- Bakers on “The Great British Baking Show” wear the same clothes for multiple days of filming.
- Speaking to Insider, contestants described the experience as “stinky” and “very dirty.”
- Some bakers bought duplicate outfits or tried to wash their clothes in a bathtub.
As if baking for Paul Hollywood under time constraints isn’t tricky enough, “Great British Baking Show” contestants also have to wear the same clothes for days.
Fans of the series, known as “The Great British Bake Off” in the UK, might have noticed that bakers are shown wearing the same outfit for an entire episode and that challenges and interviews take place over multiple days.
During 14-hour shooting days in a hot tent, those outfits don’t exactly stay tidy, and former contestants told Insider that it was tough wearing the same “stinky” clothes each day.
Bakers have to wear the same outfit to maintain continuity, and they aren’t given extras
Channel 4
Season-seven baker Rav Bansal said that working with messy ingredients like food coloring and melted chocolate meant contestants’ clothes got “very dirty.”
But no matter how many stains they got on their outfits, bakers were required to wear the same clothes every day of shooting an episode to maintain continuity among their various interviews and challenges.
“All these people in the stinky heat, can you imagine? It was a nightmare,” Insider was told by Stacey Hart, a season-eight baker. “It was horrendous. All my aprons were black. Totally black.”
Antony Amourdoux from season nine said that contestants didn’t smell good after filming.
“If you are a baker, you are sweating in those clothes and you’re proper stinky. The first week all of us were stinking the second day,” Insider spoke to him.
Some bakers got creative to manage the smell by buying duplicate outfits or washing their clothes in bathtubs
Channel 4
Amourdoux said that a few weeks into his season some bakers brought duplicates of their outfits. They had to wear the same sweaters, accessories, hairstyles, and hairstyles they wore the previous week in order to maintain continuity.
Bansal stated that it was not possible to bring a duplicate outfit, and that a dry-cleaning service would have made it easier for bakers.
“Some of us had to resort to washing our clothes in the hotel bathtub, praying they will dry in time for the next day of filming,” Insider was informed by him.
Representatives for “The Great British Baking Show” did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.