can call it British. You know, I think that's the official stamp. If it's been on the back of Daniel Craig or a Piers Brosnan, then I'm happy.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Yes, yeah, I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, Pete, but yes, maybe I will agree to it just uh just for piece of bar. Just to acquiesce to that. Just to acquiesce. Alright, thanks, David.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Um so we can we can find you at um Bob in uh Victoria House in Bloomsbury Square. Is that right?

SPEAKER_04 27:49

I'll be there on Friday and most of Saturday, I think. Yes. Uh my curator section is just as you go in in in the entrance hall, but I'll be around. There's just so many people to speak to and catch up with that uh I'll be wandering around anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

David Evans there from Grey Fox Blog. So there really will be plenty to do this weekend, so you should really make it down to Victoria House and see what's going on. Among the things to see and do, there's a pop-up barber shop from Soho's Sharpest We Are Cuts, skincare advice from Pure Skin, and makeovers from the English Mineral Makeup Company. So, depending what you're after and what you're looking for, Bob, what would you be looking for?

SPEAKER_06 28:27

What I'm looking for is someone who can contribute to what England has given to the world. Culture, sophistication, genius. A little bit more than an odd dog. Know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Sure, I know what you mean. But we're gonna crack on with the last interview now. We're gonna talk to Wayne Hemingway, who will be hosting the classic car boot sale in King's Cross. Well, welcome to the podcast. Wayne, how are you doing today? I am good. Yeah, Monday's already a bit uh busy. Excellent, yes, uh well uh I've actually got it written down that it's Professor Doc Doc Doc M B E B S C M A Esquire. Wayne. Yeah, just call me Wayne today, though. That'll do. Excellent. Um so you're uh going to be part of the classic car boot sale um that's going to be featuring the on the Buy British Day.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, so we've we've got we've got this event called the Classic Car Boot Sale, and um we've been Hemingway Design kind of started that a few years ago and it's turned into a well an enormously successful and uh and an enormous event actually. Now it takes place, the London ones take place in all around those brilliant spaces of King's Cross, you know, Granary Square and Lewis Cubit Square and the Handyside Canopy, all and up that all area between the stations. And then we've gradually expanded it and and now over the last few couple of years we've um we've incorporated a Best of Britannia pop-up, and every October the Saturday um at uh at the classic car boot sale becomes By British Day, so there's lots of British stuff going on.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Right, excellent. How long does it take to get something together for this event?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Well, there's a big team working on it, so we we'll we have about 30 or 40 people preparing for the event because there'll be, you know, over the weekend there'll be well up to 40,000 people passing through the site uh on a weekend, so obviously it needs a big team. And it takes it takes about four and four months of intensive work um for the team to to get to get it together. But it's you know, it is London's one of London's biggest uh events, and a lot of it is free, and um there's part of it which we call like a festival for a fiver, where you've got DJs playing from the top of buses and amazing street food, and and then a hundred and odd um people selling well more than a hundred, yeah, about 140 people selling stuff of which is a combination of people selling vintage wares from the back of classic cars and future cars and people selling upcycled stuff, homewares, fashion, art, collectibles, and then also the section which is the Buy British Day, the Best of Britannia section, which is all about mainly about designer makers, but also British brands, you know, including like Morgan cars are there and these really cool British caravans are there. So it's yeah, it's mainly pe it's mainly people who've got all walks of life who who just love classic cars, who bring them along. And we so does everything from Ford Capri's to to beautiful 1920s taxis, uh, to you know, you you get Gavin Turk turning up, turning up in his old uh his old brown Rolls-Royce. There are there's an amazing um chap who turns up in this 1960s green Mercedes and and he he always dresses in beautiful green kind of 50s suits, and and and and and most of the stuff he sells from the back of his car is green as well. He has some penchant for for green, but there's real it there's real eccentrics there, and then there's some amazing old milk floats that have been turned into street food wagons, and it's just it's just great what people do, and how how important the history of car design is when you see it.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And and it's such a great idea to kind of collaborate the idea of a car boot sale with vintage cars, because I mean in my mind, car boot sales have just been going since the age of time.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

People would Yeah, well, I yeah, well, I you know, I for me I I loved it when car boot sales started, and I used to buy a lot of really good records. I mean, I collect records, I've got over ten and a half thousand, no, no, not over eleven thousand now slabs of vinyl records, and I used to be able to pick up great things at uh at car boot sales, and gradually, as as they do, the quality dwindled. And we thought, well, what about doing a car boot? Everybody loves a car boot sale. What about if we do one that's where everything is amazing, where you know you you're not spending an hour looking for your looking for that treasure, and then you end up disappointed because you haven't found it, where it's just uh just loads of treasures, and how could we engineer that? And we thought, well, number one, what and what if every single car was a treasure as well? So we thought, well, let's have a car show and then let's see how many of those have cool things to sell. Because most people, a lot of people who have a classic car also don't stop there with classic cars, they've got collections of all sorts of stuff, yeah. And and then we thought, well, what if what if people just want to show off their car? And we thought, well, we'll pair them up with somebody else who's got great stuff to sell, whether it's a young designer, a young designer maker, or with somebody who's got some vintage collectibles that they want to sell, or or even somebody who wants to sell records from the back of a car. So we pair up, you know, car owners with people who've got cool stuff to sell, and they create, you know, some of them want to stick with the same one, so you they always ask to be with the same car, or the or the car owner has to be with the same trader because they strike up friendships. And then and then you add to that, you know, great music, and there's some pretty well-known DJs who who DJ from the top of buses and everything. And then and then you add in loads of stuff for kids to do, like fairground rides where kids can ride on a 1940s fairground ride of little old Austin cars, and then you add to that workshops that are themed around cars and and and London transport buses where kids can clamber all over the buses and get to see, get to talk to people who can tell them about the design of it and the engine, and and it just you just end up with this with this real it's a design, it's a design and art event that's got that's got you know the history of vehicle design at its heart, really, and and the future, because we also have cars, we also look to the future as well and kind of predict classics of the future.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

This sounds amazing, Wayne. I I can't wait to see this. I mean, I've like I say, I've I've loved car boot sales since my mum used to take me down to Huntingdon race course on a Sunday uh at at the crack of whatever in the morning. Um and we would just sell all of our turns. Has car boot sales had some kind of a renaissance now? Uh I mean I guess there must have been a time where uh it peaked and maybe it plateaued with the advent of eBay and stuff like that in Gumtree and people.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Well, people are just looking people are just looking at new ways. I mean, there's the art car boot sale that's been going for a while, which is very successful, and you know, you all lots of artists go there and they sell bits and bats, and then and then you've got you've even got a wine car boot sale now. I mean it you know that it's just but I think the idea, you know, the the fact is that classic car, classic cars and car design, uh and especially British classic cars, uh uh is big is a a big thing. It's you know that the the car industry continues to thrive and and classic cars are for a lot of people a source of weekend fun of you know get getting your hands dirty and repairing things, and for some people a source of a source of investment as well, you know. You no point putting your money in the bank anymore. Lots of people are putting them into things like classic cars because you know you know as long as you look after them, they they thrive.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Yeah, they don't appreciate, especially like a good DB5, for example.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah, so so if you so the idea, you know, then of of everybody likes for some reason this event really does have wide appeal. Most people turn their heads when they see a classic car. You can't help it because you know that you're not seeing them every day. And when you get loads together, you just people just get their cameras out. But then when you add then great things for sale from the back of it, you're getting, and I know it's kind of a a bit of a cliche, but it is, it does seem to be the dads that want to get their head under the bonnet of and look and look at the, you know, the men who want to get their head under the bonnet and look at the engines, you know, wh while the rest of the family are either doing workshops or their or their shopping and stuff. And you so it ends up being there is something for everybody there. And then everybody, then everybody else ends up having a boogie at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Sounds sounds amazing. So this is gonna go on for three days now, so starting.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

No, it's got it's it starts on it it starts on Saturday, the first Saturday in October, which is the first, I think, isn't it? And then and then it's it's a Saturday and a Sunday, and we're open, we're open from 10, 10 till 6 both days.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Excellent. You're gonna be there for both days for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 37:01

I love it, I absolutely love it, you know, and I'd I'd as as much as anything, I I love the music. Um it's just it's an excuse to listen to great music, to to eat great food, you know, it's um and and and it seems to be that London's cool culture just all comes out, you know, from young from young to old. I see people who I went clubbing with in in the 70s and the 80s in London who all come out, like there's Chris Sullivan DJing, you know, you get you, you know, you get uh um Gaz Mail from Rocking Gazes, Rockin' Blues, all those kind of, you know, you've got Norman J always to always turns up. He usually turns up in his mini or or on or on his scooter or on a chopper. You get people riding in on choppers, uh and and then you but but then also you just get loads and loads of young people who are you know who are also into it also. It's just it's just brilliant. And when you get you know 40,000 people together in in King's Cross over a weekend, all you know, it's just such a happy event.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yeah. Oh well I can't wait to make it down. Um I'm kind of trying to crystallise in my mind, because I've not been before, what exactly it's gonna look like, and I'm homogenizing all of these wonderful cars and sideburns and car boot sales and vinyl um and nice hats. Uh what in your mind would you say sums up being British?

SPEAKER_00 38:15

I think we're we're we're eccentric uh in you know in in a way. We we can we like to you know we we like to do things that are different. I mean we're not and and and we also like we're pretty we're an experimental, we're an experimental country. I mean in you know we're and we're not afraid we're not afraid to try things. And you see, you know, when you see the classic car boot sale, you and and and you see Granary Square alive and all those places alive, it I talk to people from who are on holiday and from other countries and they and and they say this could only happen in Britain. And I think it can I think it, you know, there isn't anything like this happening in any other country. Everybody, you know, all around all around the world there are there are classic cars, but there's there's the idea that because a lot of people do really put their glad rags on and really do put their finery on for this event. You'll see not just people who are dressing in vintage, but people, people put their suit on to come to this event. People think, hmm, this is and and I just think that's it's such a British thing to do, and it it and the way that people are you know that there's people sat outside the beer bus and there's music playing at from 10 o'clock in the morning, and by 11 o'clock, people are drinking beer and the dance the dancing starts. And where, you know, where would you get in another city people dancing to some rock and roll or soul music 11 o'clock on a Saturday morning, you know, dressed in an absolutely amazing outfit. You know, it's just it's London, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 39:43

It's uh I mean do you think it's also we have a huge reservoir of affection for nostalgia and for history?

SPEAKER_00 39:49

So yeah, I'm not I'm not sure it's nostalgia. I mean, if you think about the buy British day stuff, so that we've got a load of we've got a load of um well-made, um, well-designed items there. And a lot of that will will be will still look well made, and still look uh well designed in 30 years' time, and and people will be buying it, and they're not buying it for nostalgia. Like, for example, now I'm in a a pair of um lovely chestnut-coloured men's brogues, traditional brogues. They were they're definitely from the 70s, but there's no different from the brogues that are that are made today, apart from apart from these particular ones. You'd have to pay about 500 pounds now because you know to get this kind of back then you would have paid, there'd have been a decent high street store. It's about people who celebrate this are celebrating design that's timeless that lasts forever. There's nothing nostalgic about about some of the cars that are cars that are on display. They're absolute if you get a there's there's lots of there's this one particular lady brings an amphibious amphibious car from 1958, it's a piece of absolute beautiful design. Uh and you don't look at it and think, oh, that's I'm nostalgic for that, because most people have never seen it, because it was probably only a few hundred ever put into production. They look at it as a piece of an engineering marvel. It's just beautifully designed. And and when you look at, and and that's you know, there are so many examples of that, whether it's uh whether it's a narrow bottom mod suit, which from 1961, which you could buy exactly the same in in Paul Smith now, but you know, why would you change the shape of that three-button suit? Because it's perfect, and you could go on and on and on about about that. It's just good design is good design, is good design, it lasts it lasts forever.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Um so Wayne, what's what's in the pipeline next for you after this? What happens when you uh when that when the festival's over?

SPEAKER_00 41:47

Well, it's it's like now. I mean, the festival's in two weeks, but I'm not working on it. Um we're working, we know we're uh most of today's been working, and we're we're redesigning a museum at the moment, so we've been working on that today. We're we're doing lots of urban design, we're designing housing, housing developments. We've we're working on uh um an office building in in Bristol where we're designing sofas and all sorts of stuff. So yeah, and um that's that's my day job. But but putting on but putting on events um is good fun and we're we're good at it. We've been doing it, Hemingware Design's been doing it for seven years now. We we probably do around the country 10, 12 events a year, and and we know how to do it, and we know how to put them on so they're either, you know, like this one. It that you pay to go into one bit, the festival bit, for a fiver, but you know, we we we love putting on these events that are either free or cost a fiver, and we've got good at it.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Wayne Hemingway there. So that's it for this week's podcast. Thank you to all of my guests. Thank you to Joe Pigeon, David Evans, and Wayne Hemingway, and Bob Hoskins.

SPEAKER_06 42:51

Shut up, you long straight up paralysed piss.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Don't forget to head over to the website, it's www.menswear style.co.uk. Check us out on the social at menswear style on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you'd like to leave us a glowing five-star review on iTunes, then please feel free. It'll help save my podcasting job.