Why Do the English Dress So Horridly?

[texas_jack]

Originally Posted by mensimageconsultant

Europeans drive less than Americans, and air conditioning is less popular in Europe than in the USA. That's probably why sandals are more common in Europe.

Britons do often have bad teeth, due to problems with the health care system. They aren't known for general physical attractiveness, either. Therefore, it's possible that that gives many a "why bother" attitude toward dressing well.

lol

 

[mensimageconsultant]

It's hardly a joke. Obesity in Europe, the United Kingdom more so than some of the other countries mentioned, is catching up to American obesity. Although it could be attributable to deeper factors, one shouldn't be surprised if English style is consequently sliding downward and even alleged stalwarts such as France decline greatly in the near future. Nowhere are the obese known for dressing well.

 

[LabelKing]

Perhaps not the obese, but there are certainly portly men who do dress well.

 

[Cantabrigian]

Originally Posted by mensimageconsultant

Europeans drive less than Americans, and air conditioning is less popular in Europe than in the USA. That's probably why sandals are more common in Europe.

Britons do often have bad teeth, due to problems with the health care system. They aren't known for general physical attractiveness, either. Therefore, it's possible that that gives many a "why bother" attitude toward dressing well.
Do people really pay you for those sorts of gems?

The only time that it's been clearer to me that there really are people with more money than sense is when I heard that some pay 900 for bespoke polo shirts.

 

[lakewolf]

Maybe Matt should wear his pink glasses the next time he goes to the UK, he'll see things better then

 

[lakewolf]

Originally Posted by Despos

Matt,
I thiink what you are seeing has as much to do with the development of your eye and taste for cloth and fit. Don't know how long you have been having clothes made but I am sure your taste level and awareness of fitting issues has grown substantially since you began.
Often after making someone their first custom suit they come back and say how poorly the other men in their office dress. They notice rumpled shoulders, collars that don't hug, etc.. Things they never noticed pryor to getting a suit that fits and they become aware of the possibilities. Some men have worn ill fitting clothing for so long they have accepted that as the way jackets or trousers or shirts fit. Many have never ventured past the department store experience.

Men dress poorly everywhere. Two simple reasons. They just don't know or care to know a better way to dress and they aren't comfortable in tailored clothing because they don't how clothes should fit or how to get clothing to fit properly. Men don't want to wear clothing they are not comfortable in, so they don't dress.
Comfort wins over propriety.


Exactly... right to the point !

It is funny, some days I feel I am not well dressed but I am still complimented by many telling me... wow you are allways very smart and elegant.... Specially for example yesterday, I went to dance to a little club in which I know I will be steeped over, sweated and beer spilled so I was just putting on the lesser good clohes, a fused and ill fitting jacket, a disposable shirt and my well worn ( but beautiful) shoes... I still got compliments... and this is because OUR standards are much higher now, their standards are still the same....

 

[passingtime]

Originally Posted by mensimageconsultant

Europeans drive less than Americans, and air conditioning is less popular in Europe than in the USA. That's probably why sandals are more common in Europe.

Britons do often have bad teeth, due to problems with the health care system. They aren't known for general physical attractiveness, either. Therefore, it's possible that that gives many a "why bother" attitude toward dressing well.

I will be charitable and assume the comment on sandals was a joke. For the rest you are commenting on a culture you obviously don't understand, and compounding your error by attempting to interpret it in the context of your local culture.

 

[The Style Council]

MENSIMAGECONSULTANT - Quotes


"Britons do often have bad teeth, due to problems with the health care system. They aren't known for general physical attractiveness, either. Therefore, it's possible that that gives many a "why bother" attitude toward dressing well."

"It's hardly a joke. Obesity in Europe, the United Kingdom more so than some of the other countries mentioned, is catching up to American obesity. Although it could be attributable to deeper factors, one shouldn't be surprised if English style is consequently sliding downward and even alleged stalwarts such as France decline greatly in the near future. Nowhere are the obese known for dressing well."


MensImageConsultant

The Style Council

 

[Manton]

A post has to be unusually stupid to make my sympathize with passingtime. Congratulations.

 

[Percy Trimmer]

England is still essentially a 'class' society. Until relatively recently most people dressed according to their perceived 'station' in life. Many still do. Dressing 'horridly' would not be seen as an offence in England in the way that dressing above or below your station would. Indeed these days dressing horridly is probably the safest way to dress if you do not want to draw attention to yourself or be thought pretentious.

 

[lasbar]

England is still a class-based society and that social segregation is deeper than you think.....
It is starting as early as you are born which influence which school you're attending ,education you're receiving and so on.....
I just got back from Venice and i have seen more elegant people than in London...
The ill-suited suit is a rarity there...

 

[eg1]

Originally Posted by Percy Trimmer

England is still essentially a 'class' society. Until relatively recently most people dressed according to their perceived 'station' in life. Many still do. Dressing 'horridly' would not be seen as an offence in England in the way that dressing above or below your station would. Indeed these days dressing horridly is probably the safest way to dress if you do not want to draw attention to yourself or be thought pretentious.

This makes a great deal of sense to me, even over here in "the colonies". Growing up, if you ever wore a suit, the immediate crack was "who died?" -- and there was no mistaking the sneering "tall poppy" hostility.

 

[lasbar]

I do work in the south-east of England and when i meet one of my colleague on my days off wearing a suit ,they will always comment on it....
I do not like stereotypes but in my local town ,40% of men are wearing football tops to go shopping with the missus...
The Savile row myth is only a microcosm and believe me ,in certain parts of the country ,tracksuits are the attire du jour....
The average English men is far from being the Sartorial God some people would like to think....Mayfair is not England....
The Italian job bloke has more dress sense than his English counterpart ....

 

[mensimageconsultant]

Those are good points about a class-based society. Going back to the subject of obesity, read this. Many Americans probably base their perceptions of Britons on what they see on television or in film, which tends to be some form of stylized fiction or celebrities dressed up for public appearances.

 

[Meurice]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

London sounds like the perfect dystopia.

What, you think it's a coincidence that 1984, BNW, and all the rest are all British?

I was in London just a few days ago in the same places, Matt. I did make a little pilgrimage to Savile Row but it was late and there was literally no one there.

I did see a lot of cool streetwear, and for the first time ever a bunch of guys rocking Nudie denim.