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?

"They're all slim, they're not from Leeds"

They can’t just “be” though, they have to “be” in an equally pressurised way that’s different. I find “effortlessly cool” infinitely more difficult and stressful than getting tarted up.
Exactly this.
The sexism runs so deep that wherever women are they can't just 'be'.
It's like the no-make-up-make-up look that actually is a huge amount of products to look a certain way. It's no more natural and freeing than a full face of glam make up. Same shit different day.

That's how I feel about the posts looking down on women for being dolled up when contrasted against the effortlessly cool women. It's just same shit different place.

As a regular visitor to the North East, I can say it's nothing new. My aunts would really glam up and now it's my cousins - and you see it out and about. The no coats thing seems to be happening less, but it used to be men and women going out coatless on a night out.

We live in the South and last night my son and his girlfriend were having a heated debate about him wearing a coat to a night club as they walked out I heard him saying "I AM wearing a coat Mary it's bloody cold out!". Southern softy!

I do my own lashes 😁

I get what you're saying but honestly the nights I've had are some of my most amazing memories and lots of that has been the getting ready laugh.

I'm a womans woman, was a girls girl and I hurt nobody. The other thing that I've always found is you find a new pal in toilets every night out.
You end up swapping lipsticks or glosses, you give each other life advice/invite the other to be a bridesmaid 😂

Its just a lovely vibe.

It’s not wrong, you’re just adding ex-Kent boroughs to Essex.

I wouldn’t call it glam though personally I’d call it overdressed.

Well I come from Devon and when I was young I glammed up for a Friday and Saturday night out and so did all my friends. We spent ages getting ready often at each others houses where someone would do the hair for us all. I don t remember not wearing a coat though. Now I'm in the Midlands, too old and can't be bothered with much make up, I like trousers and a nice top, but I still like to go out on Saturday night. I will glam up once or twice a year for formal dinners but I make sure I've got a warm coat.

@LolaSmiles

The sexism runs so deep that wherever women are they can't just 'be'.
It's like the no-make-up-make-up look that actually is a huge amount of products to look a certain way. It's no more natural and freeing than a full face of glam make up. Same shit different day.

Absolutely. The "natural", no make-up, natural fibres, earth mother look beloved of some MC women or the "classic" groomed European look are both much harder work (and more expensive) than scrubbing up in some nice shiny togs for Saturday night on the town.

Which is why I think the northern approach is more honest. At least everyone understands the language. In the southern approach you're judged if you haven't done it and then double judged if you look like you're working too hard at it.

I’m from the East Midlands, and getting dressed up for a big Friday or Saturday night out in Nottingham, Derby, Mansfield or even Ripley was certainly a big thing when I was young in the 80s & 90s. We weren’t as glam as the girls are these days, but that was the fashion of the day. Short skirts, skimpy tops & high heels were definitely de rigueur, though.
There are other big differences with London in terms of social culture, though. Going for a drink straight after work was never really a thing in the midlands. It’s definitely a London thing and many Londoners don’t understand that. Everyone just went home after work on a Friday, had their tea, got changed & went out later.

My DS and his mates are early twenties and live in London. They often wear suits for a night out!!! Often vintage ones, which look so cute with their long curly hair/arty vibe.

I remember my dad, a Tottenham lad, would never have even gone to the local pub unless suited and booted. It’s lovely that look is being resurrected for men.

I’m a northerner who grew up near Manchester who went to Liverpool university and has lived in London for over a decade. I have quite a lot of lived experience in all these cities, and actually don’t really recognise what you’re on about. In central London there’s as many glammed up women wearing short skirts and no tights as there are in Manchester, and there’s as many ‘casual cool’ girls in Liverpool as there are in London in some of the (incredible) pubs!

let women do whatever the fuck they want, where ever they are. All three cities are wonderful and are absolutely teeming with brilliant women wearing amazing clothes, if you look hard enough.

I live in Scotland - many (mostly young) women will go out on a Saturday night wearing tiny wee black dresses with bare legs, no jacket - even in winter (which lasts most of the year). I did it myself when I was their age.

Nowadays I am happy with jeans, jumper and my big coat.

Yes it's a thing in some cities. I'm from Liverpool and it's been like that for years. The noticeable thing, though, is the change amongst some of the student population. Years ago at the end of the 90s they dressed like students! I was one of them. It was the grunge era so quite a few non-students did too. I then lived in London for a few years, and was happy to see it was casual dress for most pub and club nights out down there too. It was the era of All Saints cargo pants style and trainers. Very practical for trekking across London. Suited me down to the ground.

Then I came back up north early 2000s and couldn't believe the change in some of the students. Even during the day many had gone all glamorous and were conscious of having a fancy bag for their student work instead of battered old thing, full makeup etc, not many DMs around etc. On a night out around town now you'd be hard pressed to guess which girls are students and which are locals as most are in Instagram HD makeup and teeny tiny dresses showing their bum cheeks and boobs with hair all in very similar long wavy blow type style. They totter along in high heels without coats.

I think there seems to be a daytime style difference now, though, between the wealthier Southern students who go to Liverpool University, who are into very baggy tatty looking flared jeans and scruffy looking tops (like I wore as a student in the 90s) and the ones who go to John Moores Uni, who are often local girls, who seem to be more polished looking. I've noticed that at Durham and Bristol too. The Southern students dress quite differently to many of the northern ones. I wonder if the casual look has got more popular for night time? I'm not sure as I don't tend to go to town at night now as I'm past clubbing and standing in noisy pubs.

This is still a thing up north (or at least was a few years ago). The guys I go out with would never go out in trainers for this reason.

no they do that in london and essex now aswell

Such misogynistic lyrics!

Yes it is definitely a thing in the north. I used to love getting dressed up in my late teens and twenties. When I go out now ,I still like to dress up. I do feel like the younger ones all look the same now though. Same clothes, hair extensions, false eyelashes, false nails, lips done. Not very individual which is a shame.

Never heard of an Essex girl OP? Just as made up as those “northerners”.

And that is not slagging off girls from Essex, just pointing out that wanting to get dressed up for a night out is not limited to a postcode

Sounds like Leeds has changed. It was all goths as far as the eye could see when I lived there (about a thousand years ago).

@IncognitoMam

But if they're happy looking like farmers 😅

Rude 😂 I'm super glam for a farmer!
I do understand your point though.

I don't think anyone is saying that women shouldn't wear what they want, are they, so why the need to say "Let women do whatever the fuck they want" and to assert that they are "brilliant women". Yes, of course they are brilliant women, and yes they ARE wearing what they want. And yes, depending on venue, people will wear different things/drink different things/watch different styles of bands/dance to different styles of music.. The most popular trends are noticeable, though, when you're walking down the street.

Not sure the North has always had a more traditional approach to male/female roles than the South. I think it varies.

The cities like Manchester and Liverpool eg had a large population of Irish extraction and the women certainly were very used to being in charge as the men were often away for work - on the railways, seasonal work, etc.

Also the factories/mills employed a lot of women who had a certain independence financially. I guess eg Leeds too would have employed many women in the `rag trade'.

You may be thinking more of heavy industry areas where there were fewer opportunities for women to work eg Yorks, Derby, Notts minefields, Sheffield Steel Works etc ?

And, after all, Manchester was the home of the Pankhursts and many other feminists.

I grew up in the northwest. My teenage going out years were late 70s.
Going out in a coat was a big no-no, even in the depths of winter.
I can still hear my mother's words "yer will catch yer death o' cold" 🤣🤣

I'm from North Yorkshire and agree with this. I'd say in York and Leeds it is more dressed down, but with alot of tourists and hen parties. Hull is certainly a mix of both. Whereas Liverpool and Manchester it is much more dressed up.

In some places around the country, I'm struggling to pin it down to specific places.....blokes go out, get pissed up, start fights and sexually assault women. I'm not sure if they wear a coat or not tho.....

Hi OP one of my most favourite things to do in Leeds is people watch on a weekend! I know I am sad but my son lives in the city centre full of bright ,gorgeous, glamarous fun people. Myself being old ish well I love in the summer months to park my over large bum on his balcony with a glass of his wine and just watch all the comings and goings. The men look very smart and the ladies are something else most of the time. I love to see the odd disaster of an outfit but they seem few and far between! Have yet to see any form of a cardigan or coat!!! I love to see the young ones living.