These days nobody changes clothes before they climb into their car.
And, despite the fact that motor racing fan Steve McQueen has been a style icon for generations of men, we don't tend to associate cars with fashion. Or I don't. Or if I do, I see not Steve McQueen but Jeremy Clarkson or (worse) Jeremy Clarkson's hair or (worse again) Will.i.am on the Top Gear couch wearing what looks like fingerless white leather gloves.
However there was a time when cars and fashion in conjunction did mean something. And with nostalgia being the default setting for much of menswear now it's inevitable that attention would turn to motoring apparel: car coats, mesh-backed snap-close driving gloves and Wacky Races silk scarves your grandad wore for warmth and used for emergency repairs to his Austin-Healey Sprite when the fan belt packed in.
Hollywood A-lister Ryan Gosling has a role here too. Most male fans of Drive, his 2010 hit, will have lusted not over him but his attention-grabbing Patek Philippe watch and (just possibly) his gold lame bomber jacket. Those anticipating the return of motoring chic, however, will have been clocking his leather mitts - a pair of Gaspar 2204 driving gloves in London Tan, in case you were wondering.
Once upon a time gloves would only have been part of the car/fashion package. As well as the silk scarf and the car coat (an overcoat cut short enough to leave the legs free) you might have had driving shoes (usually a moccasin-type, thin-soled for extra grip) and maybe a tartan travel rug. Oh, and a flat cap, for that Jay Gatsby-in-his-Rolls-Royce-Silver-Ghost vibe. Modern takes on all these things are available again, with the car coat in particular getting a catwalk outing.
Mind you, why stop there? You may not drive a clapped-out open-top Austin-Healey Sprite but that doesn't mean you can't dress like you do, complete with goggles, leather flying helmet and, in the place of Gosling's dainty driving gloves, a pair of not-so-dainty driving gauntlets - and yes, that is the technical term.
You will get a pair of these for £80 from Greycar, a website specialising in period motoring clobber. The website also has RAF-style goggles and leather flying helmets as well as a hard hat called the Davida Classic helmet. It's modelled on the one Stirling Moss wore at the 1955 Mille Miglia, the famous Italian road race which also lent its name to a jacket by Italian fashion label CP Company. For a long time it was the garment of choice for Britain's more discerning soccer casuals. Go figure.
But my favourite are the heavy twill white cotton overalls, as modelled by the Bentley team at the 1929 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race. Climb into them and the whiff of nostalgia will be so strong I'll smell the petrol fumes. I'll still see Jeremy Clarkson's hair when I close my eyes, but you can't have everything.
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