Are British men scuffy? (short clip from BBC Radio 4)

Here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today...00/9281093.stm

The average Londoner is not to SF's standards...

A lot of tracksuit,football shirts,designer gears with big logos and so on...

The average working man in London is like everywhere else in the world wearing ill-fitted sizes and cheap ties....

It is the same all around the world except maybe Milan or Venice..

Originally Posted by lasbar

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The average Londoner is not to SF's standards...

A lot of tracksuit,football shirts,designer gears with big logos and so on...

The average working man in London is like everywhere else in the world wearing ill-fitted sizes and cheap ties....

It is the same all around the world except maybe Milan or Venice..

Last time I was in Venice, I only saw merchants, gondoliers, and tourists. Perhaps it's different in the winter, but it wasn't the height of fashion. Mind you, there were a ton of nice shops.

I'd say it has a higher proportion of well dressed gents, personally.

In general I would say yes.

Even those chaps who work in the City and 'have' to dress smart generally do so more out of tradition and necessity rather than having any particular interest in sartorial matters IMO. Before I get shot down obviously there are exceptions.

Originally Posted by Ich_Dien

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I'd say it has a higher proportion of well dressed gents, personally.

Venice or London?

Originally Posted by Southlondongent

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Even those chaps who work in the City and 'have' to dress smart generally do so more out of tradition and necessity rather than having any particular interest in sartorial matters IMO. Before I get shot down obviously there are exceptions.

Some of the worst dressers I see are in fact those in the City - ties with top shirt button undone, badly fitting suits, odd buttoning on suit jackets etc.

I recently had to photograph a senior exec at a bank and asked him to adjust his tie. He said he had practically never worn one before. I was surprised to say the least.

The average Joe of Britain I would say is scruffy - just like most other nations.

The average man is very scruffy here, tracksuit, t-shirt, trainers. Having said that, wandering around London I often see very well dressed men indeed, they would fit right in here, even if a bit conservative. Winter is very fertile season for it, many coverts and chesterfields this year.

Topman rubbish.

They talk about the 'freedom' to wear what you want, but someone who is properly dressed will be frowned upon in certain quarters. I have decided that I don't give a damn about what other people wear and I wear what I like. I accept any compliments gratefully and dish them out when I mean them... and that's it. People at University (Bristol) accept it and some have started to smarten themselves up - I admit I can only really afford Uniqlo but I do buy stuff that most people think looks good, even if the snobs on here wouldn't, crisp shirts with minimum detail and their sports jackets are also nice - which can only be a good thing.

The real fact is that most of people are scruffy.

Originally Posted by p_b

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The real fact is that most of people are scruffy.
With the amount of good Menswear Stores,in London.I think yes we are scruffy.But,I also think the Standards have changed-hence Peter Yorke talking about the Tie.

Originally Posted by BareSolid

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Topman rubbish.

They talk about the 'freedom' to wear what you want, but someone who is properly dressed will be frowned upon in certain quarters. I have decided that I don't give a damn about what other people wear and I wear what I like. I accept any compliments gratefully and dish them out when I mean them... and that's it. People at University (Bristol) accept it and some have started to smarten themselves up - I admit I can only really afford Uniqlo but I do buy stuff that most people think looks good, even if the snobs on here wouldn't, crisp shirts with minimum detail and their sports jackets are also nice - which can only be a good thing.

Too right. Smartness has nothing to do with money. When I was in my teens and early twenties and didn't have much dosh I would buy smart vintage & deadstock (unfortunately there were no real equivalents to the likes of Uniqlo back then but good vintage was plentiful). I also found a cheap but good tailor and would have suits, trousers etc made for less than the price of designer jeans or trainers.

Fast fashion's obsession with sticking as many 'trends' and unnecessary details on one item as possible results in some pretty hideous garments, and the emphasis on constantly getting new clothes means considerations like fit go out of the window. Given the majority of younger people, and a fair number of people in their 40s and up get their clothes from 'fast fashion' shops UK casual dress is often not great. Add to that the pretty shabby interpretation of business casual most people wear to office jobs, yeah British men are fairly scruffy. Probably not a lot worse than most places though.

I don't think people should worry about how they dress if they don't care. I am a little sad that 'classic', or 'traditional' or whatever you want to call them, dress standards have been so eroded in most of the UK that if people do want to dress up the resources and knowledge they can easily access are not very good.

In general they dress as ****** as everywhere else.

However, you do find the occasional gem, and when they are good, they are very, very good, better than anywhere else.