To believe that Brits stand out a mile when abroad?

[ChickenSkin]

And I don't know why!

When we were in Florida we were walking through a mall and people definitely look twice at us. Little kids especially stared at our kids like they KNEW they were different.

So what is it about Brits that make us stand out so much?

two eh? I really want one now

They think I'm foreign until DH appears in his Panama Hat, deck shoes and chinos - always with a nice cotton shirt tucked in. Funny thing is, he's the one who comes to help out with the directions in the right language - even puts on his half moons to peer at their maps with them

the shoes on the upper left and right and lower right were the kind of footwear to be worn with the Mankle last year. The blue plimsolls - awful and they are pyjama bottoms not mankles. Loafers wrong colours. Cornish pasty shoes, lower centre - oh God. BTW DH would be appalled at all the calibre of all the shoes on this page

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=mankle&start=140&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=885&tbm=isch&tbnid=OY7lJkdGpi48wM:&imgrefurl=www.styloko.com/mens-fashion/boat-shoes/&docid=CpPNlMsB26LWpM&imgurl=www.styloko.com/mens-fashion/wp-content/uploads/97B01BNAV_large.jpg&w=634&h=330&ei=2XeET9GtJcbE8gPV15y_Bw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=194&vpy=418&dur=10780&hovh=162&hovw=311&tx=252&ty=104&sig=103178579041322944449&page=6&tbnh=137&tbnw=263&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:140,i:140" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this is the deck shoe to which you refer. TopMan has teamed these efforts with Mankles. I'm going to have to turn away now because it's distressing me

My ds and dp wear a selection of those

noddy I know one thing: my DH and your DS and DP are completely secure in the integrity of their look

My ds is 17 my dp is 51! They both have loafers deck shoes(decent ones) and brogues. Ds also wears vans and dp has blunstones. I think they have it covered

dh has something like those deck shoes

I quite like the brown brogues in the top left limited.
Hmmm. I think Mankles could be kind of sexy, but only on the young and /or very slim.
I think a beer belly casting shade over some mankles would spoil the effect a bit.
Not that I am for one moment suggesting that MrLimited has a beer belly.

Something ZZZenAgain? Do you mean must the one pinched from a display or are you using the fashion singular as in 'a trouser'?

I like the upper right ones NowThen. The lower right ones look a bit too much like he's rolled his trousers up for a half-day charabanc trip out of the office to the seaside. I suspect a full-length shot would show him working the look with a knotted hanky.

And beer belly shadow wouldn't work. Mankles have to be lightly tanned.

Sorry ZZZ I mean 'just' not 'must'.

I shall remain shrouded in mystery

I've just realised my french husband is in fact a secret brit - beige cargo shorts, old loafers, grey t shirts that are 10 years old. Convinced anything new will make him look gay. (it must be because he isn't parisian).

www.oceanleisure.co.uk/sailing/deck-shoes/sebago-admiral-lace-shoe.html

That is a proper deck shoe.

I am sitting by the beach in Florida right now and I can't tell where people are from until they open their mouths. Although I have yet to come across another English family yet.

Now I am unsure what made Americans say I thought you were British when they heard oour accents was it DH large range of grayish beige cargo short things or was it my scruffy hair which started to bear an uncanny impression to Monicas in the Friends Barbados episode in the Florida humidity or my less than American standard dazzling white perfectly straight teeth.

For sake of my own self confidance I am going to go with DH attire. :o

I tell you NO CHIC EUROIEANS WERE on London thus weekend past. Horrendous shit fashion. It's not nationality. It's money.
Tm
Karl Marx.

My Dad has been mistaken for German whilst on holiday in France, and I've been spoken to in Italian while I was in the Canaries - I was particularly smartly dressed though I have to say. My late Granny was always thought to be local when in Spain/Greece etc as she had very dark hair and eyes and always tanned very quickly.

Well you can always tell the British, and Irish, here (Australia) as they are whiter than white and the only people stupid enough to stay on the beach at midday without rashies or hats on!

I worked in the south of France for a season. We always used to joke that the Brits turning up on holiday stood out a mile because they were so white compared to anyone else, even Germans or Scandinavians. It is the look of the overworked. I think not many Brits have an outdoor lifestyle or have time to have an outdoor lifestyle.

Could spot the Brits on south beach Miami today easily!

I agree that all tourists stand out regardless and that Brits abroad stand out to other Brits.

I lived/worked overseas for many years and yes so true, most of the time it is the pale skin (or worse..the fake tan so as to fit in and not look like a tourist)
I would smirk smile if I overheard a British holidaymaker ordering egg & chips! Nothing wrong with egg and chips per se
And expressions, YY.

And I think it's just the way some people dress. Or too much make-up.
Sorry ChickenSkin, I don't mean you, or even to give you an complex about it

What I don't understand about those Italian (sharp tailoring at all times, and a crisp collared shirt) or Russian women (frosted pink lippy, boob job, overly long pointy nails in bright red) who are always immaculately done up, accessorised, high heels on and a full face of slap on holiday, is how/why they can be bothered in the morning, when they are going to end up all greasy and sweaty and windswept at the beach, just like everyone else? Perhaps they don't go to the beach or pool.

I see them hanging around the town's street cafes, or the hotel lobby in the middle of the day, while everyone else is in shorts or a strappy sundress, no make-up and some flip-flops, and these glamourpusses look lovely but incongruous, and a bit like they have a stick up their arse. I have to wonder why they've come on holiday at all, if the whole relaxing thing is messing with their grooming routine.

WRT British families in the US--
The fashion, the accent and the pitch of the voice. The British pitch of voice is much higher than the American and sometimes comes off as frantic or wildly excited, especially when children are being addressed. The children tend to sound whiny and seem less able to amuse themselves or take care of things for themselves like carrying their own souvenirs or beach gear.

British women tend to wear clothes that are only worn by women in the US who are a lot younger or slimmer or trying to attract men who are not inclined to be too discriminating. Hair is usually in need of some definite cut or style -- any cut or style. There is a desperation to soak up the sun.

Either that or the clothes are obviously new, too matchy, and fashionable as opposed to the sort of middle class/affluent style of the natives, whose clothes always seem to be more muted in colour and lacking in the fiddly bits that British holiday clothes are often adorned with -- extra useless pockets, little bits of superfluous decoration such as bows or toggles or patches of embroidery.

Younger British men/teens tend to have fancy hairstyles and dyed/bleached hair, something uncommon in Americans of the same age, and American clothes tend to be less fussy too. Girls/young women - excessive makeup and hairstyling and too much flashing of flesh. Or the opposite - frumpy. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium. For both types of young women, posture is not good. Why does American hair seem thicker and more groomed?

Why are other nationalities less bald (males that is?).

The poor posture is an interesting give-away. I've noticed that when abroad.

I think that is due to the 'don't get above yourself' attitude of adults to children in the uk. And don't stand out (at school) or you'll get bullied.