On 5 November a special event occurs, blending the past with the present. Each year, on the first Sunday of November, history comes alive with the unique spectacle of the Bonhams London-Brighton Veteran Car Run, the world’s largest and longest-running motoring celebration, drawing participants and spectators from around the globe. Commemorating the original Emancipation Run of 14 November 1896 when 33 pioneering motorists celebrated the passing of the Locomotives on the Highway Act (or ‘Red Flag Act’) that raised the official road speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4mph to 14mph and abolished the requirement for a pedestrian to precede these vehicles, the Run was first formally re-enacted in 1927 and has been staged every subsequent November, except during WW2 and in 1947, when petrol was rationed.

The Veteran Car Run follows the historic 60-mile route from Hyde Park in central London to Brighton, East Sussex. Several hundred three- and four-wheeled motor cars from within the UK and shipped in from overseas, all built before 1 January 1905, will join the Run, which, as the event website explains, is ‘not a race, but an endurance test of man and machine.’ Celebrating early motoring progress and the survival of some of the world’s oldest motor cars, the Run also allows the general public to appreciate this aspect of our shared history. Thousands of spectators line the route to cheer on the valiant motors and their occupants, who bundle up against the autumnal weather in warm rugs and vintage-style motoring gear.

Motoring style
Following the development of the automobile in the late 1800s, by the Edwardian era prosperous households were acquiring their first motor cars. Early vehicles, without roof, windows or windscreen and carrying driver and passengers on top, rather than within, were wide open to the elements. Motoring, a new mode of transport, was initially considered a sport: as such, it created another leisure and social occasion that, for the privileged classes who already owned extensive wardrobes, required further outfits – special protective costumes that would also bear public scrutiny. This prompted new lines of innovative outerwear from specialist manufacturers and offered wearers new opportunities for sartorial display.

Protective outerwear
Driving in open cars all year round required heavy-duty protective clothing and the development of early motoring gear was associated with companies like Aquascutum (established 1851) and Burberry’s (1856), pioneers of hardwearing, water-resistant fabrics and already recognised manufacturers of quality outerwear. Also significant were Alfred Dunhill, who in 1893 launched ‘Dunhill’s Motorities’ supplying leather overcoats, goggles, time pieces and other accessories, and Gamages department store (established 1878) who, always quick to acknowledge new trends, stocked everything for the keen motorist. Early motorists planned what to wear according to the prevailing weather and substantial motoring coats were available in various materials for different conditions. Long, loose-fitting waterproofed automobile coats were an essential purchase, Burberrys’ ‘Viator’ and ‘Rusitor’ both popular early 20th century styles, heavier coats being tailored from warm wool like tweed and Irish frieze. Many male motorists favoured a traditional caped Ulster overcoat, perhaps lined with squirrel fur, or more costly beaver or musquash.

Sleek fur and fur-trimmed garments had long been luxury status symbols, but with the advent of motoring previously-unfashionable animal skins also came into vogue. Men’s fur automobile coats were often bulky and shaggy, consciously primitive in appearance and including goat, bear, racoon, wolf and jackal. These rugged garments remained popular with men driving open-topped sports cars even when closed models of motor car became more commonplace during the 1920s. Ladies’ fur motoring coats were both comfortable and stylish: for example, carefully-matched grey squirrel skin coats might have deep contrasting collars and cuffs of fashionable opossum or soft white fox fur. Moleskin was also popular, as was glossy Russian pony skin, smart motoring costumes of warm, lightweight Danish kid comprising hip-length jacket and matching skirt also much admired. Leather and suede motoring gear was already, by the early-1900s, favoured by drivers aiming to cut a dash at the wheel, beginning the long association between leather and motor sports.

Dust and insects
In the early-1900s many roads were unpaved, especially in the countryside, and in dry weather dust presented serious problems, making it hard to see and breathe and covering driver and passengers in a film of dust. To protect clothes from dust clouds, in summer motorists often wore a loose-fitting lightweight dust/duster coat of unlined canvas, linen, flannel or alpaca, usually off-white, grey or beige in colour, the sleeves fashioned with elasticated inner cuffs or sealed with straps. Men also wore hats ranging from peaked driving caps and regular cloth caps to headwear with ear flaps, like deerstalkers. Initially some women adopted sporty masculine-style peaked caps, although most favoured a hat and veil to screen hair and complexion from dust and oil smuts. An adjustable gauze veil, worn up or drawn down to cover the face, was often layered over a fashionable wide-brimmed hat and tied under the chin, while an additional veil of rubber tissue might be kept handy, in case of sudden rain. More functional but bizarre-looking headwear, useful for preserving a good hat or elaborate coiffure, included hoods on a rigid wire frame covered with substantial veiling and incorporating a window of mica at eye level – a style resembling the beekeeper’s hood. Companies offered an array of motoring veil and hood styles, for example Dunhill’s ‘Princess veil’, ‘Buckingham hood’ (with mica window) and the waterproof ‘Dagmar hood.’

Driving on un-made roads without a windscreen also exposed early motorists to flying debris like loose stones and horseshoe nails, and to insects. To shield their eyes, male drivers generally used goggles, common types including convex eye-glasses with nickel or aluminium rims and an elastic strap worn around the head, or a one-piece mica mask or eye-shield. Some preferred wire ear-pieces, as on spectacles, although sturdier, purpose-designed motoring goggles set into a close-fitting leather mask afforded the best protection. During the winter these also shielded the eyes from cold air, which, along with dust, insects and other irritants could cause serious eye infections. Doctors recommended that motorists on returning home should bathe their eyes with a solution of water and boric acid, to rinse out specks and serve as a disinfectant. Most women found goggles unattractive, preferring a veil, although some used both goggles and veils, especially serious female motorists when driving at speed.

Motoring accessories
Besides coats, hats and goggles, many accessories were produced for early motorists, some essential, others frivolous novelties. Various kinds of warm fur rug were popular for protecting the legs in winter, as well as waterproof tarpaulin-like ‘aprons’. Other items included men’s sleeved leather waistcoats for an extra inner layer, waterproof outer sleeve protectors and goats’ hair or fur-lined leather foot muffs and foot protectors, some foot muffs made all-in-one with fur lap robes that wrapped around the body. If advertisements are to be believed, ladies adopted special accessories for different motoring occasions, for example the three-quarter length suede ‘motor calling wrap’ (now that they made their social calls by motor car), or, for evenings, a modish soft Danish kid ‘motor theatre coat’ in fashionable orchid mauve, peach blossom pink or canary yellow, with an eye-catching storm collar and cuffs of chinchilla fur.

Protective driving gloves or gauntlets with long stiffened cuffs were practical and looked stylish when co-ordinated with different motoring coats in shades of tan, brown, mauve, dark green and dark red. Fur was also widely used for winter driving gloves, these being advertised as suitable Christmas presents in Gamages Christmas Bazaar, 1913 – gauntlets in coney seal, rabbit, muskrat or grey opossum for men and rabbit fur for ladies, beaver a luxury option. Dorothy Levitt (1882/3-1922), pioneering motorist and reportedly the first British woman to win a motor race, held firm opinions about motoring gear and wrote a manual for lady drivers, The Woman and the Car (1909). Regarding gloves, she advised to wear good soft kid and her suggestion that gloves and other personal items like handkerchief and veil be kept ‘in the little drawer under the seat of the car’ probably inspired the integrated glove compartment. Another tip was always to have a vanity mirror handy, not only for beauty purposes, but as a rear view driving mirror before cars were built with these mirrors. Her recommendations reflect the dual concerns of early motoring: function and fashion.

Chauffeurs’ liveries
Although only prosperous ancestors are likely to have owned a motor car in the early-1900s, some of our forebears worked as domestic chauffeurs, maintaining and driving the cars of affluent families. Employed alongside, then eventually replacing the coachmen and grooms who traditionally drove and maintained a household’s carriages and horses, early motor car chauffeurs acknowledged their equestrian heritage in their appearance. The early-20th-century chauffeur’s livery generally comprised jodhpur-style riding breeches, knee-length leather boots or gaiters, a double-breasted brass-buttoned tunic, peaked cap and gauntlet gloves, with a long, protective outer coat for inclement weather.