GOODWOOD | ISSUE 24

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a year to remember

We are thrilled to be celebrating some momentous anniversaries this year. In September it will be 75 years since my grandfather brought motor racing to Goodwood – by turning the perimeter track around a Battle of Britain airfield into the racing circuit that we know today. As Freddie March, he had made a name for himself, firstly as a racing driver and then as a team captain – and on p46 we tell the story of his race-winning MGs. Then, as the 9th Duke of Richmond, he made Goodwood the spiritual home of British motorsport, with crowds flocking here between 1948 and 1966, a period that turned out to be the most glamorous and evocative in the sport’s history. It was always my dream to bring motor racing back to Goodwood, beginning with the Festival of Speed, which turns 30 this year, and then Revival, which, along with our Road Racing Club, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary.

So, as ever at Goodwood, there is much to look back on this year as well as to look forward to, with an exhilarating season of automotive and equine thrills ahead. We are also preparing for our second Goodwoof, the festival that celebrates all things canine. In this issue, we are delighted to have the director of the Wallace Collection write about the role of dogs in art (p38) – not forgetting a short history of the poodle (p22), this year’s featured Goodwoof breed.

Elsewhere, we explore how Scottish tartan became a global style statement (p58), while Stephen Bayley enters into the great menswear debate of our time: to tie or not to tie (p68). And we celebrate the enduring appeal of the other kind of horsepower – co-owning a Thoroughbred certainly adds to the excitement of the horseracing season, both at home and abroad (p72).

Whatever your passion, we look forward to welcoming you to Goodwood during this very special year.

The Duke of Richmond and Gordon

Tim Flach

For our cover, photographer Tim Flach joined us at Goodwood, where he captured a Southdown lamb in all its newborn glory. The current president of the Association of Photographers has published seven books of animal portraits and his distinctive work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.

Finlay Renwick

Finlay Renwick writes for GQ, Esquire and Mr Porter, and creates content for menswear brand Drake’s. For this issue, he took a deep dive into the world of tartan, a pattern synonymous with Scotland but which permeates the furthest corners of popular culture. He is still on the hunt for the perfect Black Watch scarf.

Dr Xavier Bray

Dr Xavier Bray is an art historian specialising in Spanish art. The director of the Wallace Collection, he previously held curator roles at the National Gallery, Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and Dulwich Picture Gallery. In these pages, he writes on the museum’s upcoming exhibition, Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney

The

a

Editors Gill Morgan James

Collard

Deputy editor Alex Moore

catherine.peel@goodwood.com

Images

Maya Thomas

Maya Thomas is a chef, writer and herbologist who co-founded The Modern Herbal, a platform exploring our relationship with nature. When not tending her allotment, she writes about it for Soho House, Bloom and the Garden Museum. Here, she discusses the primrose, prized by cooks, healers and poets.

Stephen Bayley

Stephen Bayley has dedicated his life to beautiful objects. The founding CEO of London’s Design Museum writes for The Spectator and FT on all things design-related. For this issue, he turns his attention to the necktie, rumoured to be making a comeback – but not one that will be universally welcomed.

Cecilia Carlstedt

For this issue’s style essay, we asked Cecilia Carlstedt to bring to life the hotly contested neckwear debate: to tie or not to tie. The Swedish artist has worked with brands like Anya Hindmarch and Jimmy Choo and her illustrations have featured in Vogue, Elle, The New York Times and on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar

Art

director Sara Redhead

Sub-editor Damon

Syson

Bratby

Picture editor Joe

Hunt

Project director Sarah Glyde

Goodwood Magazine is published on behalf of The Goodwood Estate Company Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0PX, by Uncommonly Ltd, 30-32 Tabard Street, London, SE1 4JU. For enquiries regarding Uncommonly, contact Sarah Glyde: sarah@uncommonly.co.uk

© Copyright 2023 Uncommonly Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain.

front cover shows

two-day-old Southdown lamb, photographed at Goodwood by Tim Flach in February 2023

Head of Editorial for Goodwood Catherine Peel

curator Jonathan Wilson

Images archivist Max Carter

25 Light my fire

In praise of the “Sussex pimp”, a rustic bundle of twigs and branches used as a firelighter

Shorts

14 Contacts

A groovy 1960s dinner party shot by Ronald Dumont

16 The History Gal

Introducing Goodwood’s new curator, Clementine de la Poer Beresford, aka Instragram’s “The History Gal”

18 Mellow yellow

All hail the primrose, Britain’s most versatile native plant

20 Girl racers

How motorcycle community VC London is helping to open up the world of biking

22 Hair of the dog

With Goodwoof 2023 set to celebrate the poodle, we trace the surprising history of this extravagantly coiffed breed

26 Give us a smile

The unexpected origins of the “smiley face” symbol

28 This sceptred aisle

Recalling the role the Dukes of Richmond have played in coronations through the ages

30 Jingle belles

Meet the all-women groups revitalising morris dancing

33 Come on, feel the noise

The joys of “sound bathing” – deep meditation aided by Tibetan singing bowls

35 Rough diamond

As Land Rover turns 75, we look back at the early years of this much-loved brand

36 Spot on Fashion designers are going dotty for polka dots… again

46 Winning ways

Remembering the 9th Duke of Richmond, who, as Freddie March, captained the highly successful MG racing team, decades before he brought motorsport to Goodwood

53 One hundred years of MG magic

To celebrate MG’s centenary we pick ten key moments in the British marque’s history

58 Quality check

The V&A Dundee’s new show investigates how tartan went from rugged Highland fabric to global phenomenon

Features

38 Pup art

The Wallace Collection’s latest exhibition, Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney, is dedicated to our faithful four-legged friends

68 To tie or not to tie

The knotty debate rages on: is the necktie dead or do sightings on the catwalk suggest a comeback?

72 See how they run

Inside the Goodwood Racehorse Owners’ Group scheme – an accessible and fun way to dip your toe into the world of racing

80 It's only natural

Why, and how, architects and designers are taking their cues from Mother Nature

89 Calendar

The unmissable events at Goodwood this spring, including Goodwoof, the 80th Members’ Meeting, new-look Three Friday Nights and a farewell to Frankie Dettori

96 Lap of honour

START finish

South African-born action man Wade Eastwood on stunt doubling for Tom Cruise

Top: Naomi Campbell models tartan for Vivienne Westwood in 1994 (p58).

Above: Fanny, a Favourite Dog, 1822, by James Ward, part of the Wallace Collection's upcoming canine-themed show (p38)

BELOW LEFT, BY COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM, LONDON. LEFT, GETTY IMAGES

Start

Every newborn lamb is cute, clearly, but we like to think the Southdown lamb from the Home Farm at Goodwood that graces our cover is especially so. When fully grown, the Southdown combines graceful contours with admirable sturdiness, almost like an ideal sheep depicted in folk art. “It has the traditional ‘leg at each corner’ look,” is how Gail Sprake, secretary of the Southdown Sheep Society, describes this particular quality – meaning that it’s “a well put-together animal”. Native to the South Downs, the breed was developed in the 19th century, first by the celebrated East Sussex farmer John Ellman – who sold a Southdown ram to the Tsar of Russia for 300 guineas (and like horses, rams are still priced in guineas) – and then by Jonas Webb, who exported the breed internationally, and even gave a prize ram to Napoleon III. So although our newborn might not know it, this cover star comes from good stock – and is definitely well-connected.

ronald dumont, arty party, 1960

In our series unearthing the contact sheets of historic photographs, we revisit a Swinging Sixties dinner party attended by fashion icon Mary Quant

In an updated foreword to her autobiography, Mary Quant recalls of her heady heyday: “Life was a whizz! It was such fun and unexpectedly wonderful, despite, or perhaps because of, its intensity… we were so fortunate with our enormous luck and timing. We partied, too – there were no real boundaries.”

It’s exactly this world that Daily Express photographer Ronald Dumont captured here in 1960, some five years after Quant had burst onto the fashion scene with her ground-breaking Kings Road store, Bazaar. Quant and her husband Alexander Plunket Greene found themselves at the heart of Swinging London’s creative crowd, friends with the fashion, art and design world’s movers and shakers.

This photograph, captioned “Arty Party”, is one of many that Dumont shot of Quant during the 1960s. It includes a roll call of some of the decade’s biggest names, in full party mode, including Quant herself, her friend the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon – who created her famous fringe and bob – husband Plunket Greene (whom she had met at Goldsmiths College and who became the business brains behind her empire), leading fashion and portrait photographer Terence Donovan, rollicking actor Richard Harris, and theatre and film designer Sean Kenny.

This is an archetypal Sixties dinner party at full throttle – bottles, cigarettes and gossip aplenty – as a group of boho mates planned their next big moves, with London and the world at their feet.

Words by Gill Morgan

the history gAl

Words by James Collard

“There’s so much to learn,” agrees Clementine de la Poer Beresford, aka Instagram’s The History Gal and Goodwood’s incoming curator, when asked if her new job involves mastering vast amounts of information very quickly. “But that’s the joy of it – I love learning about history.” The 28-year-old academic studied history at the University of St Andrews, did an MPhil at Cambridge and is currently completing a PhD on historic royal ceremonies. She first found herself drawn to curatorial roles after working with Winchester Cathedral and Historic Royal Palaces. Nonetheless, she concedes that it will be a challenge – and at the heart of that challenge is the sheer scale of the Goodwood Collection, and the vast range of artefacts that she is now tasked with curating.

Goodwood is an extraordinary treasure trove of objects, each with its own fascinating story and conservation needs. These range from the Van Dyck and Lely portraits of the 1st Duke’s royal Stuart relatives to Napoleon’s campaign chair, from the Gobelins tapestries presented to the 3rd Duke by Louis XV to countless important pieces of Sèvres porcelain – not to mention new acquisitions (often items returning to Goodwood, having been spotted in upcoming auctions by the curator). Also to consider, of course, are the lavish interiors that house these objects, plus two libraries filled with books, many reflecting the particular interests of each Duke – from the natural world to military history – with souvenirs from a Grand Tour or two thrown in.

Part of de la Poer Beresford’s preparation for her new role will have involved creating her own mental portrait of each of the very different Lennox and Gordon Lennox men who have shaped Goodwood, not forgetting their Duchesses, their daughters, and the many women who have worked “downstairs” at the House. “There are some great women, and some great women’s stories to be told,” she says.

Storytelling is another key role for Goodwood’s curator, in ways that are constantly evolving, and de la Poer Beresford finds herself frequently dipping into Goodwood, Art and Architecture, Sport and Family, the fascinating history of the House and Estate written by Rosemary Baird in 2007, while she was curator – very much the go-to source for anyone who needs to know which Duke of Richmond did what, when the Gordon title came in, or why The Kennels here are so very grand. Baird’s successor, James Peill, wrote an elegant volume celebrating Goodwood’s sporting heritage, and also began championing the sheer beauty of the Estate on Instagram, something de la Poer Beresford has picked up and run with.

The new curator’s blend of scholarship and engaging to-camera reporting has won her more than 100,000 followers on Instagram (@the_history_gal), taking her audience far beyond the worlds of academia and country house devotees. And she has already begun applying the same model to Goodwood, with posts showing, for example, the spectacular impact of a good clean on those Stuart family portraits, which were recently taken down from the walls of the Ballroom and ministered to by the expert hands of restorer Ying Yang. Attracting new audiences for the treasures of Goodwood is key. “That is something The Duke is really keen to push,” says de la Poer Beresford. With this in mind, she will continue the annual exhibitions themed around one particular aspect of the Collection, beginning with this year’s, which explores the historic role the Dukes of Richmond have played at coronations through the ages. Among the highlights of the show is a silver damask cushion from Queen Victoria’s Coronation in 1838 that somehow found its way to Goodwood – just one of the many fascinating objects to be rediscovered, restored, understood, displayed and indeed, curated. Follow Clementine on Instagram and TikTok (@the_history_gal).

Left: Clementine de la Poer Beresford photographed at Goodwood House

The Goodwood Collection is a treasure trove of fascinating art and artefacts – and who better to oversee this remarkable resource than the Estate’s new curator, Clementine de la Poer Beresford

JONATHAN JAMES WILSON

mellow yellow

It may not be the most dazzling of British blooms, but the primrose’s qualities have long been prized by healers, cooks and poets

Words by Maya Thomas

“More than half a century has passed,” wrote Gertrude Jekyll, “and yet each spring, when I wander into the primrose wood, I see the pale yellow blooms and smell their sweetest scent – for a moment I am seven years old again and wandering in that fragrant wood.”

There is something undeniably pure in the appeal of the simple primrose. Like a child’s drawing of a flower, it resides in the domain of the fairies – sugary pastel yellow, growing close to the ground in tight rosettes. Appearing any time between December and May, this native British plant’s name comes from the Latin prima rosa, the “first rose” of the year, though it is not in fact a member of the rose family. The primrose’s botanical title, primula vulgaris, indicates how common it is, not just widespread in location but one of our most familiar and best-loved species.

Humble and unassuming though this wild bloom may be, the primrose has made frequent appearances in literature and music through the ages, from Pliny to Milton’s “Song on May Morning”, even cropping up in Joni Mitchell’s “What will you give me?”. It has long been a welcome guest in the kitchen, too, a mainstay in pottages, wines and pantry staples. “Think what a poem a salad would be when dressed with primrose vinegar,” Florence White wrote in Good Things in England, a compendium of recipes from around the UK stretching back to the 14th century and published in 1932.

Primula vulgaris was also prized for its healing properties – an easily accessible everyday medicine whose leaves were used to treat wounds, while its roots

were made into a sedative. Primrose tea was prescribed by 16th- and 17th-century herbalist John Gerard for “curing the phrensie”. Today, its essence is used to enhance feelings of serenity. Pliny indicated the primrose in the treatment of rheumatism, paralysis and gout, while recent scientific research is revealing its cytotoxic effects, showing potential in the treatment of diseases such as cancer.

In the emotionally opaque Victorian era, flowers were a means by which feelings could be expressed without verbalising them. In The Language of Flowers, published in 1884, the primrose symbolises “early youth”, a sense of joy and excitement that only spring can provide. Interestingly, its floral essence – made by infusing the flower heads and adding a small amount of brandy as a preservative (think Bach Rescue Remedy) – is used to treat unexpressed and unresolved emotions.

In Ireland, where the flower has been protected by law since the early 1980s, primroses are associated with enticing fairies to bless the houses they surround. Their presence today speaks to us less of fairies, more of biodiversity, for primroses play an essential role in maintaining a rich ecology. Pollinators such as bumblebees, bee-flies, moths, butterflies and hoverflies are required for their survival – and vice versa. Their shortrange seed dispersal means that any established colonies you come across are the sign of a healthy ecosystem that has developed over time. We can only hope that those fragrant woods of Gertrude Jekyll’s childhood remain a comfortingly familiar feature of our landscape.

For too long, women have taken a back seat when it comes to motorcycles, but a thriving collective of like-minded enthusiasts is helping to kickstart the female biker revolution

girl racers

Words by Erin Baker

“If you want to break the norm and create something where women don’t feel put down, you have to provide safe spaces in which people don’t feel judged,” explains Gemma Harrison, 38, from her home in north Wales. She could be describing a therapy group or wellness centre, which, in a way, she is, for Gemma is the founder of VC London, a vibrant, friendly motorcycle community for women and those with female orientation.

VC London began in 2015 in a dodgy East London car park at the back of Gemma’s workshop. “There were some women who wanted to start riding but were a bit afraid, so I offered to teach them,” she explains. “It’s a totally non-judgemental environment. In the first year we taught 100 women how to get rolling and what they would encounter in their CBT [compulsory basic training]. It was somewhere people could have a go.”

Now Gemma has an official riding school based at the old Tate & Lyle sugar factory in London’s Docklands. The club runs training days where women, non-binary people and those identifying as a woman can learn basic bike skills (although not actually take their CBT). They have support from Herald motorcycles and they work with charities to give away training places to women who can’t afford the fee. “Sometimes it gives people the confidence to do something they wanted to try, and go away feeling proud of themselves, while some come just to meet different communities,” says Gemma.

The real jewel in VC London’s crown is Camp VC. Now in its seventh year, the gathering has grown from 120 people at the first meeting to more than 700 last year. It takes place in Wales and is a sort of biking and adventure-sport festival for women, with enduro, trials, trail and road riding, alongside beginner riding lessons, mountain biking, skateboarding, wild swimming and, of course, tattoo sessions.

Camp VC is also only for women. Does Gemma get criticism for this? “The feedback is that people want it that way. It may sound discriminatory – and we hope that one day there won’t be a need for it – but it’s really important to have these spaces. We’re not ashamed that it’s women and those identifying as women every year, and we’re growing. We get feedback saying, ‘I could be myself and be with my friends.’ It might mean they go away on Monday and ask for that pay rise, or they leave with a group of friends. It introduces a sense of confidence.”

Brands have been quick to spot the obvious commercial opportunity, too. Red Bull has supported VC London for years, and there have been partnerships with Bell Helmets, Vans, Fox and Indian Motorcycle as well as with Herald, which is heavily involved. “My message to motorcycle brands is: ‘You’re missing out on 51 per cent of the population who have some serious cash to spend. If they’re spending it on make-up, they can spend it on bikes,’” reasons Gemma.

It’s undoubtedly a slick and beautiful operation, as a cursory glance at VC London’s Instagram account shows, and one with plenty more potential. Let’s hope it can walk the tricky tightrope of commercial growth while maintaining the authenticity of the community’s grass roots. If anyone can bring in the money while staying true to herself, however, I suspect it’s Gemma.

Left: on the road with VC London founder Gemma Harrison

VIVIANA GOMEZ-MORALES

hair of the dog

Think you know all about poodles? Think again. As Goodwoof 2023 prepares to celebrate this extravagantly coiffed breed, we trace its surprisingly rugged heritage

Words by Damon Syson

Poodles get a bad press. All too often the victims of overelaborate hairdos, pink rinses and “adorable” outfits, they are seen as dainty, prissy and neurotic, the canine of choice for Parisian fashionistas. What dog does Will Ferrell’s archbaddie Mugatu carry in male modelling spoof Zoolander?

A toy poodle. We rest our case.

It’s partly the hair. With their jaunty trot and bouffant curls clipped into bouncy pom-poms, pedigree poodles can look, well… a bit foofy. For this reason, more and more owners are opting for the shaggy “Eighties power rock” look. This instantly reduces a poodle’s perceived prissiness.

In reality, poodles are excellent dogs: even-tempered, sociable, lively and fun. They are the second-most intelligent breed in the canine world after the border collie, and they were bred for action, not to be teamed with an Hermès Birkin. Historically, the poodle was a rough, tough, swimming breed, its name deriving from an old word for a pond or puddle in Germany, where the “pudelhund” is thought to have originated as a waterfowl retriever. In France, which also lays claim to inventing the poodle, they’re “caniches”, or “duck dogs”.

Traditional poodle hairstyles are based on function rather than fashion. Short hair is more streamlined and better for swimming, but it leaves the dog vulnerable to cold water. Owners would therefore leave longer hair around areas of the legs and upper torso to protect joints and keep the dog’s heart and lungs warm, while also aiding buoyancy.

Despite their frou-frou coiffure, poodles are so rugged, in fact, that Alaska-based dog-sled racer John Suter used them in hundreds of gruelling cross-country competitions – including the notorious Iditarod. Suter declared that the big advantage of standard poodles over huskies is that the former will notice if the musher falls off the sled: “The huskies will keep running down the trail. The poodles will turn around to see if you’re there and do a U-turn and come pick you up.”

Standard poodles – the breed’s largest size – date back to at least the 17th century, when they were a mainstay of rural life. As Ciara Farrell, historian for the Kennel Club, points out, “It is only when the marshes in continental Europe are drained for farmland and duck hunting goes into decline that we see the poodle going into showbiz and into cities. Because they’re intelligent, acrobatic and easily trainable,

we see them being used to perform tricks in circuses in France and later becoming popular as pets. This is also when their coat becomes a bit more ‘look at me’. But at heart, it’s a functional working water-dog clip.”

Today, the breed is divided into three varieties: toy (small), miniature (medium) and standard (large). But the “sizing down” of the standard poodle only began in the mid-19th century, when they made the transition from rural to urban life. The toy poodle arrived even later, developed in the United States and only appearing in the UK from the 1950s onwards.

The breed’s heyday in this country ran from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960, when they were often to be seen in the company of glamorous owners such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Winston Churchill was another devotee and owned two miniature poodles in succession, both named Rufus. The miniature was the most popular size, clocking more than 23,000 Kennel Club registrations in 1960. Today, toy poodles are favoured, with 2,000 registrations per year.

The most famous poodle in history was a royal dog, and a regular sight on the battlefields of the English Civil War. “Boy” was the canine companion of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a German nephew of King Charles I, and the commander of the Royalist cavalry. “There are woodcuts showing Boy in his half-shaved clip,” says Farrell, “so he was a functional dog who would have been used for duck hunting. The remarkable thing about him is that he was accused of witchcraft by the Parliamentarians. At the Kennel Club we have a pamphlet dating from 1642 in which the writer claims that Boy was bulletproof, that he could speak, and that he hated prayers. He is also accused of being able to curdle custard. Some people take the pamphlet at face value, as a piece of Puritan propaganda. Others think it’s a mickey-take, possibly written by Prince Rupert and his friends to mock the religious sensibilities of their opponents.”

Sadly, Boy proved not to be bulletproof. He was killed at the Battle of Marston Moor, which also marked a major defeat for the Royalists. Could Prince Rupert have been so distracted by the loss of his faithful dog, he allowed the Roundheads a decisive victory? We’ll never know for sure. Goodwoof will be held at The Kennels, 20 and 21 May 2023 (goodwood.com/goodwoof/tickets-and-packages/).

The Sussex Pimp might sound like an unsavoury character from Withnail & I or Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, but is in fact a humble, homely craft tradition. Pimps are bundles of wood kindling, typically containing several smaller rolls of seasoned birch and hazel, tied up with tarred string and ideal for starting an open fire (or a barbecue, if you don’t mind a little smoke).

Long associated with the coppicing industry based around Petworth, a few miles north of Goodwood House, pimps were once in great demand in Sussex and London, sent up to the capital by the lorryload. According to local lore, the Royal Navy used them to fire up its warships’ boilers, while the Bank of England favoured them for the burning of banknotes.

As rural craft industries declined in the face of mass production, however, pimping was at risk of being snuffed out for good. The time-honoured practice has only survived thanks to the efforts of Sussex woodsman Alan Waters – the pimp daddy, if you will – who learnt the art from the last producer in the Petworth area.

light my fire

Sussex woodsman Alan Waters has single-handedly revived an ancient local craft – but his rustic bundles of coppiced twigs and branches have a rather unexpected name

Words by Matthew Davis

Alan became a coppice worker and charcoal burner in 1958, at the tender age of 14, when he realised that he could “earn more from coppicing on a Saturday afternoon than I did all week”. He reveals the secrets of pimping at craft fairs, sells his handmade products at farmers’ markets and supplies an artisan bakery, as well as the Goodwood Shop.

So what makes the perfect pimp? The bundles are made with twigs and branches gathered up during the coppicing process: hazel is the classic choice for the exterior layer, and birch is essential because it is rich in flammable natural oils – “It lights easy,” says Alan. The wood is collected in winter and kept inside to season until November: “It has to be dry.”

Each bundle of kindling is placed on a wooden “boy” to hold it in place, cut into lengths using a scary-looking one-handed chopper known as a pimp cleaver, then compressed in a machine called – you guessed it – a pimp engine. They are then tied up and sold in bundles of 25, ideal for use in your hearth or as a rustic ornament.

Below: a Sussex pimp usually consists of 25 bundles of birch and hazel, which make excellent firelighters

give us a smile

The smiley face, or simply “the smiley”, is one of the most familiar graphics of the 20th century. Now this much-loved counterculture emblem is the subject of a new book

Words by Oliver Bennett

One of the first things a child sees in life is a beaming smile, an expression that offers a universal feel-good hit of the hormone dopamine. Such is the power behind the “smiley”, the omnipresent graphic design consisting of two eyes and a curved mouth on a yellow circle. So ubiquitous is it that one might think the smiley appeared from nowhere, particularly in its incarnation as a social media emoji.

But the smiley was itself born – and is now well into middle age. A new book, Smiley: 50 Years of Good News, looks at the history and significance of the symbol, for as writer Liam Aldous says, “Smiley has served as a beacon of hope and positivity.”

The book credits the smiley’s creation to French journalist Franklin Loufrani, who began using it in 1971 to highlight good news in the France-Soir newspaper. Loufrani trademarked it as “Smiley” and today his Smiley Company holds the copyright to the symbol in more than 100 countries.

Good for them. But the smiley has another origin story: that it was invented by US designer Harvey Ball in 1963 to raise morale at the State Mutual Life Assurance Company. It proved so popular that it was deployed by the University Federal Savings & Loan in 1967, then had its first mass breakthrough in 1970 after Hallmark Card shop owners Murray and Bernard Spain larded it with the legend “Have A Nice Day”. Some 50 million badges were created, and the smiley soared as an icon of mass communication.

As designer Jeremy Leslie of editorial consultancy magCulture says, “Smiley resonates because humans crave a happy face, which it delivers in primal graphic style – plus, it looks like the sun.” Tom Wilson, head of collections and research at London’s Design Museum, believes its power comes from “taking one of the most important signs of emotion – a happy human face – and reducing it to its simplest essence”. Designer Michael Johnson says that it is “arguably the most-seen graphic of the 20th century, right up there with ‘I Heart NY’ and the Olympic rings”.

Yet the smiley’s incredible popularity took a turn. On one side a simple symbol of feel-good friendliness, its clown-like underbelly didn’t go unnoticed. Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons used it as a blood-spattered motif in 1980s graphic novel Watchmen, while in Banksy’s Grin Reaper of 2005, the smiley became the face of scythewielding Death. Grunge supergroup Nirvana added X eyes and a wobbly smile, suggesting that smiley had rather overdone it at some bacchanalian festival.

After 1988, the smiley arose anew as the choice of acid house ravers, echoing the hollow euphoria of those times. Graphic designer Alan Aboud notes that its power lay “beneath the laid-back symbol as a secret badge of rulebreaking.” Yet it continued as a graphic juggernaut, adorning both high fashion and low art, plastered across posters and badges, ecstasy tablets and email sign-offs.

Is there a clash between smiley as counterculture emblem and copyrighted brand? Possibly, and copyright battles have ensued over the years. But whether it’s 50 or 60, even in its dotage one suspects that the smiley will outlive us all. Smiley: 50 Years of Good News (Assouline) is out now.

Above: the ever-popular smiley face. Facing page: US graphic designer Harvey Ball, who created the original version of the symbol in 1963

At 11 o’clock on the morning of 2nd June 1953, Frederick Gordon Lennox, 9th Duke of Richmond, waited in eager anticipation in the vestibule of Westminster Abbey. Wearing robes of crimson velvet edged with white fur, he held a gold rod that glittered with emeralds, sapphires and rubies surmounted by a gold orb and an enamelled dove with outstretched wings – the Sceptre with the Dove, carried by the Dukes of Richmond at almost every coronation since 1702 and symbolic of the Sovereign’s spiritual role. Richmond clasped it tightly. Behind him, acting as his page boy, was his 13-year-old godson, Simon Benton Jones, who, clad in a bright yellow frock coat with red cuffs, cream breeches and white silk stockings, was beaming with pride as he carried his godfather’s ducal coronet.

The atmosphere in Westminster was alive with a palpable sense of excitement. After 15 minutes, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II entered the vestibule and took up her position between the two rows of Gentlemen-at-Arms, behind Richmond and the other bearers of the Royal regalia. The choristers began their rousing anthem and Richmond and Benton Jones took their first steps forward.

As the procession moved up the nave of Westminster Abbey, the home of the coronation ceremony since 1066, the 8,000 guests were privy to a splendid sight. Among them, the 9th Duchess of Richmond in her crimson robes scanned the technicoloured sea of ceremonial outfits and feathered plumes for her husband. When the procession reached the Queen’s Chair of Estate, Richmond relinquished the Sceptre with the Dove to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be placed with the other crown jewels on the altar. As the Queen was invested with the regalia, sitting on St Edward’s Chair – upon which monarchs are traditionally crowned – she received the Sceptre with the Dove in her left hand. Moments before the crowning, Benton Jones delivered Richmond’s coronet to him, and as St Edward’s Crown touched the Queen’s head and cries of “God save the Queen” resounded through the Abbey, Richmond, together with the “Princes and Princesses, and the Peers and Peeresses”, put on his coronet.

When the Queen ascended her throne, Richmond took up his position behind her, receiving from her the Sceptre with the Dove. Then, when the Duke of Norfolk, the senior duke of the realm, knelt before the Queen in homage and pronounced words of fealty, Richmond mirrored his actions

THIS SCEPTRED AISLE

In the run-up to the Coronation of King Charles III, this year’s Exhibition at Goodwood House looks at the role the Dukes of Richmond have played in this ceremony since the reign of Queen Anne, as Goodwood’s curator explains

Words by Clementine de le Poer Beresford

from behind the throne. Placing the Sceptre with the Dove back into Her Majesty’s hands, Richmond could be relieved that he had fulfilled the duty asked of him and had done so without any mishaps. All those practices had paid off.

Surveying the Abbey from behind the Queen’s throne, memories of the last time he had undertaken the role in 1937 perhaps stirred. Then, it had been King George VI who had sat in front of him and his nephew Charles Vyner, who tragically died in the Second World War, who had accompanied him. If Richmond felt the presence of his own past, he may also have heard the whispers of his forebears. Richmond’s grandfather, the 7th Duke, had been appointed by George V in 1911 to bear the Sceptre with the Dove. Like his grandson, he had brought with him a suitably aged page – between 10 and 14 years old – wearing the yellow and red colours of the Richmond livery. Keeping an eye out for him were the Earl and Countess of March, and Lord Settrington. Their beautifully illustrated invitations, with Britannia holding the Orb and Sceptre flanked by Corinthian columns, remain treasures of the Goodwood Collection today.

The 6th Duke had been appointed by Edward VII to undertake the same honour in 1902, but he wrote sadly of the impossibility of carrying it out due to his age, asking his brother-in-law to deputise. Born a year after the 6th Duke died, the 9th Duke considered the role a family tradition, and in the lead-up to 1953, when putting in his claim (a necessary formality), he wrote, “We’ve all done it since William IV, myself included last time!!!” It had been the 5th Duke who had borne the Sceptre with the Dove for William IV. Like the 9th Duke, he would undertake the honour a second time, for Queen Victoria, in 1838. This is surely how Queen Victoria’s leather coronation glove and a damask cushion from the ceremony found their way into the Goodwood Collection.

Numerous other treasures also survive, offering insights into the experiences of the other Dukes of Richmond, including the 9th Duke and Duchess’s coronation robes, Vyner and Benton Jones’s outfits, personal invitations, admittance cards and letters. This year’s Exhibition at Goodwood House will now bring these items together to illustrate and celebrate the role the Dukes of Richmond have historically undertaken in past coronations. It’s coronation year, after all, so how could we resist?

The Exhibition can be viewed on Open Days at Goodwood House from May 7 to October 30.

Below: a print at Goodwood House of Terence Tenison Cuneo’s watercolour depicting the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, from the Royal Collection

jingle belles

Morris dancing needed to modernise or die. And that meant one thing: allowing women to join in the fun. Now, female performers are breathing new life into this previously fusty folk tradition

Words by Alex Moore

It’s barely five years since Britain’s Morris Ring, the oldest group of its kind, granted women permission to dance alongside their male counterparts. Yet a recent census found that more than half of the country’s 14,000 morris dancers are now female. “There was a reluctance to change,” John Armstrong, squire of Exeter Morris, said at the time. “But it was effectively change or die.”

To this day, some “sides” – as groups of morris dancers are known – view the admission of women as sacrilege, but there’s no denying the feminine influence has breathed new life into what had become a fusty folk tradition. Not only are young people joining or forming sides of their own, but this traditionally rural pastime is finding favour in urban settings. Indeed, at the last count there were 22 sides based in London. Some say morris dancing is even becoming cool.

Stroud’s all-female Boss Morris side is largely responsible for this renaissance. Their fantastical costumes and paganinspired routines may raise eyebrows among purists but they’re perhaps the only side currently enjoying any sort of commercial success. As well as dancing at folk festivals, they’ve performed with Hot Chip at Glastonbury, appeared in music videos for Fat White Family and Sweet Baboo – and onstage at the 2023 BRIT Awards with Wet Leg – and will feature in Bridget Christie’s new comedy drama, The Change

“We’re still very committed to the tradition, but we do like to play on it a bit,” explains Lily Cheetham, one of the founding members of Boss Morris, many of whom met while working as studio assistants for the artist Damien Hirst. “We’ve always been really careful about it not just being a historical re-enactment. We see it as more of a living, evolving tradition that can still be relevant today. The fact that we get a lot of interest from people who wouldn’t normally be into morris dancing can only be a positive thing.”

Fool’s Gambit, another young side subverting morris dancing’s more time-worn traditions, were recently snapped by fashion photographer Edd Horder for Document Journal, a hip, biannual publication based in New York. The idea that morris dancing should suddenly have international appeal might seem hard to believe – especially for those directly involved, many of whom would usually shy away from any sort of limelight – but the tide is turning. The average age of a morris dancer has plummeted to a sprightly 55.

Cheetham insists that women were morris dancing long before the century-old constitution was overruled. So why the sudden resurgence? “I think since the pandemic, people have become more interested in things like morris dancing because it’s about sharing a connection and a connection to place,” she says. “But I can’t be sure. In the folk world there are no facts and figures – it’s more about a feeling.”

GARETH IWAN JONES

Below: Boss Morris, the all-female “side” who are helping to make morris dancing more relevant to modern audiences

Come on, feel the noise

Ancient cultures understood the healing power of music. Now “sound bathing” – deep meditation aided by Tibetan singing bowls, gongs and other instruments – is making waves in the wellness world

Words by Catherine Peel

Think about what happens when your favourite song comes on the radio. In that moment you feel elated. Life suddenly feels full of possibilities. Conversely, hearing a sad song can spark emotions so strong, you’re brought to tears within seconds. Lyrics and memory play a part, but it’s the vibrations in the music that create this deep emotional response.

Vibrations are the basis of sound bathing and make this therapy accessible to all, including the deaf community. As Goodwood’s sound practitioner Jayne Mahoney says, “Many people find meditation difficult, but sound bathing can help guide you into a desired state by releasing energy in the body, which in turn frees your mind.” Mahoney first experienced this in Thailand. She was a dancer and had tragically cracked her spine, which led her on a healing journey that included sound bathing, yoga and deep meditation.

Sound bathing uses Tibetan singing bowls, as well as gongs and other instruments. “Each bowl relates to different chakras within the body,” says Mahoney. “The biggest bowl produces a deep sound that resonates to the grounding root chakra. As the sound becomes higher you move to the various chakras up the body.” These powerful vibrations help realign the body by releasing blockages and rejuvenating cells. This can help with a variety of conditions, but particularly insomnia, stress and anxiety.

As Mahoney says, meditation can be challenging. For me, it happens only after I’ve been doing yoga or running. My conscious mind is able to switch off because my physical body has begun the process. So, lying on a mat with a blanket in a yoga studio during my lunch break, I’m a little apprehensive. But then the cacophony of sound begins and every thought I have is silenced. At times the noise is so loud I wonder if it can be good for my ear drums. But at other times it’s deeply relaxing, making me feel like I’m part of an ancient ritual. A sense of calm begins to take over my consciousness. And it’s only when I’m back at my desk with a renewed sense of focus, feeling less exhausted and more buoyant, that I begin to grasp the real potential of sound to heal.

The practice of musical therapy began in the 1940s, with more conscious sound baths introduced during the 1960s, yet many of the instruments employed in sound healing date back thousands of years. The Ancient Greeks used flutes and lyres to aid digestion and enhance mental health, Tibetans have utilised singing bowls as part of their meditation rituals for more than 2,000 years, while the Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia played the didgeridoo to heal the sick.

And it’s not just for humans. Goodwoof has a dog wellness centre complete with dog Pilates, doggy sound baths and canine meditation. Siobhan Swider, a classical musician who runs the doggy sound baths, believes that sound healing is very beneficial for dogs with anxiety as it helps them to “go into a deep restorative state, which activates the body system for self-healing and can help to provide pain relief”.

Sound bathing is also on the menu for those attending Goodwood’s Executive Reset and Gut Health retreats, as part of a range of holistic therapies, while all guests at the Goodwood Hotel can now book a sound bath, regardless of how long they are staying.

The practice allows you to detach from the outside world and reconnect with yourself. Afterwards, you feel more relaxed, peaceful and rejuvenated. And the best part? You don’t need to “do” anything. Just show up, lie down and let the sounds work their magic.

goodwood.com/visit-eat-stay/health-wellbeing/wellness-retreats

ANTONI SHKRABA

rough diamond

As Land Rover celebrates its 75th birthday, we look back at the post-war origins of this tough, versatile vehicle, a favourite with farmers, adventurers, monarchs and men-about-town

Words by Peter Hall

On the east coast of Anglesey lies Red Wharf Bay, known in Welsh as Traeth Coch (Red Beach), recalling a bloody battle with the Vikings. A sanctuary for curlews and oystercatchers, the bay is more peaceful now, as it was in 1947 when local resident Maurice Wilks walked down to the beach with his older brother Spencer and scored the outline of a vehicle into the damp sand.

This was no idle sketch. Spencer was the managing director of Rover, where Maurice had recently been appointed technical director. Maurice needed to replace the war-surplus Willys Jeep he’d been using on his farm, and saw a commercial opportunity. There was little demand for luxury cars in post-war Britain and Rover was still operating out of a wartime shadow factory (built to manufacture aircraft engines) in Solihull. A low-cost agricultural vehicle might win export orders and put the firm back on its feet.

Using the Jeep chassis and axles, Wilks created a prototype with a Rover engine and gearbox, central steering and simple bodywork. With steel in short supply, the panels were made of Birmabright, an aluminium alloy used for wartime aircraft. He also added a power take-off mechanism front and rear.

The “Land-Rover” was further developed by Arthur Goddard, originally hired by Wilks to work on Rover’s Meteor tank engine. The steering was moved to a conventional position, a larger engine was mated to a bespoke transfer gearbox and the chassis was shortened and widened, using simple box sections of welded steel. Even the light green colour was a parsimonious choice, drawing on surplus aircraft cockpit paint. By the time the Land Rover was unveiled in 1948, it used no Jeep components, and in testing was superior to its American forebear in every respect. Indeed, it proved to be an enduring success, not only as an agricultural and military vehicle but as a symbol of global adventure, thanks to epic drives such as the Oxford and Cambridge Far East Expedition of 1955.

Wilks’s original concept continued to evolve, acquiring the Defender name in 1990 and remaining in production until 2016. By then, more than two million had been built, of which 70 per cent were still on the road. The luckiest survivor is surely the very first production Land Rover, chassis number 860001, built in July 1948. Rover planned to present it to King George VI, then selected a later example that was thought less likely to have teething problems. Instead, “Number One” was used in the preparation of the workshop manual before being sold to agricultural college professor Ewen McEwen in 1950, registered JUE 477.

The vehicle’s history is obscure, but its existence was recorded in 1970 when Northumberland farmer David Fairless wrote in his diary: “Bought Land Rover, £15.” Fairless used JUE 477 on his property before parking it in a field, where it languished for 25 years. Its significance was recognised in the late 1990s but it was merely moved to an old barn where it remained until 2019, when restoration specialist Julian Shoolheifer was asked to find it a new home.

Shoolheifer carried out a sensitive preservation job, patching up the chassis and straightening the bodywork on behalf of the vehicle’s new owner. That happens to be INEOS boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe, whose automotive company recently launched the Grenadier, a vision of what a post2016 Defender might have been had Land Rover not abandoned the classic body-on-chassis design. Will it be as durable as the original? Ask us again in 75 years.

Top, and below: the first production Land Rover, JUE 477, which languished for decades in a field and then a barn

TOP, JULIAN SHOOLHEIFER. RIGHT, MARTIN PORT

spot on

“With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved,” declared Yayoi Kusama. This spring, the nonagenarian proved her point by festooning Louis Vuitton stores across the globe – and the Harrods façade in London – with a rash of her signature spots to celebrate her Vuitton collaboration.

Marc Jacobs, who first introduced the artist to the brand back in 2006, once decreed that “there is never a wrong time for a polka dot”, to which spring’s catwalks provided ample testimony. Whether muted (Burberry), or head to toe (Saint Laurent), the dot dominated, with Libertine, Sergio Hudson, Batsheva and Marni all doubling down. At Proenza Schouler, where flamenco spots of all sizes adorned twist-front dresses and gargantuan bell-sleeves, co-founder Jack McCollough noted: “We’re talking about the idea of energy, of joy.”

Polka-prints are all these things and more, contriving to be chic yet inherently witty, their wearers reluctant to take themselves too seriously. Jaunty, sporting, forever fresh, they’ve long been a Gatsbyish cruise-wear staple: a preppy, peppy, gender-neutral stalwart managing to feel both ordered and chaotic, retro and contemporary, and never not full of glee. As actress Anna Kendrick remarked, “You can’t have a bad day in polka dots.”

The endorphin rush the dot provides is reflected in its hedonic heritage. Spots appeared on fabric before the Industrial Revolution. However, the technology to create symmetrical dots on a large scale only arrived during the mid-1850s with the widespread use of mechanised weaving machines. The fashionable classes could now purchase new outfits every spring, just as they could execute the latest steps to Czech peasant dance, the polka. If the waltz had shocked society with its scandalous degree of physical contact, how much more controversial must this frenetic, entwined circling, from which the print’s frenetic circles took their name, have been? Polkamania convulsed Europe, but it was its dots that danced on.

Ever since this manic beginning, there has always been something pleasingly cartoonish about spots, from Minnie Mouse in the late 1920s, via Shirley Temple in Stand Up and Cheer (1934), to the “itsy-bitsy” swimmers of the 1960 Brian Hyland anthem. Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball sported sex-bomb spots in the Fifties; Twiggy and Goldie Hawn favoured mod dots in the Sixties; while Diana, Princess of Wales donned posh dots for Eighties Sloane mode, a look emulated by Julia Roberts’s happy hooker while watching the polo in the 1990 hit Pretty Woman

More recently, our new-minted Princess of Wales has made dots a default, whether in Alessandra Rich or LK Bennett. In spots, she exemplifies insouciant British modishness with an eye for retro chic and more than a wink at wit. It’s a guise we can all aspire to, whether in spring Saint Laurent or a silk square acquired at Revival.

Words by Hannah Betts

From itsy-bitsy bikinis to Pretty Woman at the polo, polka dots are the summer staple that never goes out of style

Right: Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama spring/summer ’23

EVERY MOVEMENT CREATES ITS OWN ICON. # bornelectric

PUPART

“When the Man waked up, he said, ‘What is Wild Dog doing here?’ And the Woman said, ‘His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.’” This imagined first encounter between Man and Dog, penned by Rudyard Kipling as part of his Just So Stories, evokes the affection we have developed for our four-legged friends over the course of thousands of years.

Founded on loyalty, trust and friendship, this unique relationship will be the focus of a much-anticipated exhibition at the Wallace Collection. Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney will be the first major show to explore the story of dogs and humans through artworks that solely depict canine sitters. The portrayal of dogs in art has proved to be a particularly British phenomenon, something the exhibition reflects in its selection of more than 50 magnificent artworks exclusively from public and private collections in Britain.

Through eight sections, it will reveal the long tradition of dog portraiture, from Antiquity to the present day, and how generations of artists, through close association with dogs, have created intimate and naturalistic likenesses that capture their psychology and emotional bond with us. The ways in which dogs belonging to royalty, courtiers and artists have been immortalised and commemorated will also be considered, as well as how the image of the dog has been used to reflect on the human condition.

Our commitment to dogs has inspired us to celebrate and commemorate them through art. The images we have captured of dogs reveal much about how we feel towards them, and perhaps how they feel towards us, but also how we view ourselves. We often infuse their portraits with those qualities we value most, such as reliability, trustworthiness and courage, along with our aspirations, foibles and insecurities – those things that make us human. Yet perhaps the greatest achievement of dog portraiture is its ability to express the intelligence, independence and spirit of our faithful and fearless companions.

Dr Xavier Bray is the director of the Wallace Collection and Alexander Collins is the assistant curator for “Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney”, which runs from March 29 to October 15 2023 at the Wallace Collection. wallacecollectionshop.org. #wallacewoofs

“Portraits of Dogs” will coincide with a special one-room display at the Wallace Collection, “The Queen and her Corgis”, celebrating through photographs the unique connection Queen Elizabeth II had with these dogs throughout her life.

March 8 – June 25 2023.

A capsule collection of Goodwoof exclusive merchandise will be available for sale in the Wallace Collection shop and online.

ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST / © HIS MAJESTY KING CHARLES III 2022.

Right: Hector, Nero and Dash with the parrot, Lory by Edwin Landseer, one of the dog portraits on show

For centuries, painters have been inspired to capture their canine companions on canvas. Here, the Wallace Collection’s Dr Xavier Bray and Alexander Collins preview their new exhibition, which brings together more than fifty dog portraits by great artists, from Leonardo da Vinci to David Hockney

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Studies of a Dog’s Paw (verso), 1490-95

Closely examining the forms, behaviours and emotions of dogs and capturing them through a variety of media is a practice with a long history. During the Renaissance, scientific minds like Leonardo da Vinci turned their hands to precisely recording canine anatomy. The hours da Vinci spent closely observing a dog are revealed in the details of his paw sketches, where tendon and fur are rendered with great realism in silverpoint, a notoriously unforgiving artistic technique.

ROSA BONHEUR

Brizo, A Shepherd’s Dog, 1864

Rosa Bonheur, one of the most successful animal painters of the 19th century, was particularly skilled at representing the emotional and psychological depth of dogs in portraiture, as well as their natural appearance. Her painting of a female otterhound is an exceptional example. Its bright eyes peer through its coarse coat, a gentle intelligence shining through. The dog appears alongside the name “Brizo”, who is the classical Greek goddess of sailors, making it part of only a small group of named dog portraits by the artist.

JEAN-JACQUES BACHELIER

Dog of the Havana Breed, 1768

Royalty and aristocrats have enjoyed the company of toy dogs for hundreds of years. They were particularly popular in 18th-century France. Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress, and Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI’s wife, were both known to have owned toy breeds and honoured them through portraiture. JeanJacques Bachelier’s portrait of a Havanese dog gives us a sense of the luxury in which these dogs lived, though sadly its owner remains unidentified. Sporting a chic haircut, the dog perches on its hind legs as though seeking forgiveness for having caused the mess in front of its extravagant velvet kennel.

JAMES WARD

Fanny, A Favourite Dog, 1822

Generations of creatives have used dogs and their portraits as a means of expressing their own identities, and even alter egos. Following the death of his wife, Elizabeth, in 1815, the neoclassical architect Sir John Soane developed a close companionship with her dog, Fanny. After Fanny’s own death in 1820, Soane had the dog commemorated on canvas by James Ward. A highly personal tribute, it places her at the centre of a fantastical archaeological landscape that resonated with his profession and interests. The theme of the portrait also echoes the monumental tomb Soane erected to the dog at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which is constructed from architectural fragments.

The images we have captured of dogs reveal much about how we feel towards them, and perhaps how they feel towards us, but also how we view ourselves

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH

Tristram and Fox, about 1775-85

Bringing dogs to life in art was a legacy of the Renaissance continued in the 18th century by English artists such as George Stubbs and Thomas Gainsborough. In a portrait of his pet dogs, Tristram and Fox, Gainsborough depicted them naturalistically but with a tender sensitivity that suggests he considered them family rather than just animals. In fact, he was so fond of them that, after having a disagreement with his wife, Margaret, he would often write her a letter of apology addressed to Tristram, while impersonating Fox.

LEFT, © THE BOWES MUSEUM, BARNARD CASTLE. ABOVE, © TATE IMAGES.

RIGHT, BY COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM, LONDON

EDWIN LANDSEER

Hector, Nero and Dash with the Parrot, Lory, 1838

The surroundings in which dogs are portrayed can also reflect the positions they hold within a household, particularly a royal one. Edwin Landseer, the master of Victorian allegorical dog painting, developed a close association with Queen Victoria, who had a profound affection for her dogs and a desire to immortalise them in art. One of the most outstanding works Landseer created for the royal couple was this one depicting their dogs and parrot. Through the way they are staged within their splendid yet solemn environment, we are led to speculate about their absent masters, on the nature of their relationship and, by extension, on the human values the animals represent.

DAVID HOCKNEY

Dog Painting 30, 1995

The theme of canine companionship is one that has continued to be explored by contemporary artists, including Lucian Freud and David Hockney. Following the loss of several friends, Hockney had a desire to “paint something loving”, so he focused on his dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, whom he adopted in 1987. He came to consider them his best friends, and in 1995 he depicted them in portraits that are immediately recognisable for their bold shapes and vivid colours. Spontaneous yet intimate, the works capture brief moments from the daily lives of the dogs.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of dog portraiture is its ability to express the intelligence, independence and spirit of our faithful and fearless companions

Before he became the 9th Duke of Richmond, the Earl of March – or simply Freddie March, as he preferred to be known – was a key player in the growth of British motor racing. Ben Oliver recalls his remarkable early successes with the newly minted MG marque and the lasting legacy of his passion for motorsport

WINNING WAYS

Like other sporting Dukes of Richmond before him, Freddie’s passion would leave a lasting physical legacy on the Goodwood Estate

Opening pages: Freddie March with his MG M-Type. Opposite page, from top: the Earl had a passion for motorcycles as well as cars; racing in his MG, number 60, at Brooklands in 1929

Goodwood and the Dukes of Richmond might be known these days as hosts and supporters of motorsport. But there was a brief period nearly a century ago when a previous Duke of Richmond was a racer and team owner, competing in a particularly British type of car. In just three short years he scored one of the most notable series of victories in early British racing, laying the foundations for the global success of the nascent marque for which he had chosen to race, and for the motorsport that he would later bring to his ancestral home – and which lives on there to this day.

We might not remember the multitalented Freddie March, as he was then known – or more formally, Frederick Gordon Lennox, Earl of March, the courtesy title used by heirs to the dukedom of Richmond – chiefly as a racing driver or as a team manager, but his brief spell as a racer made quite an impact. Like other sporting Dukes of Richmond before him, Freddie’s passion would leave a lasting physical legacy on the Goodwood Estate, his motor-racing circuit joining the 3rd Duke’s kennels and the 5th Duke’s racecourse as permanent fixtures for subsequent generations.

But despite his talent and success as a driver and team owner, Freddie’s sporting foray was really just the inevitable extension of his greater passion: engineering. As a child he was obsessed with the family’s Ford Model T and with the early aircraft at the Royal Flying Corps base on the estate at Tangmere during the Great War, and he made models of early cars and planes. In an extraordinary move for an heir to a dukedom he quit Oxford for an apprenticeship at Bentley, causing him to be temporarily cut off by his grandfather. In later life he founded coachbuilding and model-making enterprises, and designed and built his own radical aircraft.

Someone with Freddie’s fascination with cars – and his means – would inevitably end up racing. Top-level motorsport was rather more accessible in the late 1920s than it is now, with even Grand Prix cars expected to have two or four seats, and “lamps, wings, windscreens and the ordinary paraphernalia of touring”. A handicap system meant that smaller, more affordable cars could race alongside, and even beat, exotica from Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Maserati.

Glorious though these foreign marques were, as an engineer Freddie was drawn to the simplicity, lightness, purity and intelligent design of the tiny 750cc racers from Austin and the nascent Morris Garages – or MG, as it would become known. “As no other country goes in for racing cars of

this size we are freed from foreign competition in this class,” Motor Sport magazine wrote at the time, “and it is in fact the one class in which we are at the present time really supreme. The performances put up by British 750s have put them in a genuinely unassailable position.”

Freddie first competed in 1929, fielding an MG M-Type in the High Speed Trial at the famous and brutal banked circuit at Brooklands in Surrey. The next year he switched to MG’s great rival Austin, winning the gruelling 500-mile race at the same circuit with his partner, Le Mans winner Sammy Davis. MG had only been incorporated as a separate business in July of that year, making high-performance versions of William Morris’s standard models under the inspired leadership of engineer Cecil Kimber.

Austin and MG both wanted to build the first 750cc car to sustain 100mph, and in February 1931 MG got there first. Its one-off, experimental EX120 averaged 103mph over five kilometres at the Montlhéry circuit near Paris, set class records in excess of 100mph over three other distances, too, and later became the first 750cc car to travel 100 miles in an hour – an even tougher task.

To celebrate, Kimber held a lunch that Freddie attended. Wanting to maintain the momentum of Montlhéry, the ambitious Kimber announced the new MG C-Type racer, adding that 14 would be built in just two months, in time to compete in the Brooklands Double Twelve race on May 8 and 9: 24 hours of racing, split over two days. Despite the fact that the engine, gearbox and body hadn’t even been designed and his young carmaker was straining under the pressure of the Great Depression, the C-Types were delivered on time, with the first three going to the Earl at £575 each.

Kimber’s new racers were – and remain – petite, perfectly proportioned and purposeful, like five-eighth scale models of the more expensive and powerful continental marques, and far sexier than the rather topply-looking, toy-like Austins. Freddie’s C-Type almost didn’t start the race: the engine had to be changed the night before, and Kimber himself ran it in by driving the car from Brooklands down the A3 to Portsmouth and back, at night and in foul weather.

But despite an almost complete lack of testing, the C-Types were fast and reliable, and they duly cleaned up. The Earl won his race, his two other cars finished fourth and fifth, and MGs took the top five places overall. It was a test of endurance rather than a thrilling race, but Motor Sport magazine still

hailed MG’s impressive achievement as “one of the greatest one-make triumphs in the history of motor racing”.

Road racing was banned in Britain at the time. The Double Twelve was one of the three great races held annually in the British Isles each year, but to compete in the other two, Freddie’s MGs had to cross the Irish Sea. The Irish Grand Prix in early June, and the Ulster Tourist Trophy in mid-August, were a little closer in spirit to the great Italian road races like the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio. And the competition was just as intense, with Motor Sport describing the Irish Grand Prix as “a formidable attack of continental marques on the first pukka road race of the year”.

The drivers ranged against the MGs in this hotly contested race were equally terrifying. Sir Henry Birkin, Rudolf Caracciola, Earl Howe and Sir Malcolm Campbell were among the greats of their age. Freddie ceded his seat to Norman Black, who, despite a tsunami of rainwater being splashed into his tiny car when it was passed, causing the engine to misfire, managed to beat Birkin in his much-fancied Alfa Romeo over their allotted distances by just 11 seconds. The race report declared it a “surprise”, despite the car’s speed, adding that “the Earl of March, who entered the winning car, and Norman Black, who drove it so successfully, have every reason to feel pleased with life”.

After two famous victories, the result of the final race of their trilogy was perhaps a little less surprising. The RAC Tourist Trophy had been run since 1905, and since 1928 had taken place on the 13.5-mile road circuit on the Ards peninsula to the east of Belfast, drawing crowds of up to a quarter of a million. And what a show Black and the little MG put on for them as it battled a field as strong as it had faced in Dublin. “The crowd rose and yelled themselves hoarse,” a reporter wrote, as Black beat Borzacchini’s 2.3-litre Alfa in “one of the greatest races of the series… as thrilling a spectacle as anyone could wish to witness”.

Freddie March would never race seriously again, focusing on engineering and entrepreneurship after 1931, and inheriting the dukedoms and estates and responsibilities that came with them in 1935. Nor would Norman Black again scale such heights as a racing driver. But their achievements together were remarkable. MG summed it up the significance perfectly in a period advertisement: “Never before in the whole history of motor racing have the three premier racing events of the season been won by the same make of car.”

MG was undoubtedly helped to stay afloat through the ravages of the Depression by the publicity and credibility these three victories generated. And the 27-year-old Freddie could scarcely have dreamt that the famous old TT that his MG had just won would one day be run on the circuit he would build on his Sussex estate, duelled over for seven years by the fastest and most glamorous cars and drivers of another generation.

This page, from top: Freddie March behind the wheel at Brooklands; the Earl, third from left, celebrates victory with his MG C-Type in the 1931 Brooklands Double Twelve. Opposite page: a poster for the Double Twelve, in which the Earl’s MGs took three of the top five places

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MG MAGIC

In the year the motoring world marks the centenary of the MG sports car, we recall ten key moments in the history of this classic British marque

1877 William Morris born

William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, was born in a Worcester terrace and transformed the bicycle repair business he started at the age of 16 into Morris Motors, one of Britain’s greatest ever carmakers and the parent company of MG. A donor to Oswald Mosley, he was deeply controversial in life, but his legacy was a positive one. With the profits he earned from Morris, MG and the other marques he later bought, Morris was able to endow Nuffield College Oxford, the Nuffield Foundation and the Nuffield Trust, which was instrumental in the creation of the NHS.

1912 Morris makes its first car

The Bullnose was Morris’s first car, assembled at a new factory at Cowley on the outskirts of Oxford, where modern Minis are built to this day. Morris soon accounted for the majority of cars sold in the UK, bringing its founder huge wealth and allowing him to buy up many of his suppliers and rival marques.

1923 The first MG

Morris Garages was the car dealership from which Morris Motors grew, and William Morris retained personal ownership of it. Visionary engineer Cecil Kimber joined in 1921 and began to develop high-performance versions of standard Morris cars, sold under the Morris Garages or MG badge, from 1923 onwards. MG became increasingly independent, getting its own factory in Abingdon from 1929, where production remained until 1980. Kimber quit in 1941, and was killed in the Kings Cross rail crash of 1945.

1931 First record-breaking MG

MG had a long and impressive history of building recordbreaking specials, based on production cars and with EX (standing for experimental) codenames. EX120 was the first of these and, among other records, became the first 750cc car to travel at over 100mph for an hour. Its supercharged engine caught fire as it completed its run. Designer and driver George Eyston was left singed but undeterred, and he had a hand in many of the other experimental MGs.

1931 Annus Mirabilis for MG

The success of the Earl of March’s three MG C-Type racers in the Brooklands Double Twelve, the Irish Grand Prix and the Ulster TT was an unprecedented trifecta, and established this young sporting marque indelibly in the minds of motorsport fans and early motorists alike.

1934 Success on the world stage

The later and slightly larger 1100cc MG K3 racer attracted some of the greatest drivers in pre-war motorsport, such as Tazio Nuvolari and Sir Tim Birkin, and established MG as a force in the great European road races, winning its class in the Mille Miglia and coming fourth at Le Mans against much more powerful machinery.

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1945 Coming to America

MG’s T-series roadsters were great fun to drive and hugely popular, and they got the company back on track after the war. The idea that American servicemen stationed in the UK bought MGs and brought them back home en masse is probably overstated, but the later TD was certainly an export success and an important foreign currency earner for austerity-era Britain.

1957 No more records to break

The teardrop-shaped EX181 was MG’s fastest and most beautiful record-breaker. Driven by Stirling Moss, it set a new land speed record for its class at 245mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. American racer Phil Hill later raised that to 254mph, after which MG ended its EX programme, as it had already broken all the records pertaining to engines of the size and type that it made.

1962 The much-loved MGB

The MGA of 1955 replaced the antiquated T-series roadsters and moved MG into the modern era. But the later MGB is probably the marque’s best-known model, built between 1962 and 1980. Stylish and sporty but often shoddily made, it is indelibly associated with 1960s and ’70s Britain.

2022 MG4 EV

From the 1980s to the Noughties, the MG badge was mainly applied to warmed-up Austins and Rovers, with a few sports-car exceptions. But under its new Chinese owners it now makes an electric car that rivals Tesla on range, dynamics and quality. Morris and Kimber would have been delighted to see the marque they founded heading into its second century, even if they couldn’t have predicted the type of car it would be making, or where.

QUAL ITY

Outlawed in 1746 as a symbol of Jacobite dissent, tartan went on to become one of the world’s most recognisable fabrics. As the V&A Dundee launches a new exhibition dedicated to this iconic Highland pattern, Finlay Renwick reveals its connections with royalty, runway and rebellion

Opposite page: drag performer Cheddar Gorgeous in a suit by Liquorice Black, 2017, part of the V&A show. This page: portrait of the 5th Duke of Gordon, a relative of the current Duke of Richmond and Gordon, wearing Gordon tartan, by George Sanders

An idyllic vision of Scotland rendered on fabric, tartan might just be as much of a Highland icon as a cow with long, curved horns poking out of a tousled fringe on a misty morning; a carpet of purple heather in bloom across a muir in late August; or an ice- cold can of Irn-Bru (a brand which, incidentally, has its own official tartan). And yet this distinctive pattern is not just emblematic of Scotland, it is also punk, as well as being aristocratic. It is a symbol of counterculture, of haute couture, but also of ancient Highland dress. It is whatever its wearer wants it to be, which is exactly what makes it so compelling.

How did a repeating crisscross motif in different shades, known as a “sett”, go from the kilts of clans and the backs of royalty to the runways of Paris and the raucous music venues of 1976 London? Beginning on 1 April, a new exhibition at the V&A Dundee featuring 300 objects from the worlds of fashion, architecture, product design, film, performance and fine art aims to unpick a pattern that, according to consultant curator Jonathan Faiers, who literally wrote the book on the subject (Tartan, first published in 2008 and the basis of the show), “is adored and derided, inspiring great works of art and design, and representative of unity and dissent, tradition and rebellion”.

Visitors to the show may be unaware, for example, that a tartan ribbon was the subject of the first ever colour photograph, captured in Scotland by Thomas Sutton in 1861.

“I hope the exhibition serves as an unexpected history of tartan,” says Faiers, whose official title is professor of fashion thinking at the University of Southampton, and consultant curator tartan V&A Dundee. “There are, of course, lots of

lovely kilts and stories about clanship, but we’re also trying to position tartan as an international pattern, one that is understood and admired the world over, looking at why people around the globe are drawn to wearing it and gather around it as a form of unification. While tartan is thought of as a very traditional material, it’s also at the forefront of innovation. There’s a duality at its core – it can be very traditional and very radical at the same time.”

The earliest known example of Scottish tartan was found by accident in 1933 by a group of workmen digging the foundations for a bus station in Falkirk. They unearthed a ceramic jar filled with nearly 2,000 silver Roman coins, buried around 250CE and sealed with a fragment of undyed, check-patterned cloth in natural colours, known as scutulata in Latin – a secret stash of treasure from a fading Roman Empire, buried seven feet into the stony ground of Stirlingshire. Tartan from even earlier periods has been uncovered in other parts of the world, including ancient salt mines in the Austrian Alps and on the mummified remains of travellers with red hair in the Taklamakan Desert, in what is now the Xinjiang region of western China.

“In the exhibition, we also look at how global textiles and various cultures have a relationship with tartan,” says Faiers. “Indian madras checks and Japanese fabrics, for example, have similarities. There is an idea of clanship that seems to come through the pattern, especially in institutions like the army, with regimental tartans, and yet it’s that unifying factor that also allows people to subvert it.”

Despite the romantic notion of tartan as a signifier of Scottish loyalties, early designs carried no specific regional

Left: the V&A Dundee exhibition features fashionable uses of tartan through the ages, including this satin day dress, circa 1865. Right: a tartan ribbon was the subject of the first ever colour photograph, taken in Scotland in 1861

Tartan is punk, and aristocratic… it is a symbol of counterculture, of haute couture, but also of ancient Highland dress

or familial meaning. The cloths were often dyed in two colours using natural extracts from plants, berries or trees, giving them a sort of interwoven locality. As the late Vivienne Westwood said, “The idea that there were particular tartans belonging to this house or another was developed by the Victorian tourist industry, but nevertheless it is traditional, these hand-woven clothes in stripes and check.”

Tartan was banned for 36 years by the British Parliament in a bid to control the Highlands and quash dissent after the Battle of Culloden. The Dress Act of 1746 (abolished in 1782) criminalised the wearing of tartan – apart from the kilts worn by soldiers in the British Army’s Scottish regiments. So, long before Johnny Rotten swaggered around town in tartan trousers and tie as an anti-establishment uniform, the pattern was a symbol of subversion and resistance.

It wasn’t until 1822 that tartan became synonymous with Highland dress and the globally exported essence of a country. The catalyst for this was King George IV’s visit to Edinburgh – the first by a reigning monarch for nearly two centuries – when the king requested that his audience should wear their clan tartans, thereby sparking a revival after years of stagnation and waning interest. From this time, Scottish aristocrats often wore tartan for formal occasions, as the 5th Duke of Gordon does in the portrait reproduced on page 59, the Gordon tartan being that chosen for the Gordon Highlanders by his father, the 4th Duke – from whom the current Duke of Richmond and Gordon is descended. The Scottish title and surname first came into the family via the marriage of the 4th Duke’s daughter, Lady Charlotte Gordon, to Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond.

Picture tartan and you’ll probably imagine a red base with blue, black, green, yellow and white stripes – the Royal Stewart, the official tartan of the Royal Family. In the 1960s it was adopted by Formula One driver Sir Jackie Stewart, aka the “Flying Scot”, whose racing helmet featured the check. Further variations have echoed throughout the decades via the likes of Princess Diana, The Clash and Kurt Cobain.

“Tartan is not just a pattern for textiles of course,” says Faiers. “The exhibition also explores how the grid design of tartan has inspired architects who translate its lines, blocks and spaces into three-dimensional environments. Similarly, we have examples of tartan patterns made in glass, covering a basketball and even an Xbox controller.”

Tartan’s global spread can be seen in surprising places. The Shuka is a traditional robe worn by Kenya’s Maasai people, with styles and colours that change according to an individual’s age and social status. Often red with black stripes, it bears more than a passing resemblance to tartan. One theory is that Shuka cloth was first brought to the region by the Scottish missionaries of the Africa Inland Mission during the colonial era. Hollywood costume designer Ruth Carter won an Oscar in 2019 for her work on the film Black Panther, with Shukas an integral part of the film’s wardrobe, which was heavily influenced by traditional African dress.

In the Congo, the sapeurs, or dandies, of Kinshasa and Brazzaville have piqued worldwide curiosity with their outlandish tailoring, high-shine shoes and general joie de vivre, with tartan featuring heavily in a subculture born from resistance during the French colonial era. Local men took to dressing with panache as a form of artistic expression.

This page, L-R: Wales Bonner Adidas Originals, Spring/Summer 2021; Charles Jeffrey Loverboy menswear 2019; Burberry trench. Opposite page: Naomi Campbell models for Vivienne Westwood’s Autumn 1994 collection

“While tartan is thought of as a traditional material, it’s also at the forefront of innovation”

The name “sapeurs” is based on the phrase “Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes”, which translates as “the Society of Atmosphere-Setters and Elegant People”.

“I think tartan has a fundamentally tribal appeal, like a football kit,” says Charlie Teasdale, Esquire magazine’s style director. “And unlike stripes or polka dots, it keeps being discovered and reinterpreted by different generations. In a way, tartan was the original luxury brand logo, marking out prestigious families and allowing people a banner under which to fight, live and dress. Those clans evolved into the upper echelons of society, and tartan softened to be less territorial, more a marker of taste and elegance. That was subverted by the punks in the 1970s and 1980s, and then punk was absorbed by high fashion and luxury, most notably in the work of the late British designer Vivienne Westwood.”

It was Westwood who, along with her then husband and business partner Malcolm McLaren and the band that he managed, the Sex Pistols, married the rebellious nature of tartan with the simmering mood of 1970s Britain. At their cult Kings Road boutique SEX, later renamed Seditionaries, the pair draped kilts over black bondage suits, reinterpreting “the warrior of the Battle of Culloden” as, in their own words, a street-fighting “urban guerrilla”. The pattern, and a refraction of Scottish craft and culture, would become synonymous with Westwood’s design work for decades. In 1993, for the Anglomania collection, she

worked with weavers Lochcarron of Scotland to create her own MacAndreas tartan, named after her husband and design partner Andreas Kronthaler. The fabric was added to the Scottish Register of Tartans the same year.

Another young, energised and zeitgeist-defining British designer – a master of reshaping and bending tradition to his will – was the late Alexander McQueen. Despite only using tartan sparingly across his work, his unique and singular application of plaid and pattern were significant. Writing for New York’s MoMA, Faiers states, “Many designers who reference history display a form of historical seamlessness in which the past is perfectly and nostalgically recreated in the present. With McQueen, however, the reference is not as comfortable; the suture lines of his much-discussed ‘surgical’ tailoring techniques are still visible as uneasy grafts of history onto contemporary garments.”

Elsewhere in contemporary high fashion, tartan can be seen put to ingenious use by Junya Watanabe, both at Comme des Garçons and for his own eponymous label. Under the leadership of former creative director Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s shows could sometimes appear on the Milan runway like a particularly opulent Scottish wedding. Young British designer Nicholas Daley, who has held a previous exhibition at the V&A Dundee and whose mother is from Scotland, has his own registered tartan and regularly utilises the pattern in collaborations with Fred Perry and in

From left to right: the sapeurs of Congo have adopted tartan as one of their signature fabrics; John Lydon, lead singer of the Sex Pistols, used the pattern as an emblem of punk rock rebellion; Doctor Martens tartan boots

his own Caribbean/British/Japanese-inspired designs. He uses the pattern to accent parkas and create voluminous trousers and overcoats in colourful checks, collaborating with Scottish artisans, of course. Charles Jeffrey Loverboy is another British name who regularly turns out tartan in his avant-garde, almost theatrical, designs.

New generations of designers and brands are constantly rediscovering and reinterpreting this iconic pattern. Then, of course, there are singular icons like the Burberry trench and the Baracuta Harrington jacket, with which the check has become synonymous. Despite not always using certified tartans, the trademark plaids are as much a part of the appeal and legacy as the peerless design of the clothing.

“Personally, I’d say the best – or certainly my favourite – tartan used in menswear is Black Watch,” says Esquire’s Teasdale. “A very subtle combination of black, dark blue and green [the Duke of Richmond and Gordon’s own Gordon tartan is similar to Black Watch, with the addition of a yellow stripe]. It’s most commonly used in evening wear, but I’ve seen some brilliant overcoats, and even a Black Watch tartan waxed field jacket. It combines versatility with colour and works on pretty much anything.”

Ever since humans have had the tools and wherewithal to weave sophisticated textiles, we’ve created tartan. “It does seem to be the only pattern that is able unite disparate groups and form a sense of kinship,” says Faiers. “We’re keen, with the exhibition, to look at tartan not just in textiles, but in everything around us. From vinyl records to Doc Martens shoes to condoms, its applications are endless.”

As Vivienne Westwood put it so evocatively, “It’s a heroic image, the kilt flying and the idea of climbing mountains in this garb with the wind blowing behind you. They have all got stories, these fabrics.”

Tartan, V&A Dundee, from 1 April 2023 (vam.ac.uk/dundee/ exhibitions/tartan).

Above: Shuka cloth, worn by Kenya’s Maasai people, is thought to have been introduced by Scottish missionaries.

Right: Alexander McQueen with Sarah Jessica Parker. The late fashion designer was renowned for his imaginative use of tartan

New generations of designers and brands are constantly rediscovering and reinterpreting this iconic pattern

TO TIE OR

That is the question. As a growing number of men ditch the tie for all but the most formal of occasions, so fashion designers have been championing this buttoned-up accessory in this season’s runway shows. Stephen Bayley enters into the great neckwear debate

Illustration by Cecilia Carlstedt

NOT TO TIE

Fashion, Coco Chanel said, is what goes out of fashion. It’s a volatile business, a series of survivals and revivals, of appropriations, misappropriations, borrowings and thefts. Its spurious dynamic mocks logic and offers a delicious gloss on the absurdity of existence. What was once smart soon becomes quaint, then cringe-making, only to enjoy its renaissance a generation later, fashionable once again.

So, be wary of predictions. Especially when they involve the future. But some fashionable things do actually die, never to return. In matters of menswear, it seems highly unlikely that tippets, ruffs, tricorn hats and codpieces are ever going to make a comeback.

And who today could raise finance for a start-up tie manufacturer? In these strange times, start-up cred is a key determinant not just of financial but also of social and cultural viability. By that token, the tie is surely dead.

The tie, or necktie in US English, is a product of the same historical moment that gave us, for instance, the gasolier, railway timetables and Oscar Wilde, who believed in the ritual significance of getting his Windsor knot just so. It evolved with what became wincingly known as “the lounge suit”, which, in turn, evolved into everyday business dress for a certain social class anxious to make their professional status explicit in their clothes. It was as if the dexterity of tying a tie was in some way a demonstration of higher caste.

For the insecure, ties remain an important status relic. Unless on a golf course, Donald Trump was rarely seen without one. But it is significant that his own-brand neckwear, sold in the gruesome Trump Tower gift shop, is made in China. His own dedication to making America great again was, as president, to wear ties manufactured in the Italian province of Pescara, by Brioni. Now (temporarily) retired, Trump presents himself to guests at Mar-a-Lago boldly unbuttoned. So ties do reveal something.

The decline of the tie is part of the story of the increasing informality of public life, the signal event of which was John F Kennedy not wearing a hat at his 1961 inauguration. Since art follows life, this was a process that culminated in Dr Stewart Pearson, the odious spin doctor in The Thick of It, advising politicians to demonstrate their thrilling modernity by daringly going open-necked.

Of course, they obliged. In 2015 at The Plough in Cadsden, in a scenario one’s mind now boggles to re-imagine, David Cameron bought Xi Jinping a pint. Neither wore a tie. (And neither smiled.) The following year, The New York Times published a photograph of President Obama, the then Vice President Biden, John Kerry and that irrepressible despot-

about-town Xi Jinping leaving a dinner. It was captioned: “Not a tie among them”. Imagine the all-too-brief delirium of liberation these world leaders must have enjoyed.

But Newton’s Law of Fashion states that for every reaction there is an action equal and opposite. Thus, strong rearguard forces remain supporting the tie, even as very few professional men under 40, especially members of media and creative tribes, even own one. These same rearguard forces are concentrated in, and derive symbolic power from, certain hotels and clubs where they still insist on knotting a folded cloth around your neck to demonstrate propriety and good manners.

When the PR for The Ritz explained to me some years ago that its strict tie rule existed to ensure that guests were well-dressed, I asked why people in cheap suits and bad shoes were not banned. At a grand old London club where I belong, there is a regular ritual of introspection on whether the suffocating grip of the tie rule should be relaxed. Argument for: guarantees dignity. Arguments against: maintains an antediluvian respect for irrelevant caste-marks; discourages youth.

My contribution to a recent episode of the debate was to distribute photographs of Rolf Harris and Luca di Montezemolo. The disgraced TV presenter was wearing a tie; the former chairman of Ferrari, magnificently aristocratic in Neapolitan tailoring, was not. Despite my bold rhetoric suggestive of underlying meaning in the decoration of the neck area, the rule remains, so I keep a battered New & Lingwood yellow woven silk tie in the porters’ lodge for the occasions when I visit.

That said, when you find Parliament’s front benches open-necked, there is a compulsion to go in the opposite direction. Snobbery enjoys inversion. When people tell me Soho House has a no-tie dress code, a worm inside me wriggles. As soon as I see Keir Starmer without a tie, I have my doubts and begin to dream about old-school Roman outfitters with their trays of pastel silks.

And there is now an ironic re-uptake of traditional gentleman’s neck attire taking place in the world of high fashion. Name-checking Princess Di, Chanel has been encouraging women to wear ties. And Vogue has found enough evidence to publish “Spring 2023 Menswear Trend: Neckties”, although featured outfits by Thom Browne and Dries Van Noten use this most conservative of garments in a gender-fluid context. Indeed, to confound the reactionaries, it may be that getting back into ties is the truly radical move. The old school tie could be the next big thing.

The tie is surely dead… but when you find Parliament’s front benches open-necked, there is a compulsion to go in the opposite direction

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With the Goodwood Racehorse Owners’ Group scheme, members join a syndicate and follow the fortunes of their four-legged investments over the course of two years. Steve Dennis reports on a flexible way to dip your toe into the world of racing

THEY RUN SEE HOW

“For my grandfather, it was all about building a local community in racing, so people could buy a very small part of a horse and still know all the thrills of ownership”

MICHAEL HARRIS. LEFT: JONATHON JAMES WILSON

Previous pages: threeyear-old filly Goodwood Vision with jockey Kieran Shoemark. Left, from the top: GROG members at Goodwood House; Lord William Gordon Lennox

If, as the saying goes, joy shared is joy doubled, then how much joy is created when 140 people are sharing it? Ask anyone involved with the Goodwood Racehorse Owners’ Group and they will tell you plainly, sincerely, almost evangelically, about the joys of membership. Of course they all call it GROG – intoxicating stuff, for sure.

It hardly needs saying that racehorse ownership can be a perilous enterprise, a path paved with pitfalls, fraught with financial uncertainty. After all, everyone knows that the surest way to end up with a small fortune from racing is to start with a vast one. Three cheers for GROG, then, for it bucks the trend, placing the emphasis not on fortunes won or lost but on the good fortune of finding like-minded souls with whom to share the transcendent ups and the inevitable downs of racehorse ownership.

“If you enjoy racing, if you want to dip your toe into it at a reasonable level and learn a bit on the way, there isn’t a better syndicate than ours,” says Gail Brown, GROG’s longserving racing manager. Brown might be partial, but her opinion is convincingly supported by facts and borne out by assurances from delighted syndicate members, many of them veterans of multiple campaigns.

“It provides an insight into the other side of racing that you wouldn’t get on your own,” enthuses David Fisher, a GROG member for the past eight years. “It’s a very good introduction to the wider racing scene.”

Heads are nodded, enthusiastic affirmation at the ready. “It’s a great way to get inside racing,” says Colin Bloomfield, who joined the first iteration of the syndicate in 1994 and has been ever-present since. “We’re spoilt – you meet wonderful people, enjoy first-class facilities. Of course, seeing your horse run is the main reason for joining, but there are so many other benefits.”

Syndicate members buy into a two-year scheme, whereby one horse is purchased from the sales each year by Brown and bloodstock agent Richard Frisby and raced as a two-year-old and a three-year-old, before going back to the sale-ring to end the association. This means that at any given time GROG has two horses racing in its distinctive yellow and red silks, all of them bearing the “Goodwood” prefix, and members can own a part of one horse or both.

Numbers are limited to 140 for each two-year scheme, and the cost for joining is £1,500. If that figure sounds appealing, here are some others that are equally impressive: “We’ve had 17 individual winners from 25 runners,” says Brown. “I’m proud of that, considering that we buy on a budget. About £50,000 would be the ceiling, but on that you can buy a bit of a pedigree, a good sireline or damline. You can’t get everything but you can buy yourself a chance. And every

year, from every scheme, there’s been money in the pot to be returned to members. They’ve always enjoyed a return on their investment.”

Syndicate racehorse ownership is now as common as daisies; practically every third horse is owned by a small convocation of pals, work colleagues, enthusiasts. Most are smaller than GROG, several are much larger, but the same principle applies. However, when GROG started back in the mid-1990s it was a pioneering move, a watershed moment. Goodwood was the first to link a syndicate to a racecourse, with all the ancillary benefits to its members that such a connection brings.

“It was the idea of the Duke of Richmond and racecourse manager Rod Fabricius,” says Brown. “Their approach was that racing should be for everyone, fully inclusive. They would buy a horse, then Goodwood board-member John Dunlop would train it, and anyone who wanted to could buy into the scheme.”

The original altruistic impulse behind the formation of GROG lives on in the Duke’s grandson, Lord William Gordon Lennox, 26, who took on the role of the group’s patron when his grandfather died in 2017. His passion for racing was instilled in him by his grandfather – “My brothers are obsessed with fast cars, but for me it’s horses,” – and he views GROG with the same clarity of intention. “GROG was designed to be accessible; the whole point was not to make it too expensive or too exclusive for potential members,” he says. “For my grandfather, it was all about building a local community in racing, so people could buy a very small part of a horse and still know all the thrills of ownership. That remains the idea behind it now. GROG is very important to Goodwood. There’s a real sense of connection, of affinity between the racecourse and the members. That’s one of the best things about the syndicate – and I’m delighted to be involved with it.”

Goodwood Rocket was GROG’s first horse and was placed but never won. The following year, however, Goodwood Lass made the breakthrough by winning twice. After that, it was not exactly a deluge but certainly a steady stream of success. The syndicate’s financial flagship horse is probably Goodwood Mirage, who cost 27,000 guineas as a yearling and won twice before being sold for a princely 380,000gns to go hurdling, ensuring a sizeable end-of-year dividend for his owners – though, of course, each member has his or her personal favourite.

“Goodwood Blizzard,” says Bloomfield. “She won at Ascot in 1999, romped in by five lengths. That was a great day.”

That wasn’t the only impact Goodwood Blizzard made on her owners, for she was a pioneer in her own right. When she

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ran in the prestigious Premio Dormello at San Siro racecourse in Milan, she was accompanied by a partisan gang of GROG members on the first overseas trip organised for the syndicate by Brown.

“She was our first runner abroad, and there must have been around 30 of us there to watch her,” says Brown. “The Duke came too – he was very excited. It was such a jolly day, everyone had such a thrill. She finished second, beaten only by a head, but that didn’t spoil the day. Everyone enjoyed it so much that trips abroad and racing holidays became an integral part of the GROG experience.”

“It’s always a thrill when a GROG horse wins or even gets placed in a competitive race at a top track,” adds the syndicate’s chairman, Ian Barlow. “But even more fun is to see our Groggers really enjoying themselves… particularly the trips away, visiting other racecourses, yards and studs, both in the UK and much further afield.”

Racing holidays are an extra cost on top of membership, but it’s very much a case of “join GROG and see the world”. That has been the mantra for Fisher, who reels off a list of exotic destinations that would do credit to Alan Whicker.

“Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Mauritius, Deauville, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Dubai,” he says proudly. “The holidays are based around going to the local racecourse, of course, but everyone can be as organised or as relaxed as they want to be. It’s a group of like-minded people with the shared

experience of the syndicate to unite them. And Goodwood has a very good name abroad – it opens doors. You can’t just go to Ballydoyle and Coolmore, but the link with Goodwood gives you access.”

Goodwood itself is undoubtedly the jewel in the GROG crown. Not only is it universally acclaimed as one of the two or three most beautiful racecourses in the world, but it is also a big-league racecourse, loaded with prestige and panache.

“The ‘wow factor’ of Goodwood is huge,” says Brown. “Being an owner at Goodwood – albeit with a small share but still very much part of it – standing overlooking the Downs, cheering on your horse; it makes for a very special day. There’s a kudos about Goodwood that resonates within the wider racing world, and on the home front Goodwood does everything very well: a lovely brochure, a free box at the races, an annual reception and parties at Goodwood House, a beautiful presentation box with each individual metal syndicate badge – all the little things that matter.

“I’ve heard GROG described as ‘the John Lewis of racing partnerships’,” adds Brown. “The comfort and security of the Goodwood brand always makes people feel safe.”

All – a small word that embraces a large portfolio, from buying the horses to liaising between trainer and owners, organising the social calendar and plenty more – is ably overseen by Brown, who has been involved in racing since fibbing about her age (“I said I was 14 but I was really 12”) to

“Goodwood has a very good name abroad – it opens doors. You can’t just go to Ballydoyle and Coolmore, but the link with Goodwood gives you access”

Right: two-year-old colt Goodwood Odyssey, one of GROG’s two current prospects

be able to ride out at weekends for John Dunlop at the storied Castle Stables in Arundel. The patrician, gentlemanly Dunlop, one of the all-time great British trainers, played a central role for the nascent GROG and on his retirement the baton was passed to William Knight, who trained at nearby Angmering, with Richard Hughes and Ralph Beckett also briefly on GROG’s teamsheet.

Knight’s recent move to Newmarket led to another change: “Most of the members are locally based and they wanted to maintain a local trainer,” adds Brown. The chosen man was David Menuisier, an expatriate Frenchman who has swiftly established himself at Coombelands Stables in Pulborough. Another of Brown’s many duties is to organise stable visits for members, and Menuisier enjoys them as much as his owners do.

“It’s a lot of fun, a fantastic atmosphere. They have two visits a year and I love those days,” he says. “They are given breakfast or lunch, and they see the horses on the gallops and we talk about them. I look forward to the visits. I like the people – they have no great expectations for their horses but they enjoy the journey.”

This year GROG has the three-year-old filly Goodwood Vision and the two-year-old colt Goodwood Odyssey to look forward to, and Menuisier is upbeat about their prospects.

“Vision ran three times last year, has had a nice break, and I’m very pleased with her physical development. I think she’ll certainly benefit from the softer ground in spring and could be out early on, April time. Odyssey will be for later in the year. We will take our time with him because he’ll be

more of a three-year-old than a two-year-old, but he seems a straightforward individual and comes from a good nursery at Meon Valley. Hopefully the trainer will be good enough to get the best out of him!”

Brown smiles. “It’s as much about the social side as the results on the track,” she says. “The vast majority of horses never win, so if ours do then we’re doing okay. And as you’ve seen, ours do win. More than that, though, the thing I’m most proud of is that a lot of people become members of GROG without having much in-depth knowledge of racing or horses. Some of them do, of course, but plenty don’t. Yet quite a few of those novices have gone on to own horses in their own right. They had a great time with us and it gave them the confidence to feel that they weren’t complete amateurs. That, most of all, has been really lovely. To me, it means we’re doing it right.”

All that shared joy spreads out, creating more joy. “I would recommend it to anyone,” says Fisher. Bloomfield, whose membership of GROG once led to him sharing a flight and a limousine with the great champion jockey Pat Eddery, thinks alike: “I would recommend it, too. It’s not about the money, it’s about the involvement and the environment. It’s an excellent way to participate in ownership. My late father Henry bought me a share as a Christmas present all those years ago, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s been the gift that has kept on giving.”

Shares in Goodwood Odyssey are available at £1,500 until April 30 (subject to availability). Please contact Goodwood Racecourse on 01243 755029 to request an application form.

Above: Frankie Dettori and Goodwood Mirage celebrate victory in the 2013 Bibendum Stakes at Goodwood

“The vast majority of racehorses never win, so if ours do then we’re doing okay. And as you’ve seen, ours do win”

Opposite: part of the Planted community, Out of the Valley creates cabins and saunas that “connect people with the rhythms of nature”

In his book Biophilia (1984), American biologist Edward O Wilson argued that humans are genetically predisposed to seek connections with nature. It’s in our nature to find fertile land, cultivate food and nurture new life. Or, as he wrote, “We have an urge to affiliate with other forms of life.”

And so we should. Research indicates that when it comes to wellbeing, having a positive relationship with nature is just as important as factors such as income and education. However, 66 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban environments by 2050 (more than 80 per cent of the UK already does), and most will have very little access to the great outdoors. Which is why biophilic design – an approach to interior and architectural design that incorporates elements of nature – is becoming ever more important.

“The modern assumption that humans no longer need to affiliate with nature is revealed in the widespread practice of placing people in sensory-deprived and artificial settings such as office buildings, hospitals, schools, shopping centres – with little, if any, contact with natural forces and stimuli,” declared the late Dr Stephen Kellert, often referred to as the Godfather of Biophilia. “In many ways, these structures remind us of the barren sensory-deprived cages of the old-style zoo, now ironically banned as ‘inhumane’. We are just beginning to find that these environmentally impoverished habitats foster fatigue, symptoms of disease, and impaired performance, and the simple introduction of natural lighting, outside views and vegetation can result in enhanced health and productivity.”

Oliver Heath, one of the UK’s leading proponents of biophilic design, has worked with the likes of John Lewis, Accor Hotels, Bloomberg and Schneider Electric to bring the outdoors into their working environments. “Nature is becoming increasingly important, not only for human health but also to create more sustainable spaces,” says Heath. “For example, the addition of trees and greenery in urban environments can help to improve air quality, reduce the urban heat island effect and help to reduce flooding. Plus, it creates habitats for other forms of wildlife like pollinators, birds, bees and insects, supporting biodiversity.”

Biophilic design is becoming far more widespread but also more subjective as different industries apply nuanced versions to their own particular challenges. Biomorphism models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes. Biomimicry looks at how nature has solved similar challenges to the ones we face. Some may argue that these are entirely distinct concepts but the lines are becoming blurred as designers from various backgrounds work towards a common goal, employing nature’s own designs to look beyond wellness and sustainability, towards an entirely new design paradigm.

“The definition is certainly evolving,” says Sam Peters, co-founder of Planted, a new marketing platform that promotes nature-based businesses. “But for me, biophilic design is about constantly putting nature at the forefront of your decision-making, and we’re seeing more and more brands doing that.” Here are a few of them…

N A T U R A L

I T ' S O N L Y

As the global march of urbanisation continues, there is a growing recognition that we humans need the natural world in our lives. Alex Moore charts the rise of biophilic design and meets the men and women taking lessons from Mother Nature

“We need to get to the point where we’ve completely overcome our separation from nature… where we’re co-evolving and participating as

This page, from top: sketch for Out of the Valley cabin; Apple Park's The Ring is a vast “spaceship” campus powered entirely by renewable energy; spanning 165ft in diameter, the Steve Jobs Theatre at Apple Park is an award-winning pavilion supported solely by glass

SAM HALL/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is perhaps the field in which biophilic design has found most traction. Apple Park in Cupertino, California, the largest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum-certified office building in North America, is an exemplar of the practice. For Norman Foster, the architect behind the design, the landscape and buildings form a seamless whole. The natural ventilation systems, the world’s largest panels of curved glass and the 9,000 droughtresistant trees were all subjected to the same scrutiny that Apple’s devices come under. “I started on this journey over five decades ago and it has been central to our practice ever since,” says Lord Foster. “Some of our earliest projects were early examples of intuitively developed biophilic designs. My passionately held belief about the importance of these qualities and an architecture that embodies them have subsequently been proven through research, particularly by the Harvard School of Public Health.”

According to architect Michael Pawlyn, we’re still barely scratching the surface of what’s possible if we properly embrace the remarkable innovations found throughout nature. To demonstrate his point, Pawlyn and the team at Exploration Architecture designed The Biomimetic Office Building, borrowing devices from some of the most sophisticated creatures on the planet. To reflect natural light into the atrium’s lower floors, he reproduced the way the spook fish mirrors low levels of bioluminescent light onto its retinas. He used curved shell and leaf forms to design a new glazing system that uses 50 per cent less glass. And by mimicking the delicate bone structure of bird skulls, the building would require radically less concrete. Calculations suggest this vast structure would be one of the most energyefficient office buildings in the world.

“Sustainability has been a disaster,” says Pawlyn. “We need to move on to a new paradigm of regenerative design that optimises positives and delivers radical improvements in resource efficiency. I’m convinced that there’s no better source of ideas to flourish in this realm than biomimicry, which means learning from biology.”

If regeneration is indeed where architecture is heading, then nature does have solutions. Concrete accounts for eight per cent of global carbon emissions, releasing 622kg of CO2 for every tonne produced. Coral is nature’s equivalent of concrete, the main difference being that coral removes CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows. Pawlyn is far from the only person advocating the use of coral as a building material but as he wearily points out, both the construction industry and the economic system are incredibly resistant to change.

However, the adaptive cycle model suggests that complex systems go through four phases – growth, consolidation, release and renewal – and Pawlyn hopes we may be on the cusp of change. “Initially this was a model used to describe biological systems but it’s increasingly being used to describe social systems – and I think it holds true,” he says, adding, “I think we’re getting very close to a release phase.” Is this life imitating nature, the ultimate act of biophilic design?

From top: Richard Pawlyn’s Biomimetic Office Building uses innovations inspired by the natural world to gather and distribute natural light; based on the shape of a seashell, Pawlyn’s Biorock Pavilion concept uses the process of electrodeposition to grow its structure underwater using minerals found in seawater

AUTOMOTIVE

“Everything in nature is beautiful,” says world-renowned car designer Frank Stephenson. “This is why, for me, biomimicry is always the most intelligent influence in design.”

In the automotive world, Stephenson’s name has become synonymous with nature-based design. His McLaren P1 copied the dynamic proportions of a cheetah at full tilt; he based the proportions of the Mini Cooper on the British bulldog, and the Bionic Car concept he designed for Mercedes-Benz was inspired by the boxfish.

However, there’s far more to it than simply aesthetic value. For example, Stephenson spent many years obsessively studying the sailfish, a species that on first impressions should have no right to move as quickly (clocking speeds in excess of 68 miles per hour over short distances) and as nimbly as it does. Upon closer inspection,

however, it turns out that a sailfish’s scales generate little vortices that result in the fish being enveloped in a bubble of air instead of denser water. This reduces drag and allows the fish to move faster through the water. The designer applied this same scaly texture to the engine ducts of the P1, increasing the air intake by 17 per cent and drastically improving the car’s efficiency.

“Aerodynamics will always be a factor but I’ve never really looked at birds, simply because they’re not the most efficient organisms,” explains the designer. “It’s always going to be fish, which need to be more hydrodynamic in order to get through much denser matter.”

He adds: “A lot of the time, designers will use shock value to attract attention or to create a design language. I have always felt that simplicity is best, and nature is the master

when it comes to designing simply. It’s the best for performance, for efficiency and certainly for longevity.”

Stephenson recently drew inspiration from nature’s most robust shape, the egg, when designing the award-winning BabyArk car seat. The revolutionary design – which is 68 per cent safer than traditional car seats – is constructed around a carbon-fibre exoskeleton, manufactured using a zero-waste 3D-printing process. By definition, minimalism does away with waste, he observes, so by following the design principles inherent in the natural world, we very quickly arrive at a position that’s far more sustainable.

“Nature basically shrink-wraps,” laughs Stephenson. “The mistake many designers make is adding material purely for the sake of aesthetics. I think that goes against everything nature has told us about good design.”

AVIATION

Frank Stephenson, whose automotive work for McLaren is shown opposite, is also active in the world of aviation. He has designed aircraft for the three leading eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) manufacturers – Archer of the US, Autoflight from China and the German Lilium – and for these he turned once again to the ocean for inspiration. “The canards [the wings at the very front] of Lilium, for example, are taken from the hammerhead shark,” he explains, “which is incredibly efficient at turning.”

The designer also modelled the rear wing and fuselage on the manta ray. “I struggle to describe the feeling of watching something moving so naturally in the water,” he says. “It’s just perfect. What we have [with Lilium] is an entirely different proposition to a sausage with wings, which is how engineers continue to design aircraft.”

Meanwhile, at the University of Oxford, biologists have discovered a way to artificially spin silk in the same way as spiders. By combining only two compounds – water and protein – the Spintex team has created a solution that can be spun into high-performance textile fibres, at room temperature, without toxic chemicals. The process is a thousand times more efficient than that required to make equivalent plastic fibres. This artificial silk will largely be used in sustainable fashion textiles but it is lightweight and strong enough to be used in precision engineering in medical devices and in the aerospace industry.

“In nature, energy is quite hard to come by,” explains Alex Greenhalgh, founder and CEO of Spintex. “So when you’re looking at the production of spider silk, the way it’s produced is almost more interesting than the actual material and its properties. It’s a miraculous approach and what it creates is better than almost any of the artificial polymers that we use. As we consider the future in an effort to address things like climate change, ecotoxicity and pollution, we’re looking at nature to see how things are done and how we can apply those things artificially or through man-made processes.”

Left: designer Frank Stephenson channelled the dynamism of a sprinting cheetah into his design for the McLaren P1 sports car.

Top right: the rear wing and fuselage of Lilium’s eVTOL were modelled on the manta ray

From top: carbon-neutral furniture brand Another Country designs products for “the natural home”; Hardy oak chair by Another Country; Bacsac's geotextile planters can be custom-made to create urban gardens of any shape or size

PRODUCT DESIGN

Another Country is one of the brands that falls under Planted’s umbrella. Founded in 2010 with the aim of being a wholly sustainable furniture company, it designs products for what founder Paul de Zwart calls “the natural home”. This means creating furniture that speaks to the tenets of biophilic design from both a wellness perspective and a sustainability standpoint. “We put nature at the heart of everything we do,” says de Zwart. “And we do this by focusing on the inputs – the supply chain side of things – but also the outputs, how our furniture helps to create a more healthy environment using low-VOC, plant-based finishes, natural upholstery materials, light-coloured timbers, plenty of planters and lots of mirrors to amplify natural light.”

As a certified carbon-neutral company, Another Country is constantly trying to mitigate its environmental impact. To minimise waste, products are made to order from responsibly sourced, sustainable timber, using machinery largely powered by green energy. It aims to reduce packaging, and any that is used is recycled and compostable. The brand also plants more trees than it uses. Still, de Zwart isn’t expecting praise for actions he insists we should now have come to expect. Rather, he believes the brand’s real innovation is in the way it designs with a product’s entire life cycle in mind –a detail historically overlooked in the furniture game.

“One of the challenges with timber is that it’s hard to repurpose or reuse,” explains the Dutch-born designer. “With that in mind, it seems vital to concentrate on longevity of design.” This is as much a comment about the negative impact of fast furniture as it is about timeless design, or as de Zwart puts it, “archetypal forms that you’d happily live with forever”. Clearly, tables and chairs will run their course eventually, which is why de Zwart says it’s important they’re made in such a way that they don’t end up in landfill.

Bacsac, another brand that Planted represents, was founded by French landscape gardeners Virgile Desurmont and Louis de Fleurieu, along with nature-loving designer Godefroy de Virieu, and “born out of the profound desire to bring nature back into our cities despite their constraints”. The idea behind Bacsac’s signature fabric planters is that they should be used less like regular plant pots and more as a cultivable plot of land: “To help you create gardens and little corners of nature anywhere the ground can’t be dug –rooftops, courtyards, balconies and countless other places.”

“There’s definitely a growing awareness of the importance of nature,” says de Zwart. “Which is why I hope we’ll see a greater demand for conscious, responsible, biophilic design.”

The brand’s real innovation is in the way it designs with a product’s entire life cycle in mind – a detail historically overlooked in the furniture game

your job was to maintain the country’s most complex infrastructure? For you, inspections are a constant battle with Mother Nature and Father Time. So you call IBM to analyse details from video footage using AI. You consolidate the data with maintenance records and discover issues before they’re issues. Now your sustainability strategy can help dramatically extend the life expectancy of your infrastructure and save tons of CO₂ emissions. Who knew…

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HIGHLIGHTS

MARCH – JUNE

April 15 – 16

80TH MEMBERS’ MEETING

Two days of epic action on the track –including a Porsche 911 showcase and 30 Lotus Cortinas racing in the Jim Clark Trophy – as well as fun for all the family.

May 5 – 6

SEASON OPENER

Celebrate the official start of the British Flat Racing Season at Goodwood with two days packed full of behind-thescenes content and outstanding racing, setting the tone for the summer ahead.

May 20 – 21

GOODWOOF

The weekend extravanganza of all things canine is back, with this year's event celebrating the Year of the Poodle.

June 9, 16 & 23

THREE FRIDAY NIGHTS

Prepare to party with the return of these sell-out racing and DJ events.

April 15 – 16

80th members' meeting

The annual Members' Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport is a thrilling weekend of epic motor racing, track demonstrations and fun-filled festivities. This year features a never-before-seen Porsche showcase with a field of iconic 911 models, a demonstration of awesome GT1 racers from the early 2000s, and a chance to see the F1 Championshipwinning Brabham BT52 roar around the track.

The classic racing will be a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the Lotus Cortina, and what better way to celebrate such a milestone than to race 30 of them around Goodwood Motor Circuit in the Jim Clark Trophy. Other races include: the Gordon Spice Trophy for Group 1 Touring cars (1972 – 1980); the SF Edge Trophy, a bonkers fight of pre-war “specials”; and the Hailwood Trophy, an events-only bike race that sees pre-1984 250cc and 350cc Grand Prix motorcycles racing alongside a fleet of Formula 750 bikes from before 1973. Off-track, there is entertainment on offer for all the family, with high-end street food in our Members’ Market, a funfair and spectacular fireworks after the Saturday evening party. Tickets are available exclusively to members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club and start at £96. For those keen to attend, you can join the GRRC as a Fellow for £79 annually, with a number of other benefits including ticket discounts and the use of pit-stop enclosures at the Festival of Speed and Revival.

May – June

goodwood racecourse

SEASON OPENER

Our Season Opener offers two days packed full of behind-the-scenes content providing a fantastic insight into the sport of horseracing alongside fitting celebrations for the Coronation. The tempo continues with Family Raceday (June 11), where themed attractions for all ages include free fairground rides, face-painting, a traditional carousel and high-octane pony racing. Plus, under-18 go free!

After a fantastic decade of racing and DJs at our sell-out Three Friday Nights fixtures in June, it’s time to mix it up in 2023. Watch this space for immersive and theatrical DJ sets as Goodwood takes Three Friday Nights to the next level, with new features that are guaranteed to set pulses racing.

FRANKIE'S FAREWELL TOUR

Frankie Dettori will end his remarkable career in 2023, having announced his intention to retire from the saddle. Famed for his flying dismounts and unabashed displays of emotion, he has enjoyed more success at Goodwood than almost anywhere else except Ascot and his home track, Newmarket. Victories on Iffraaj, Cape Cross, Ouija Board, Too Darn Hot and Stradivarius are just a few that spring to mind during an extraordinary career on the South Downs, among a wealth of others that have made him the most famous jockey in the world.

His farewell tour will take place mainly in the UK, where he will continue to ride for John and Thady Gosden as principal jockey. And this sporting superstar will no doubt be lining up a few more winners at Goodwood, primarily at the Qatar Goodwood Festival, giving his fans a chance to witness his talents one last time.

DISCOVER THE HENNESSEY VENOM F5 ROADSTER

The Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster is a bespoke mid-engine carbon-fiber hypercar engineered to exceed 300 mph. Handcrafted in Texas, the two-seater boasts a custom 6.6-liter, twin-turbocharged ‘Fury’ V8 producing a phenomenal 1,817 horsepower and 1,192 lb-ft of torque — it is the most powerful Roadster in the world, delivering an unrivaled open-air driving experience. Exclusiveness is assured by production limited to just 30 personalized examples. ©

May 20 – 21

goodwoof

After a successful launch last year, this weekend extravaganza devoted to all things furry and four-legged returns to Goodwood in May. To kick off the event in style, we will be celebrating the Year of the Poodle, one of the most intelligent and iconic breeds, with a poodle parade in front of The Kennels. Goodwoof 2023 will feature even more world-class events for champion canine athletes. There will be gundog and sheepdog competitions, top-level Field & Trail demonstrations, wellness workshops and talks from behavioural and veterinary experts. The Studio will host free doga (dog yoga) sessions, sound baths, reiki and dog massage. The Action Sports arena is the place to catch high-octane canine sports such as disc dog – where dogs and their owners compete in distance and freestyle catching, usually to music. And there are plenty of activities for you and your canine companion to have a go at, including flyball, heelwork to music and the fastest dog dash. Guests can enjoy delicious food and drink from the stalls in and around the event, including the fabulous Taittinger champagne bar, and are welcome to bring a picnic. Under-12s and dogs go free, making Goodwoof the perfect family day out. goodwood.com/goodwoof/explore

finish

“The breed has always been a favourite, and King Edward VII is a breeder of excellent South Downs. So was the late Duke of Richmond,” reported the 1907 edition of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, which especially praised the quality of its mutton. The flock at Goodwood continues to flourish – in the expert care of shepherd Nick Page – and win awards, although today it is mostly Southdown lamb that is prized for its flavour. And here we must face the difficult truth confronting any meateater who looks fondly on gambolling springtime lambs – that they’re ultimately destined to become our dinner (although Southdown wool makes great stuffing for very posh duvets and also the mattresses at Goodwood’s Hound Lodge). Organic and free-range, “they grow well and finish early”, are the eminently practical words of Gail Sprake, until recently also the chair of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust – on whose watchlist the Southdown was placed for a time. For “like bell-bottomed trousers, the breed went out of fashion in the 1970s, but it is now regaining its rightful position”. So hurrah for the Southdown. Or rather, baa!

Wade Eastwood

FROM THE AGE OF four my absolute dream was to be a racing driver. By the time I was 10 I was drifting cars in fields – I was a total car and motorbike freak. My family lived near Chichester for a while and I used to climb over the fence at the Lavant Straight on track days and hide behind the marshall to watch the guys driving around Goodwood Motor Circuit. I was so desperate to be a racing driver I thought if I hung around long enough, I would get a sponsor.

I RETURNED TO South Africa for high school and then the army. After that I still wanted to race but I was always a big fan of film, too. I was obsessed by some of the classic 1980s TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard, so I thought, if it’s not racing then maybe it could be crashing cars instead. I got a job as a stuntman and learnt from the ground up. I did some B movies and got pretty bashed up.

I NOW OPERATE an entire team and direct the action unit and the stunts, but I still enjoy performing. With some of the more complex stunts, I'll be trained as if I’m Tom (Cruise) as I want to know the inherent dangers of that stunt (for when he performs the stunt himself), the speed I can teach him to go from zero to hero, and any potential pitfalls – though he’s a mega athlete and super-quick learner. During the process I put a limit on what we can do within the time restraints and work out how I can get the correct composition for each shot.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK was working on the 007 movie The World is not Enough. I was on a jet boat on the Thames in a Brioni suit, speeding past the Houses of Parliament. They called me “Smiler” as I kept showing my teeth – but how could you not? I was doubling James Bond! The rest is history and I’m lucky my career has been filled with “pinch-me” moments like standing on top of a mountain in Norway with TC and just jumping off. We land, we hug each other – it’s just a great day!

I ALWAYS WANTED a Ferrari. Everything about them is iconic – although on the track the McLaren 720S outperforms most supercars I’ve driven or raced – but as you get older your values change and I also love my Range Rover Sport SVR, not just because I’m an ambassador to the brand, but because I can get all my parachutes and wings in the back, plus my surfboard and dog. I also have a collection of Triumph bikes as they’ve sponsored me for years.

I LOVE EVERYTHING GOODWOOD. It’s the only way to say it. I love the whole family. Every Festival of Speed we dance and have fun and race. I’m impressed with what they’ve done for the community in this area. Everything at Goodwood is done with flair. This year I’m helping with Goodwoof – watch this space for a very special spectacle.

IF I COULD TELL MY YOUNGER SELF anything it would be to buy more property and less beer. But you’ve got to have the journey. I’m super-self-motivating and I’ve always been very strong on balance before I knew what balance was. Play hard and work hard. On a weekend, everyone on set laughs at me because even if we’ve had a heavy week I get up early and go racing or speedflying in the Lake District or soaring in Wales – but that’s my way to switch off.

THIS YEAR IS ALL ABOUT films, including Mission: Impossible 7 and 8. In the future, I want to race Le Mans and spend more time adventuring with my wife, family and dog –surfing and jumping off mountains.

Words by Catherine Peel

Film director, stunt coordinator, stuntman, racing driver and all-round badass, Wade Eastwood is best known as the Action Director and Stunt Coordinator on the Mission: Impossible franchise. Born in South Africa, he now lives with his wife, daughter and dog in London and Los Angeles.

URUS PERFORMANTE FOR BAR RAISERS ONLY

Fuel consumption and emission values of Urus Performante: Fuel consumption combined 14,1 l/100km (WLTP); CO2-emissions combined 320 g/km (WLTP).

LAMBORGHINI UK DEALER INFORMATION

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