The waistcoat dilemma

There has been a major setback to tomorrow’s record attempt. With just hours to go I have been forced to make a last minute wardrobe adjustment.

An email has arrived from the folk at Guinness World Record. They have finally finished reviewing all my evidence for my last attempt back in May. However, rather than concluding that I missed Scott Forbes’ time by 27 seconds, instead they decided they could not approve my attempt because I wasn’t wearing a waistcoat!

This came as a complete shock for two reasons. Firstly, the week before that attempt I received an email approving my costume without a waistcoat. Secondly, the then current record holder, Gihan Amarasiriwardena, and the two prior record holders all didn’t wear a waistcoat!

Gihan, CEO of suit company Ministry of Supply, is shown here with his sunglasses on clearly not wearing a waistcoat.

Rex Woodbury, who briefly held the record in April, is shown here while running in New York not wearing a waistcoat.

Nick Mizera, the first person I heard of breaking the record a year ago also didn’t appear to wear a waistcoat. Here’s a photo of him next to a Guinness World Record official after his record breaking attempt.

So, while the regulations do state that a waistcoat should be worn, it seems that this has not been rigidly applied across the last 4 attempts.

Only Scott Forbes, the current record holder was wearing a waistcoat. So despite the mixed standards applied, I feel that to properly break his record I need to wear a waistcoat. So, yesterday I rushed out to buy one.

Thankfully, I found a black waistcoat in my size. Hopefully it will do justice to the Bonham Strand suit and I am determined it won’t slow me down tomorrow.