Do people dress up more in Liverpool?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

Just watching the news and they are reporting on Liverpool re Covid. The footage shows people out in bars and pubs and they are incredibly dressed up, especially the women.

My DC are in their early 20s, so similar age to those being shown. When they and their friends go clubbing they all tend to wear jeans and the women might wear a slightly smarter top but often not.

The report showed women in amazing dresses and heels, plus hair, make up etc all immaculate. Is it a "thing" in Liverpool or is it just that my DC and their friends are ultra scruffy? I live in Cambridge and am fairly sure that younger people here don't on the whole dress up like that unless it's a particular "special" occasion like a 21st birthday. Not just for a regular Saturday night out.

It’s definitely a thing, not just clothes either, women in Liverpool make a huge effort with hair, make up. Eyebrows and eyelashes are a huge deal up here (I live not too far from Liverpool).

Christmas is something else, Boxing Day night is a huge event and even children will often have a brand new (often designer) outfit for each day of Christmas (Christmas Day, Boxing Day, new year etc)!

I grew up in Liverpool and it's definitely a thing. Nights out in Liverpool are definitely dressier than other places I've lived. In fact everything is dressier!

@Rhine the ladies with rollers in their hair have often had the hair curled early in the day and the hairdresser will either put rollers in or pin curl the hair to keep the curl/boost volume until the evening when they are ready to go out.

Def Liverpool and as pp suggested perhaps Newcastle. Not so much Manchester.
It’s also very normal to go to Sainsbury’s in Liverpool with your hair in rollers etc and so I’ve been told in your onesie but not seen that myself.

Re. PP comment about it taking all day to get ready - I once took the train from Leeds to Manchester on a Saturday afternoon. Sat opposite a girl late teens/early 20s dressed in a tracksuit, no makeup - so looking pretty casual. She had loads of bags etc with her including a massive box, like a large toolbox.
Once the train pulled away she opened it - it was an enormous make up case. She spent the next hour or so transforming herself, applying full blown makeup, sculpting cheekbones, false eyelashes, the works. I still remember it being one of the most fascinating things I've ever watched anyone do and a massive education in beauty. Once she got off the train she looked like a different person, it was amazing.
Down south I'd just stick a bit of tinted moisturiser and mascara on...and if it's a special night- eyeshadow.

A doctor I see (not in a girlie branch of the medical profession either) was once sporting immense curls and (as she examined me) I complimented her on it. “Heated rollers every morning during breakfast.” A doctor. She had kids too. Some people just have a better grip of 24 hours.

Your OP has an air of looking down on them for some reason. Your children are far too blasé about their appearance to go to any effort which you obviously view as something superior. I felt like a bag lady on a recent trip to rural Ireland to visit family. We went to a local disco-bar. Fuck me the glamour! I can't compete with that! You'll find a lot of French women or Italian women won't leave the house without looking their best either. I think some people want to emulate royalty's nonchalent rustic casual dress and fail spectacularly. Horses for courses. I'd prefer to look my best when out and about. It's a sign of self-care, confidence, and good mental health. Slobs I don't admire so much (as I am one when I'm mentally unwell).

Have you only just realised this? Liverpool has always been famous for its well groomed laydiez!

I have to say even though my usual nights out are in Newcastle, when we go to Liverpool for hen dos/whatever I would definitely take it up several notches. We would book to have our hair blow dried before the night out, makeup done, lashes, tan professionally done.
Out in Newcastle I'd just do all that myself. My younger nieces and sister do book for some or all of that before a night out in Newcastle though.

If you see more dressed down girls in Newcastle they are likely to be students or more upper class than your average.

Surely it’s priorities rather than having a better grip of 24 hours though @inchyra? I certainly wouldn’t want to look like that every day.

Yes definitely. Young women in Liverpool are very dressed up. Tatler did an article on it a few years ago, all about how Liverpudlians are like peacocks, much more showy than the average down south.

Everyone is a comedian up there too. I always look forward to the chat in a cab out of Lime Street.

It must be a tough place to be dowdy and depressed.

I don't think it's a generally northern thing. It's a thing in Liverpool. People dress very differently in Manchester both at night and during the day.

Belfast is another place where I’ve seen really glamorous, well made up women like this. As others have pointed out, Manchester is much more casual.

Yes, absolutely. I grew up and cut my going out-out teeth in London. Moving North I noticed that there's definitely a more dressed up vibe. I do think Liverpool is the most full-on though, compared with say Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

Also, maybe a sweeping generalisation, but there's something about the liverpool look (maybe the welsh influence?) that means it's worth getting that dressed up. If i did it, I'd look like a bag of spanners in drag. If you've got the 'welsh' small, symmetrical features thing going on (as lots of women in Liverpool seem to) it's like a having a beautiful blank canvas just waiting to be enhanced by makeup.

@Sickofcovidnow Perhaps, but I spend my time during breakfast on Mumsnet or Instagram and I don’t think either help me with the old joie de vivre.

It's a northern thing. You southerners are always underdressed 😂

I live in Manchester, it’s a Liverpool thing, here it’s much more casual however there is still a small demographic who do it (and go to bars I wouldn’t be seen dead in 😂)

Oh yes, it's really something special IMO! I'm from Manchester and we are much more scruffy - and I am a scruffbag myself but I really love to see Scousers off out on a Saturday. They really go for it. It's so much fun -- wit and glamour and pageantry.

Fashion is taken both more and less seriously (eg slightly more as pageantry and costume and a bit less about, hm, how to say... po-faced self expression).

I think there is a slight element of it being a northern thing. I grew up in Leeds and wasn't massively into nights out but it was still a thing that you dressed up for Christmas, New Year (even celebrating at home), and when you went out (even just to the cinema). I moved south for university and looking back at photos I do tend to have slight more make-up, and be more dressed up for even quite basic dinners, and when I did go clubbing my skirts were often shorter and tops skimpier than my friends from the south.

But Liverpool is on a whole other level (and I would say Newcastle too).

(I don't dress up at all these days and often wish I had the guts to go for it but would stand out massively from my friends).

@Dancingwithdaftness I think you're projecting your issues on to me. I'm not judging anyone, I'm just interested in the differences.

I dont knowvLiverpool at all, havent been there for years but I have been out n Manchester, Sheffield and York and didnt feel undressed. However it has to be said I may not have been at the trendiest bars!

I disagree that it's a Northern thing. I'm from Leeds and used to go out in York and Manchester and occasionally Newcastle and I don't think any of those cities go in for the all-encompassing glam that Liverpool ladies do. It was a while ago though so things might have changed in the other cities I suppose.

I flew home from Liverpool airport on New Years Eve a couple of years ago. I was one of about 4% of Women in the airport who didn't have my hair in rollers ready for the celebrations ahead 😄

Yeah, it’s definitely a thing. One of my ex’s was from Liverpool. I couldn’t believe my eyes the first time I walked around there! Everybody is so much more ‘done’, no matter what their personal style is, so I noticed that women with a more grungy/rock way of dressing, are still fully done up with hair, make-up and accessories. And yes, I also saw women in onesies and rollers in the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon.

I also found the people really friendly and welcoming. I loved being there and I loved my (super glamorous) ex’s mum and relatives. Shame about the ex I got lost a few times when I had my little boy with me and everybody I asked for help was so lovely. I mostly asked older ladies who were dressed absolutely immaculately to go out shopping and they spent ages chatting to me and cooing over my son’s curls.

It is a Liverpool thing but obviously there are exceptions. I’d say it holds true if you are out on a Friday/Saturday in the town centre!

I grew up in a little town in Merseyside where no one really did this when we were young (up to 18). I never went out out in Liverpool so never did it at all. I hate make up and getting dressed up.

My cousins are proper scousers and yes this fits them to a tee.

But Liverpool is also a student city so if you want to go out without getting dressed up you can - but there are different places.