‘We should celebrate the great history we’ve got in fashion, music, art, design, cinema and that is what we are doing’, explains Wayne Hemingway, while a couple of teenagers ride past him, clad head to toe in garb at least twice their age, on a bike looking as though it may have easily toured with The Who’s original line-up of.
They are here for Wayne’s ‘Vintage at Goodwood’ event, organised to celebrate all things retro and thrifty. Wayne and wife Gerardine have overseen the revival of the vintage movement with many similar events. However with the first ever Festival of Thrift, announced to take place in Linfield, Darlington on 21-22 September, it seems they have spread vintage fashion to caravanning too.
As we reported last week the festival will include an assembly of ‘upcycled’ caravan and motorhome restaurants.
Now it seems caravanners in attendance are in for another special treat. Reality star and entrepreneur Max McMurdo has joined the fray, as he has announced he will put his vision for ‘upcycling’ to the test as, he spends two full days building a vintage-style beach hut caravan.
Max has appeared on Dragons’ Den (impressing now business partners Theo Paphitis and Debra Meaden) and Kirstie Allsopp’s Fill Your House For Free and is thrilled to be involved in the festival.
“When I heard about the Festival of Thrift, I knew I just had to go. It’s such a great concept – and I’m really excited by thrift,” he says.
Max concedes, however, his business experience has never seen him work on a caravan before. Regardless he takes it in his stride enthusiastically, saying: “it’s going to be an exciting challenge for me and the team.” It certainly sounds like an entertaining endeavour, if highly ambitious.
Still Max is no stranger to ambitious design, as his career has seen him create home furniture from the likes of wheelbarrows and trolleys, with the final product finding its way onto the shopping lists of Saatchi and Saatchi and in exhibition halls, alongside Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, to name a few.
The project is due to span the length of the festival and is meant to see the transformation of an old trailer into the epitome ‘glamour on wheels’.
Max and his team will build and design both interior and exterior by “reusing pieces that would otherwise be thrown away”.
Upcycling on the rise
This seems to be the essence of the ‘upcycling’ trend and the subsequent crux of the festival’s message. Wayne agrees: “When my mum was her grandchildren’s age you would have been classed as poor to do it” he tells ITN.
Whether it is building a caravan from old and otherwise unusable parts or just sporting a second-hand sweater on a night out, the change of attitude toward this trend is visible.
“Now it’s not classed as a dirty thing, it’s classed as a ‘cool’ thing and thank god, because that was a daft attitude” says Wayne, whose keen eye for haute couture saw his designs find their way to the catwalk for 21 consecutive seasons at London Fashion Week, before he cashed in and sold his label.
Max is one of several big names to partner with the Festival of Thrift, as Wayne’s brainchild gathers momentum.
“He’s a great addition to the line-up, which is already impressive”, smiles Wayne, as he takes another leap toward furthering his vision for vintage thrift fashion in this new festival.
The Festival of Thrift will take place between 21 and 22 September 2013 at Lingfield Point, Darlington.
- To see a full interview of Wayne discussing vintage style click on the video below
