2021 Gatsby picnic

[1930artdeco]

It is just around the corner. The Art Deco Society of California is finally allowed to hold its Gatsby picnic. We will see how it looks this year, my club has three Model A's going and I will take lots of pics and post them here. Hopefully, that will brighten peoples day up a bit.

Mike

 

[1930artdeco]

here are some photos of a great picnic. Most everyone was wearing a mask-fortunately it was outdoors with a breeze. And yes that is real Dual Cowl Packard Phaeton, parked in between a V16 Cadillac and another Packard. The attendance was down abit this year with only about 800 people and 19 cars. A normal year is about a 1000 people and 50+ cars.

Enjoy,

Mike

 

[tonyb]

Looks like fun. Glad you were able to safely (knock on wood) stage the event.

 

[tonyb]

By the way, there’s a FB group devoted to the streamline moderne era in Los Angeles. Posts there sometimes venture well beyond LA, but that’s the focus.

 

[Edward]

Always looks like a great event. I would consider going one year, once travel that way is practical again and I have the right wardrobe.

 

[JJ Katz]

What a great event!
We had our second annual Pukka Picnic here in London. A much more low-key event, but still fun.

 

[1930artdeco]

The nice thing about dress, is that if you try and don’t have anything to far out of bounds then nobody bothers you. They just don’t want jeans, t shirts, shorts etc. as a taxi driver one year I drove a couple in from the front gate that just flew in from Texas for this event! That is dedication.
Mike

 

[Edward]

What a great event!
We had our second annual Pukka Picnic here in London. A much more low-key event, but still fun.

Fancy meeting you here - didn't realise you'd joined us in these virtual parts, welcome!

The nice thing about dress, is that if you try and don’t have anything to far out of bounds then nobody bothers you. They just don’t want jeans, t shirts, shorts etc. as a taxi driver one year I drove a couple in from the front gate that just flew in from Texas for this event! That is dedication.
Mike

That sounds positive - I think I'd gotten the impression somewhere it was "strictly" 20s - my wardrobe is markedly more 40s and 50s, really, these days. I'm at that awkward place working on losing weight where I don't want to buy a lot of new stuff til I'm a size I want to be and can maintain...

It does sound, though, that they have a nice balance. I absolutely agree that you do need to have some - for want of a better way of putting it - minimum expectations of dress code otherwise the event loses its character. On the other hand, being too demanding of "correct period dress" and you end up alienating anyone new. It happens in any scene I'm sure, but it wouldn't be the first time if I heard someone at an event I was at on the one hand bemoaning the lack of newbies getting into the scene, then in the next minute sneering at "the Collectif massive" (Collectif is a very affordable, repro clothing brand in the UK; they have been around about twenty years specialising in women's wear, but just this last couple of years started also doing a menswear range), suggesting that reproduction stuff is lesser and all sorts. I think it's important to find that happy middle ground for any scene that wants to continue. In my experience of many years on the Chap scene in particular, it's far from unusual to see someone arrive, new, at an event wearing an outfit that might not be great by a seasoned vet's standards, but they've made an effort and if they have a good time it's no surprise if they turn up the next year and the year after that in better and better outfits, having caught the bug.