Festival of Speed is our longest-standing Motorsport event, starting in 1993 when it opened to 25,00 people. We were expecting 2000!
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
Just beyond Goodwood House along the Hillclimb, the 2nd Dukes banqueting house was also known as "one of the finest rooms in England" (George Vertue 1747).
"En la rose je fleurie" or "Like the rose, I flourish" is part of the Richmond coat of Arms and motto
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
Revel in the history of our hounds with their family trees dating back to some of our earliest documents at Goodwood.
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
For the last two years, 5,800 bales have been recylced into the biomass energy centre to be used for energy generation
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
Spectate from the chicane at the Revival to see plenty of classic cars going sideways as they exit this infamous point of our Motor Circuit.
Flying jetpacks doesn't have to just be a spectator sport at FOS, you can have a go at our very own Aerodrome!
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
The red & yellow of the Racecourse can be traced back hundreds of years, even captured in our stunning Stubbs paintings in the Goodwood Collection
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
Spectate from the chicane at the Revival to see plenty of classic cars going sideways as they exit this infamous point of our Motor Circuit.
Flying jetpacks doesn't have to just be a spectator sport at FOS, you can have a go at our very own Aerodrome!
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
We have been host to many incredible film crews using Goodwood as a backdrop for shows like Downton Abbey, Hollywood Blockbusters like Venom: let there be Carnage and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
David Edney, head Butler dons a morning suit "and a smile" every day and has been woking at Goodwood for over 25 years!
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
The red & yellow of the Racecourse can be traced back hundreds of years, even captured in our stunning Stubbs paintings in the Goodwood Collection
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
The first thing ever dropped at Goodwood was a cuddly elephant which landed in 1932 just as the 9th Duke of Richmonds passion for flying was taking off.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
Goodwood’s heritage of sporting pursuits, speed and innovation inspired fashion designer Nabil Nayal’s stunning new collection of couture pieces.
Words by Nilgin Yusuf
Photography by Jon Nicholson
“I REMEMBER THE SMELL OF OILS and cottons and how they would steam and make the fabrics. It’s very distinctive and if I smell it now, it sends me right back to being four years old in my father’s textile store.” Nabil Nayal (his full name, Nabil El-Nayal, means Noble Man or Prince) is recalling the family business – once located in a souk in Aleppo, Syria, that had been passed down from his grandfather. Nayal moved to the UK at 14, but Syria has had a formative influence on the fashion designer, who is now 34. He fondly recalls rolling over bales of fabric as a child and secretly snipping tiny samples from his favourite bolts of cloth that he would hide in his bedroom. “I was a young hoarder and would store these beloved scraps,” he confesses. “At one point, my dad was convinced we had mice because all this material kept disappearing.”
I was told not to limit myself but to produce the most dramatic pieces I could
When the original premises were bombed out of existence six years ago, the textile business ended up operating out of his old bedroom, long after Nayal had moved to England to become a fashion student at Manchester Metropolitan University. The fabric hoarder went on to develop a confident signature style, one that emphasised form and silhouette. He cites the late, great Italian designer Gianfranco Ferré, known for his architectural shirt-cutting, as a key influence and it is shirts that Nayal is perhaps best known for. When Nayal was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2015, the late Karl Lagerfeld bought one of his white poplin shirts with a bonded and pleated collar for his muse, Amanda Harlech, declaring, “I love it! I love it! I love it!!”
Nayal is currently working on his ninth collection for London Fashion Week as well as an intriguing collaboration with Goodwood, which plays to his fascination with historical design. The forthcoming Spring/Summer 2020 collection sees a return to his Syrian heritage via Lord Byron and the New Romanticism of the 1980s. History has always been a key driver in the prize-winning work that Nayal has produced, which has garnered him countless awards from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Fashion Council.
Examining historical dress is key to Nayal’s research process and creative imagination; he relishes being in close proximity to authentic garments, uncovering the secrets of their craftsmanship. Intricate smocking and pleating are often recreated using modern technologies such as bonding or 3D-printing, but he feels there’s too much reliance on the internet and 2D imagery for fashion research: “The screen is a tool and shouldn’t be a guiding principle. Creativity is interdisciplinary; it’s about crossing into different spaces and having new conversations. Being able to touch clothes, to feel the weight of them and see the detail, excites me.”
I realised it was all about innovation... tradition and heritage, yes, but always innovation
Nayal’s desire for new conversations with the future and the past have seen him working with the School of Historical Dress in Lambeth, which gave the designer access to a rich collection of historical garments. His exploration of pieces from the late 18th and early 19th centuries took him to the chemise à la reine, which was a key element of his A/W 2019 collection. Before this, he was also a regular at the British Library, which is where he researched his 40,000word PhD on Elizabethan dress. “Not bad for someone who failed their English GCSE!” he jokes (and there aren’t many fashion designers who can put Dr in front of their name). It’s also where he presented his first London Fashion Week collection. Here, he pored over original texts from the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and some of these words made their way onto white lawn dresses, including the famous quotation, “I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and a King of England too” – uttered by Elizabeth I when the Spanish invasion was imminent.
“Elizabeth I, as channelled by Cate Blanchett, is close to my ideal woman,” says Nayal. “She wasn’t afraid to challenge convention.” And that also holds true for many of the women who have chosen to wear his clothes, including artists, designers and curators. Notable patrons are Lady Gaga, Rihanna and the late Zaha Hadid. Nayal has done a great job of modernising the Elizabethan ruff, something that features on some of his shirts and which he wants to be worn in a contemporary, relaxed way. “My approach is about disruption as a generative principle in fashion design; it’s about transfiguring the different elements into a contemporary whole.”
With Nayal’s fascination and respect for the past, the stars aligned when he was approached this year by the Duke of Richmond to create exclusive pieces inspired by the rich heritage of Goodwood. The estate is famous, of course, for its sporting pursuits, all of which have their own clothing codes and cultures, whether it’s motorsport, aviation, horse racing or golf. But Goodwood is also a highly social place, with race meetings, balls and parties integral to its yearly calendar. For centuries it has been a place where people would come together, dress up and have fun.
Nayal and the Duke were introduced by Sian Westerman of the British Fashion Council and Nayal was given an extensive tour around Goodwood house and the estate. Dazzled by the artefacts and artworks there, it was ultimately the concept of speed that spoke most powerfully to him. Over the past 26 years, Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a globally famous annual celebration of brilliance in the motoring and aviation worlds, with an emphasis not just on the design and aesthetics, but also on the dynamic technical capabilities of these brilliant machines.
“I realised it was all about innovation,” says Nayal. “Tradition and heritage, yes, but always innovation. I took speed as my theme and the concept of aerodynamics, which allows vehicles to travel through space more quickly. I wanted to prioritise function and performance over decoration. I looked at the importance of stripes in sportswear and how they can convey speed.” Three bespoke pieces: a full-length gown and train, a cocktail dress and a trouser suit, all made from silk zibeline – a luxurious and sculptural fabric – are combined with silk organza and cotton organdie. “The pieces look very classic from the front but the drama is all at the back of the garments,” he adds. This rearguard action gives a sense of turbulence and speed.
The past and the future combined – a winning Goodwood alchemy
Nabil Nayal’s Goodwood-inspired couture pieces were unveiled at Ladies Day on August 1 of this year, during the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and will now be exhibited at Goodwood, becoming part of the estate’s rich archive of treasures. “I’ve never had the chance to work on a couture project before so this was an amazing opportunity,” the designer says proudly. “I was told not to limit myself but to produce the most dramatic pieces I could.” There is a pleasing serendipity that Nayal’s work, much of which draws its inspiration from fashion archives, will itself be part of the estate’s archive for future generations to enjoy. The past and the future combined – a winning Goodwood alchemy.
This article was taken from the Autumn 2019 edition of the Goodwood Magazine.