is this a Northern thing - Saturday nights out

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

We're staying in Leeds for the weekend, visiting DS who recently moved here. Fabulous city, loads going on.

We went out for a meal last night and I was amazed at what people were (or weren't!) wearing. The women were all amazingly made up and wearing incredibly skimpy outfits. I'm not criticising, but I was amazed that they weren't frozen (no jackets). They all looked incredibly glamorous.

The cities I'm used to are Cambridge, Nottingham, Bristol and London. My dc, now in their 20s, and their friends are in jeans, t-shirts, maybe a pretty top on a Saturday night. These women looked like they were going to a cocktail party but were only going to the pub.

The men also looked a lot smarter than I'm used to - they were in shirts rather than t shirts - but not as dressed up as the women.

I've got a friend who lives in Liverpool who is always talking about her daughters taking 4 hours to get ready for a Saturday night out, but I thought that was just confined to Liverpool. However, the women in Leeds look like they have spent hours getting ready. Lots of them also had a fake tan and their nails done beautifully.

So are northern lasses much more glamorous than us scruffy southerners? And if so, why?

I'm not talking about the regions. I'm talking about big northern cities vs London.

@Goldencup

I can understand you asking, but I don’t want to provide any further detail as to my location, as I feel with other information I’ve conveyed on here, that it’ll be too outing.

@Usernamen

It’s so funny you mention this, as it’s always been the same here too.

The last time I went out with a group of about 8 women, we attracted so much male attention, even though we didn’t do anything to attract them, and we all wear wedding rings. Many of the men here tend to have quite a cheeky sense of humour, and still use lots of innuendo, and are not very PC. We had gone out to have a good laugh, chat and a dance, but we were harassed quite persistently by about 4 or 5 men throughout the night. There were other men who joked with us too, but these fortunately got the message and left us alone, but the persistent ones were difficult to shake off, and kind of hovered near us all night.

I still wouldn’t dress differently though.

Thank you to all of you who've tried to answer me without being hostile/rude. I think it's really interesting. Of course i know its a bit of a sweeping generalisation, and that there are women in the south who dress up to.the Nines for a night out, but it just seemed far more prevalent last night.

I was thinking about whether i really did mean 'glamorous' as one rather nasty poster seemed to suggest i meant something else. And yes, i did think they were glamorous. The women who particularly struck me yesterday didn't have lip fillers etc, but they looked amazing. They also looked as if they were having a lot of fun.

Im not, and never have been, glamorous or cool (which people seem to think are polar opposites). I'm in the very boring middle ground.

I wasn't meaning to imply one look is right and the other wrong. I am really interested in the reasons why, which some people have tried to answer. I'm not sure about the idea of northerners not wearing coats to prove they're not concealing weapons though!

@EmmaGrundyForPM I never found your post to have an undercurrent of snobbery at all.
I'm sure if I was to say how much I loved gypsy clothes (I do, genuinely, I wanted to make the wedding dresses as a career but can't sew a button so that's that!) But I'd be accused of taking the piss because people like to look down at flamboyant clothes.
Some people like to bash things as chavvy or tacky, but enjoying a surplus amount of highlighter or ridiculous shoes never hurt anybody.
Besides our feet.
Or anyone who's been smacked with a shoe.
But usually, nobody!

I'm not sure about the idea of northerners not wearing coats to prove they're not concealing weapons though!

As somebody who grew up on Murder Mile in Hackney in London in the 90s, this really made me laugh.

Northern women getting more obviously glammed up for nights out is defo a thing, and some posher brands of Southerner being a bit scathing about it is also defo a thing.

I went to Manchester Uni in the early 2000s and it was the 'jeans and a nice top' era (I love the 'titty top' touted in an earlier post, we called them pulling tops!) but there were still plenty of women in the mini dress/heels/clutch/lashes/no coat combo. Liverpool on a Saturday night was something else entirely...

However, I always found it really fun. There is much more of an 'out, out' vibe on a weekend in Northern cities than there is in London, and particularly in Liverpool there is the sense the whole city is having a party. While the Miramax look isn't really my thing, I was never made to feel out of place and am glad I was never po-faced about Northern flamboyancy. I managed to actually make some friends and all...

Wearing no coats, at least in Newcastle,started because there are so many pubs close together that even if it's cold, you are only a few seconds away from a rammed, red hot boozer.

Having a coat is more bother than it's worth.

At least, that my theory.

If you don't get dressed up for a night on the town, when do you get dressed up?!

I’m a welsh girl - living in London since 2002. When I first took my now husband (from the south coast) to our local pub - proper old boozer - he was stunned at the women in red pvc catsuits, hot pants and sequinned bra tops - kind of like kylie in her spinning around video. It was only a Friday night. My mum is still disappointed that I don’t ‘dress up’ to go for a pub meal in the bar of their local. And it always makes me laugh when I take my parents out here in London and my mum is always wearing something with a little sparkle.

I would say in the North they do get dressed up more when going out.
Although, I would say that Southern and Northern ladies wear a great deal of make up. They look so false.
Somehow the plastered, plastic face look doesn't look so bad when they are dressed up

Never understood the idea of 'no coat' where ever I have lived.

Why would they be wearing coats? It isn't cold up here at the mo.

RosaGallica · Yesterday 09:24

One person’s “looking glamorous” may be another person’s “dressed up like tarts” (very bluntly(. Yes there is a lot of pressure to look and dress a certain way in the north, which is associated with very sexist behaviour and cultures. I have also noticed the difference between midlander and northern expectations of female appearance on many occasions.
Thanks

Oooooh do tell us the difference between Midlander's and Northerner's expectations?

Yup…when I moved to Leeds as a student you wouldn’t dare go to the shop without a face of make up and getting the straighteners out but standards have really slipped!

If you wanna see a really next level Saturday night try Liverpool city centre from around 5pm on a Saturday.

Also, the area of town you were in is a bit more ‘footballers wives’ than other parts so there would’ve been other parts of town with people who were more dressed down for a night out

yes, a northern thing. I tried to keep it going when I moved down south but soon realised I looked an idiot compared to everyone else!

Oooh, those nasty common northerners - they've got no taste or sophistication at all, have they? Not like those clever Londoners with their effortlessly casual chic

I’m from ooop north and I live in the south. When I go back up north I have to get my roots done and pull out my best clothes or I’ll get pulled up for looking a mess.

I actually think it’s nice. Down south I have zero reason to get dolled up because the standards are so low. < meow>

Yeah there’s a huge difference, in the North East you don’t go out with your coat, no one really goes out straight from work at all. I think it must be to do with ease of being able to access the town/city centre much easier so everyone goes home, spends hours getting ready then back into town. I can imagine down south you would go out from work as too far/long to go home and back in again.

I noticed it even when I was living in York, Friday night was quite casual dress as no one went home first and everyone had their big coat with them. I went back home to NE and all the girls I went for a meal out with were in strappy dresses in December and I had my wool coat on. They literally thought I was mad. We were out for a meal, why would my coat be a strange choice. I’d obviously lived away too long.

It’s an odd northern night out thing. In my observations:

Northern cities: very glammed up (although Manchester less so than the others)

Northern small towns: very glammed up

Posh large northern towns: dressed down for nights out a la the south, but generally very well dressed with naice coat etc during the daytime.

Generalisations of course but noticable.

I’m from Mcr but have lived in London for most of my adult life. I remember going to visit a friend in Glasgow for the weekend about a decade ago and we had plans to go out on the Sat night. When I got dressed, she basically said, “nope, I’m not going out with you dressed so casually” so I changed into one of her dresses and borrowed a pair of heels. Luckily, she’s brilliant at make up, so she did that for me, too. It was a real treat to get so glammed up, as my nights out were generally Thursdays straight from the office, so smart casual workwear with a backpack!

Agreed, I'm scottish with family in s England and I'm always surprised how casual they are at weddings etc x

It’s not just a northern thing, though is it?

Ever spent time in Italy or Spain? The women there get really dressed up.

The over-analysis is making me laugh. It’s takes 3 generations to catch up, it’s a working class, blue collar thing.

What utter crap.

Most northerners gave a better work-life balance. Most I know are home by 5.30pm and they are a lot more sociable and family orientated. There’s always a party on the go.

It’s also not about expectations, or men. They go round to each others houses to get ready. Or they’ll meet at someone’s for a drink before they go out. More recently they’ll go to a salon to be done up. If anything it’s about socialising with other women, and supporting them, telling them they look fab and “dead gorgeous in that dress”.

There’s no need to make it into a PHD thesis.

Yes definitely. I remember going out for my 21st (13years ago) in a short dress and coming out of the night club at 4am to 6 inches of snow. I couldn't walk in the heels so had to walk back to mine in bare feet. I didn't feel cold at all. Alcohol helped. Newcastle and Sunderland is known for it.

Bless all the southerners thinking they're so much more civilised and cosmopolitan than us neanderthal northerners.

Actually, yes, you're right! It's awful up here. Don't come, not even for a holiday.

Waves to the lost souls on this thread midlanders 👋.

We really really all don’t think this way!

I recall on one weekend going to see a new boyfriend who lived outside Manchester I was called a soft southerner and they assumed and said I had loads of money being a Londoner.

I had a nice time in Rusholme (curry) and clubbing at a warehouse club in Manchester and went back a few times whilst I was seeing him.

We remember being poor and trying harder not to show it, working class London used to be the same but they've forgotten