middle class uniform

[southeastastra]

st albans today was like a boden/joules catalogue

why do the middle classes have to follow such uniform? it's all very samey, those designer welly boots and colourful rainwear

don't get it myself, surely if you have ££ to spend on wear why pick fatface/white stuff boring brands

I love how people come on these threads saying "I'm middle class, but/and".

Why the need to define yourself before commenting?

@watfordmummy.... St Albans is only too happy to open its doors to the downtrodden of lesser-Herts provided they observe the dress code.

I love this thread. Dh keeps accusing me of being middle class, and as I only ever wear leggings or jeans from new look or asda and jumpers/t-shirts from the same, I clearly don't wear the uniform. We have also just had a conversation about buying the kids socks from primark, so all of us must be wc, logically.

Brands such as Barbour, Hunter, Holland and Holland etc haven't been co-opted by anyone.

These companies have relaunched themselves as fashion brands because there's more money in it than selling waxed jackets to people who'll wear them for 25 years and aren't interested in buying anything else.

Who are these people that wear wellies a lot? I only wear wellies if I am somewhere extremely muddy, wet or in the snow. Wellies are not my go to boots of choice, and they aren't where I live - and I live in a rural area where a lot of people own horses and get muddy.

Is this a townie thing where people like to pretend they are living in the country - a bit like people like my sister and BIL who live in London and both drive Land Rovers.

It's true. It's all cath kidston pushchairs, bags, purses, etc here. I wonder how many of them really like it or they're just buying it to be part of the gang. Sad really!

I wear clothes from all the above brands mentioned, plus a lot of charity shop clothes, I am middle class, but not well off. I hate buying clothes and just feel relieved when I find something that fits me and that I feel comfortable and happy in. Not everyone fits into a box.

I have Hunters that are 15 years old and still going strong but I wouldn't replace them with the same now as they have changed the manufacturing and apparently are no longer any good for slogging through calf deep mud to get the horse in... Can't stand Boden but do like Fat Face.

St Albans is my adopted home town, but I'm from the north east and have been consistently over-dressed for every event (comparatively speaking) since I moved south, so I stick out like a sore thumb - or at least I did till DD came along and made getting dressed in anything vaguely weather appropriate a major achievement.

I have a Barbour International jacket, one of the best coats I ever had. My Mum has one too. We are very far from middle class......

Oh, but I did see a lad yesterday in an LA-gangster outfit and had me a quiet chuckle. This isn't the ghetto mate. Also, the M&S carrier bag kind of ruins your look.

How does one know what boden look like?ive never seen a boden shop
Clearly you must wear boden,joules,phatface,white stuff to know it on sight
We all have uniforms,consciously and unconsciously we all gravitate toward a group and exhibit that by dress,Speech, attitude

I don't like boden, i quite like like white stuff and fat face. Can't really afford to shop in there though. I was hankering after a pair of wellies with dogs on the other day but £60 for wellies? Nah, i don't think so.

I agree TheBookofRuth. I'm from Essex and one Friday night years ago we ventured to a pub in Fulham. We stuck out like sore thumbs without opening our mouths.

These days I live somewhere else and though I like my clothes and take a lot of care over my appearance, I don't dress up in the way I would if I'd continued to live in Essex. Whenever I visit family you can see the difference in how I look and everyone else looks.

I'm not saying I look better or worse, it's just a different uniform and I've grown to like it. I'm sure if I moved back I'd change it.

People are deluding themselves if they think they don't wear a uniform just because they don't wear labels or use things for some 'proper' purpose, not as a fashion accessory.

How come in your first post the mc were all wearing colourful rainwear and then seven minutes later they'd all been wearing Barbour jackets?

I too am shocked, shocked I tell you, by how the middle classes are always wearing clothing that is either colourful or not colourful. They should be wearing rainwear that is neither colourful nor in plain dark colours, just as soon as they can figure out what that is.

Also I'm not sure Fat Face is in the same ££ category as Joules -- at non-sale prices it's around £40 for a jumper in Fat Face and about £70 in Joules (I don't carry those prices around in my head, just had a vague feeling that Joules was a good bit pricier than Fat Face and poked around their websites to check).

www.smithandmorris.co.uk/Womens-Barbour-Stockyard-Waxed-Jacket.html

This is my new coat and it is so warm! If anyone is looking for a recommendation

Limited - I know exactly what you mean. As a Welsh girl growing up "going out" really meant dressing up.

Then after Uni and living in London for 16 years my way of dressing for a night out became really casual.

I went with friends for a night out in Essex and I felt so underdressed in the bars. Women had not a hair out of place, nails beautifully manicured, makeup perfect and it felt like the entire range of Karen Millen was being worn.

I felt so grubby.

DH also commented on weddings in Wales - so glamorous. Apart from me of course. I can't remember how to dress like that anymore.

I'm not sure how anyone can fail not to notice what it looks like when the brochures and adverts are everywhere including here?

I've never bought anything from Joules in my life but I know precisely what it looks like as a brand - same goes for Cath Kidston.

It's ubiquitous and hard not to absorb the images whether you want to or not.

Boden don't have shops SM, or maybe one or two - it is all mail order. He has done very well old Johnny out of us all. I'm wearing a Boden jumper right now but it is plain blue and I don't think anyone would recognise it as Boden (well I hope not).

I always think that instinctively I know when something is deemed 'cool' or not and when I don't want anyone to know where a garment has come from then I know it isn't cool (in my eyes). I hate admitting to wearing Boden, Fat Face or White Stuff but am happy when someone asks me where my All Saints or French Connection, Noa Noa clothes come from .

Bunbaker jeans are a uniform and a very boring one. I don't wear jeans.

I love clothes and I spend a lot of money on them. I don't buy UK high street or "designer brands" in the sense of what Harvey Nicks sells. I like clothes which are tailored and quite formal with a 50s feel. I do get a lot of compliments, sometimes even random strangers.

Most of my clothes are from a couple of independent Edinburgh shops, who stock amongst others a French and an American label which are not widely available in UK. Most of my work clothes are from a designer in Amsterdam which isn't sold at all in UK.

yabu. I don't give a flying feck about labels and therefore would have zero idea about what any of the clothes even look like. People can wear what they want, it's a perk of living in a free country.

I do have some hunter wellies but they are 20 years old (and look it).

I'm one of the people who does wear practical country clothing all day every day. I run a dogwalking/petcare agency, I'm walking dogs about four or five hours a day, and usually on country footpaths with plenty of mud, as the owners want their dogs free to run about and I want to be well away from roads, children and livestock.

Winter kit is Tilley hat for rain, Barbour stockman's coat covering everything down to knees, and a pair of Muckmaster wellies at the bottom. I did have a pair of Cabotswood yard boots which did four years service (very like Dubarry but approx one third of the price), but Muck Boots came very highly recommended by about 20 of you lot, and I'm very pleased so far. Ta!

Hunter wellies have been shite ever since twats took to wearing them at Glastonbury.

The stuff underneath tends to be warm and practical and usually from either Primark or charity shops. The few bits of Boden that have come through the charity shop route have been well made and reasonably nice to look at, also the Joules, Fat Face and White Stuff. Can see why those who can afford it buy it.

"I'm not sure how anyone can fail not to notice what it looks like when the brochures and adverts are everywhere including here?"

I am an advertiser's nightmare. I have adblock on my computer and manage to see past the adverts in magazines and on TV. I really don't notice advertising, even the subliminal advertising or product placement on TV.

I don't have the same interest in clothes as some people on here, other than does it fit, does it look nice on me and can I afford it? So I have no idea about brands and labels and wouldn't be able to recognise any particular brand

Jack Wills makes me laugh. They opened one in Edinburgh when my son was in 5th year and I thought he'd love it as it was exactly him.

He took great offence as apparently looking exactly like him but achieved by wearing a combination of your mother's old Harris tweed jackets and second hand from the likes of Rokit, Laurence Corner or Armstrongs was fine but buying that look ready made from Jack Wills was not acceptable.