As Lydia Harper aimed her camera at the crowds gathered in Melbourne, Australia, there was only one way to describe the swarm of people: proper, pure racing fans. The city hosted both the Formula One and Two Australian Grands Prix that weekend at Albert Park Circuit, with the latter making history as FIA F2 debuted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Among the fans jumping and shouting for drivers to come give autographs, a tote bag with Parc Fermé in capital letters caught Harper’s eye as she photographed the environment. The phrase literally translates to “closed park” in French and is often used in motor sports to describe a secure area at the circuit where cars are checked. The bag is just one piece of merchandise that has been designed and put out by the creative agency Harper runs, none other than Parc Fermé itself. And just as F2 is widely recognized as a launch pad for up-and-coming drivers, the feeder series has provided Parc Fermé with a space to put down roots, grow and expand.
Harper, 32, and her sister, Alice, 27, launched their brand during the height of the pandemic, in 2020. Harper was already in business as a wedding and lifestyle photographer, while Alice worked in fashion. Eventually the two of them saw a gap in motor sports, especially when it came to creative merchandising and storytelling. But they had no contacts, no history with the sport (beyond a one-off bike event in ’18 that Harper photographed) and no idea how to get into the industry. So they did what anyone else would do: Fake it till you make it. For Harper, that meant showing up with a camera and proving she could capture all the action at a race. At the end of the year, she got a job within F1 as a freelance photographer, and, as it would turn out, her work was exactly what motor sports needed.
Lydia Harper/Parc Fermé
Within the last year, Parc Fermé has been a fully accredited presence in the paddock, working primarily in F2 and quickly expanding into F1 as well. In 2022, Harper captured everything from Lewis Hamilton waving to a home crowd at Silverstone to Sophia Flöersch driving an F1 car at the Historic Grand Prix in Dubai. The brand kicked off ’23 working with Williams driver Alex Albon and LPGA golfer Lily Muni He, following the couple through preseason training and capturing some sunset shots in a restored Porsche 911. During the summer break, Parc Fermé sat down for coffee with Clément Novalak, who went on to win his first F2 race at Zandvoort later that month.
“I think for quite a long time drivers have been frustrated that they’ve not been captured the way they want to, and that their content that they’ve been getting, their audience hasn’t related to it,” Harper says. “When we came in, and they realized they could work with us, that’s been quite cool for them to actually say, You’re exactly what I need. I don’t need 50 pictures of me on track every day; I need you to come and hang out in my driver’s room for a bit.”
In addition to the drivers appreciating their work, the Harper sisters knew their brand could succeed because the fans understood it, too. After selling the tote as their first piece, Parc Fermé made their official move into clothing, releasing a T-shirt branded for the Monaco Grand Prix. And they were overwhelmed by how many F1 fans wanted it—proving, once again, that there was a gap in the market, and an entire cohort of young, contemporary fans waiting to be catered to. Thanks to social media and content such as Drive to Survive, the sport’s fandom has only grown, and the demand for fresh merchandising has followed. Scroll through the Parc Fermé site, and you’ll see Sold Out written under nearly every hoodie, T-shirt, baseball cap and tote alike.
“Motor sport merch, especially vintage motor sport merch, has infiltrated culture. … It’s like designing stuff that you don’t know is motor sport merch—unless you know. We have people who buy our stuff who don’t follow F1, and they’re not buying it because it looks like F1 merch,” Harper says. “So it’s kind of cool going the other way and finding people who like what we’re doing, and then they get into the sport through us as well.”
Lydia Harper/Parc Fermé
Harper became a fan of the sport herself through branding and media. She went to school and studied agricultural property, a far cry from the creative work that she knew and loved. After a short stint in leather craft, and more time developing her skills as a photographer, it was actually Harper’s interest in Red Bull that led her to F1. She was a big fan of them, she says, as a media company, but not yet as a racing team. The Red Bull content led her to discover drivers such as fan-favorite Daniel Ricciardo, and from there took the leap from casual fan to full-blown racing aficionado.
Now, you can find Harper at nearly every race on the calendar. Starting as early as 6:30 a.m., she’ll be out on the track, sporting a harness for her camera, a pair of Vans and Oakleys (she’s upped her sunglasses game in the past few years, bringing as many as six pairs for a race weekend). It’ll be late in the evening before her day wraps up, but she’ll be ready to do it all again at the next circuit—and maybe spot a few tote bags along the way.
