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 clothes and always enjoy checking out what people are wearing. I used to take great pleasure in accessorising and generally dressing up. Now, sadly, I see clothing as a way of best disguising my flaws. Two pregnancies have caused spider veins to twist purply around my knees meaning skirts have to be below-the-knee if not wearing tights. I have a badly scarred arm and have to wear elbow length sleeves all year round. I have big boobs which few shops allow for in the cut of their clothes so am limited to specific styles. I look horrendous in all trousers and jeans. I have had three years of baby/toddler grabbing at necklaces/earrings etc reducing my jewellery collection to scattered fragments. I wear Boden because I can buy long length skirts and dresses to hide my knees, they use fabric with enough weight to drape flatteringly, there are sleeves in abundance in the catalogue and I often like the prints and colours (shoot me!). I can't afford it so I buy it in the sale or off eBay or I get it as presents.

Oh, I also have neuritis in both feet and the only shoes which don't cause me pain are Birkenstocks. In the winter I am often splashing through puddles with a toddler so I bought the only pair of wellies Tesco had in my size which were later mistaken for Joules wellies. I have a crappy Asos parka which provides virtually no protection from the rain and I am sick of pushing the buggy through lashing torrents and icy winds so if I hada spare couple of hundred quid I would spend it on any decent waterproof coat I could find. I wouldn't care about the label, I just want to be warm and dry!

The sneering on this thread is so depressing. I just want my clothes to hide my flaws, I hate that some people might be looking at me and laughing to themselves about my 'uniform' or whatever else they might find laughable about my appearance.

When I feel I have so many restrictions on what I can buy/wear, that is. I would love to have all my clothes tailor-made for me, unfortunately I have to take my pick from the few shops which fulfil the quite rigid criteria I have to stick to when shopping.

I wear white stuff and boden. I live in posh part of town and its all from my local charity shop

Maybe you got what class people are in wrong? If you're judging purely by dress its then unfair to use that as a stick to beat any one class with.

I wear bits of FF, Boden, White Stuff etc and tend to gravitate to that type of look anyway. I'm in my mid forties, pretty conservative and casual, don't do highly styled stuff or high heeled WAG type stuff....their stuff/that look just suits me.

jellyandcake, I honestly couldn't give a hoot what other people are wearing although I do love looking at clothes and the people in them.

I only care what I wear and I admit I do care, I feel very different depending on what I put on that morning it will affect my mood for the whole day.

I dog walk a lot and yy Hunter wellies are utter crap these days and just a fashion accessory. Muck boots are the best thing since fried bread .

Fat Face used to be surf/outdoor/activewear. Was good for mountain biking. Then they changed and I sent them angry emails about their catalogues which showed men doing sports and women sitting around with drinks in their hands.

WallyBantersJunkBox DH is originally from Somerset. People make an effort on a Saturday night.

When we met he'd been living in the Earls Court/West Kensington area for about five years.

He'd come to visit on the Central Line and said that from each stop east of Stratford the girls got more and more glamorous and groomed.

I don't want to look like I'm wearing brands or following a tribe - I do buy Boden sometimes, if I'm satisfied I've chosen something that's not obviously "Bodeny" because I don't want to look like a sheep/brand slave.

But it's ironic because anyone looking at me would probably see that while I wear a few quirky and unusual or home-made things, I'm immediately identifiable as middle-class. I would be uncomfortable wearing what I see as signifiers of a different class, because it would feel as if I was deliberately pretending to be something I'm not. Like sad trustafarians who try to dress working-class for example.

I don't sit and think this all through when choosing clothes, but thinking about it now, I do care about what people might assume about me. I like to think I'm not as sheepy as some people, like the Boden uniform mums at our school gate, but the fact is I'm only veering very slightly and "safely" away from what they're choosing.

Imagine the shitstorm that would be unleashed if someone started a thread about 'chav uniform' and people were posting about how chavs wear chav uniform because they have no imagination.

Guilty as charged.

I don't have anything from Joules, but wear Boden, Fat Face, White Stuff, Monsoon, Hobbs, Phase 8 all the time.

Hunter wellie are rubbish these days. I wear Muck boots. Although I don't have a Barbour (DH does though, it's about 25 years old and still going strong, great value for money).

white Stuff clothes are so VILE though - so middle aged. the skrit shapes are so gopping, the knitwear so SAFE

DrNick - I hate to say it, but some of us are middle aged.

I wear Boden.

I like their jersey dresses and have quite a few. Also like the way their skirts fit.

Nomads is another favourite brand. Tesco and Next /George for socks/tshirts/underwear/pajamas.

No idea if I'm middle class or not.

I'm more of a primarni, h&m, river island kinda girl :). I can't stand all the hollister etc clones where I live. I think I dress nice and never see anyone in the same outfit or shoes as me

In the 80s men started wearing Barbours for non-outdoorsy pursuits.

It was a fucking menace. You couldn't get on the Tube without worrying that some tit would ruin your clothes with wax.

So if Barbour did change their formula I'm grateful.

I think it's interesting to observe people and the choices they make.

Going back in history it's interesting that for centuries there were laws (called sumtuary laws) governing the clothes that could be worn by different classes - only the richest/poshest were actually allowed to wear silks for example, and I think there were even rules about colours - purple only for royalty? (not absolutely sure about that but you get the idea)

Now that we have more freedom we seem reluctant to use it eg. I can't really imagine me buying a tweed suit - though I did once have a tweed skirt I suppose. And I enjoyed having a wedding dress made for me in primrose yellow silk

but you don't need to dress like you are DYING INSIDE*

*possible melodrama

jellyandcake
your last sentence struck a chord

Ive never been fashionable or gone for 'labels', I tend to buy stuff that I like and feel I would be comfortable in. A lot of back and grey, occasionally denim and blue items.

Im a Herts girl too, I live in the miffle of all the following St Albans, Hemel, Berko, Harpenden, Dunstable & Luton as well all approx 8 miles away.

I think you're wrong Manatee. The op identified middle-class uniforms and some posters have opened that up to a discussion about how lots of social groups develop their own uniform. Using the word chavs might cause umbrage but talking about the phenomenon wouldn't cause a shitstorm. It's interesting and almost certainly had loads of phds written about it.

What's wrong with safe? There are plenty of women who don't particularly care about clothes; why do they need to worry about being "edgy" or "fashion forward" or whatever the opposite of safe is? Safe means you can buy it and wear it until it falls apart -- it will look "safe" on Day 1 and still "safe" on Day x, and no one's going to mistake you for the editor of Vogue, but it's reasonably inoffensive and it's not going to date.

I'm sitting here in a boden top and jeans, so clearly I'm utterly repellent, lacking in imagination and horribly middle class so you'd better shoot me now. Amazed that anyone really gives a flying f@ck about what others wear.

miffle
middle even

my 15 yr old says its 'rock chick' stye??
not sure how he would know that?
He just got into 'designer label' hell...

I spent a few years in my 20's dressing as I thought I should for my age but I just felt wrong.

So I generally don't bother trying to be someone I'm not anymore yet I probably still have a "uniform" only its more "clinging to my student days" rather than "30ish yr old mc mum".

I like a bit in FF but I still prefer my cords and jeans (as long as they're flared), converse/docs and genuine 70's relic of a leather jacket.

Can you stick a tweed suit in the washing machine, and can you tumble dry it if necessary (if it's drizzling outside, your toddler has vomited over the front of it and you need to wear it tomorrow)?

This is my #1 criterion for clothing. #2 is not flashing my underwear if I bend down/sit down/go out in a light breeze. #3 is attempting to cover my midriff (as a long-bodied person in an age of cropped top halves and low-rise bottom halves this leaves me with very limited choice). If I manage all three of those in a colour that suits me I am pretty happy and not about to start fretting about whether it might be safe.