I'm a Scouser and I live here so I'm going to make controversial statements. There is a class element to this. Obviously for brevity I speak in sweeping generalisations. Working class people often put their money into clothes, goods and cars. You can't get a mortgage for a big mad house so you get a range rover on a contract and you dress up to the nines. Men will wear £300 brand name t/polo shirts. Women will have the Next catalogue in permanent arrears just to dress the children. There is a thriving second hand market in 'higher' brands for children. Or they'll go altogether too far and be class traitors in Boden 😂 that would be me, I've completely lost the plot and my style bearings.
Many social, religious and cultural aspects feed into this. We are a mix of Welsh, Irish and everyone else - the Welsh and Irish (generally) have a tradition of dressing up, probably influenced by religion as well as class. Strongly religious cultures get dressed up for worship, christenings, confirmations, Holy Communions etc. Etc. It is when your family is showcased. Then all down to the parish centre/working men's club/the Legion or wherever (one I know is called the Odva in Bootle, and we used to go the Docker's Club what with my dad being a docker then). Everyone gets new clothes at Easter and Christmas.
It also comes from a strong sense of identity. This has been born out of the many struggles we have had here. We were an industrial city which suffered huge deprivation with the decline of industries and the shift in jobs to the service, tourism and student sector, which often resulted in more female employment and less male employment. For many years we were vilified by the press and politicians and in other areas of the the country. Anyone remember Thatcher and her 'managed decline'? Harry Enfield's Scousers? The Liver Birds? Brookie? Bread? There are multiple examples good and bad. So we have turned being Scouse and proud into an art form - as well as the traditional music, arts, drama and comedy there are a number of performative Scousers on social media, earning a living from it - and tribes often have discernible styles as a means of belonging and self-identity. It is often said - we are Scouse not English and have more in common and affinity with the Scots, Welsh and Irish. And the Geordies. We've all been through the same shit and are still here and still know who we are.
There are negatives to this naturally. There are young gangs related to areas. There is organised crime and drugs. There are tribes of black North Face coat wearing young men robbing each other's Voodoo bikes at knife point. But they all have them coats and they're not cheap. Not so long ago there were sectarian tensions played out on the streets, and it's still there.
Of course, this is not uniform across or solely in Merseyside. There are tribes within tribes, always, different peoples with different social, cultural, religious (and none) and ethnic backgrounds and we're all doing our thing quite happily and are totally Scousers whatever we're dressed in.
We have disconnected communities who were working class and shipped out of Town, after WW2 bomb damage and clearances, to Huyton, Knowsley and Skelmersdale. Mine were shipped out to new (then) council houses in West Derby from two up two down terraces at the back of the Adelphi, so not that far really. Different places have distinct accents of their own. Well distinct to our ears anyway. But we all go out out to Town at some stage in our lives and we all dress up for it, in our different ways.
I'll stop now before I get onto football and horse racing!
I am absolutely aware I am not the only Scouser in the village and these sweeping generalisations are only my opinions, not facts 