To hate red trousers on men?

[abacucat]

This seems to be a status marker meaning I am very posh, so it doesn't matter if I look like a total nob.

The red trousers thing is all part and parcel of the shitty class system in the UK. It marks someone out as middle-class and therefore someone who deserves power and money.

As I posted earlier you can buy red trousers on ASOS for £12. If that marks you out as middle class and therefore deserving of money and power then why not get some?

The colour of the trousers isn’t itself the single issue. It’s the rules of the middle-classes taken in combination.
As for the being accused of having a chip on my shoulder I have seen first hand for a very long time how social inequality works and how it is fiercely guarded by those it benefits. I am happy to admit to being angry about that MaurgeritaPink.

What's so posh about East Sussex? confused

Oh, I know. West Sussex is infinitely posher. I'm from Essex - and not the pretty Constable-country part of Suffolk that people insist is technically Essex - and I couldn't believe it when I went to Midhurst in about 1990 for the wedding of billionaire Kerry Packer's daughter.

It was the prettiest, poshest place I'd ever been.

All those men would have been wearing red cords if they hadn't been in morning dress with those bloody awful flowery waistcoats that were fashionable among the young and not so young upper middle classes and above at the time.

I wasn't actually invited. I was just sent because there was a rumour that Princess Diana might turn up with one of the posh men she was shagging. She didn't but I had a nice day out and claimed decent expenses.

Many posh English people dress in a uniform that is laughable. It's not inverted snobbery to point that out.

PS: For the benefit of those people who are too young to know who Kerry Packer was

i2.wp.com/www.apetogentleman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Preppy-01.png?w=576&h=861&ssl=1

Mmmmmmmm

It’s an association with royalty- look up the 11th Hussars, nicknamed the Cherry Bums for their red trousers issued in honour of Prince Albert

So is there a salary threshold? Do you have to earn £100k+ before youre allowed to buy them? What happens if you don't? Are you an imposter?

I'll fully admit, I am posh. I was raised posh. I had horses, went to private school etc and I will always be posh. I'm also fucking skint and have been for over 10 years. I get my clothes from charity shops mostly, or hand-me-downs from family and friends. Or I've had to mend clothes so much they are like Trigger's broom. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Bowchic - but it’s hardly a newsflash that certain social groups may gravitate towards certain clothing is it? There are plenty of very rich people wouldn’t go near red trousers (the vast majority actually). There is money and there is personal taste - and no right or wrong here. There is a certain “country look” would not be favoured by people in cities - does that outrage you as well? Very posh teens may favour the “just got out of bed” look. Older people dress differently to younger people. Some people are label conscious or all about sports brands, while others don’t give a hoot. I really don’t think the red-trouser brigade stand out any more than the try-hard designer label brigade or anyone else in society. I don’t think there is any such thing as “aggressive red trouser wearing.” Would you prefer if it everyone wore a navy uniform or something?

I do understand that Paloma but the red trouser brigade do seem to be trying to make a particular statement hence the ‘Look at My Fucking Red Trousers* website...

My dh has eyed up a pair and a pair of mustard ones, not at all posh although he is a farmer (with no money or horses if that makes a difference). He was swiftly told by me and 2 dds that if he ever wore either none of us would be seen dead with him. He has always had dubious taste though I still have nightmares about a pair of grey leather shoes he wore to death I have never been so happy to see something wear out

@Biancadelriosback

Snap. Although my parents were working class and had done well for themselves. Oddly, enough. Having spent money on my education: private school, ballet, horse riding, gymnastics, gap year abroad etc, my mother is suddenly allergic to spending money on what she considers luxuries (dinner that cost more than £15 a head or clothes not from M&S). But she is also disgusted that I buy second hand baby stuff from eBay and charity shops.

So is there a salary threshold? Do you have to earn £100k+ before youre allowed to buy them? What happens if you don't? Are you an imposter?

Only £100K Biancadelriosback? You are way behind the times.

Where I live the red/mustard trousered people are mostly aged 70 and above and affronted by the influx of young foreign City types who'd flounce if their Christmas bonus was only £100,000. That is on top of their basic salary and commission.

We seek to service them. Men who favour red/mustard cords are unlikely to spend a lot of money on clothes in my husband's shop. There is a snobbery against buying so-called flashy items of clothing that in reality just don't have moth holes in them - you see it on Mumsnet all the time.

Such men are more likely to be alongside me in Waitrose jostling for the last reduced Charlie Bigham's steak and ale pie to take back to their very expensive and mortgage-free house.

They may have been raised on the playing fields of Eton (probably some more minor place, though) but in working class Essex, we also learned how to fight dirty.

So no, I don't feel that sorry for them and I don't feel bad about mocking them.

I do understand that Paloma but the red trouser brigade do seem to be trying to make a particular statement hence the ‘Look at My Fucking Red Trousers website...*

Fgs - yes they are making a statement they wear red trousers. The real statements were the not particularly funny comments mocking them. As Paloma said there's no "aggressive red- touser wearing"

My dh has eyed up a pair and a pair of mustard ones, not at all posh although he is a farmer (with no money or horses if that makes a difference). He was swiftly told by me and 2 dds that if he ever wore either none of us would be seen dead with him

Why are you controlling what your husband wants to wear? That's pretty nasty.

Bowchic - well I’ve never heard of this red trousers website and I won’t be looking it up any time soon, but maybe it’s a reaction to people taking the piss out of them? I mean if you’re born posh, people will take a view regardless. If it wasn’t trousers it would be something else. At least they can take the piss out if themselves. If you think about it, most of social media has been constructed as a way if making a statement - look at all the designer bags, diamonds, clothes that get flashed in Instagram or whatever every second of the day. This is just mangy old trousers. I can’t get worked up about it.

Such men are more likely to be alongside me in Waitrose jostling for the last reduced Charlie Bigham's steak and ale pie to take back to their very expensive and mortgage-free house

I'm surprised you can bear entering Waitrose.

Red trousers are not longer a class marker. It’s cornflower blue all they way.

The red trousers blog is taking the mick out of them!

Who cares anyway? Red trews forever! ❤️

PS. That’s not a heart, it’s an upside down red-trousered derrière.

Wow. A thread all about judging people by their appearance. Nice.

I personally have no strong feelings about red trousers, but I remember being puzzled by my boyfriend’s embarrassment by his very posh dad’s vibrant mustard cords. He was really cringing and I didn’t understand why at the time. This was 20 years ago.

Wrong HappyLazzer They are being judged for choosing to wear stupid trousers.

I’m going to have to disagree OP drool

So what if it is a social tribal marker ? (Not a status marker) Plenty of others social or demographic groupings do this whether consciously or unconsciously - indicating to others who may be of the desired tribe, rather than trying to make any kind of statement to others.

Its a very, very small subset of the middle class who do dress like this, anyway, and the OP looks very ill informed if she thinks that this set are going to either be the truly rich or particularly influential, let alone part of some conspiracy to oppress the workers.

Seeing Idris wearing them I take everything back...

When you talk about inverse snobbery you have to remember that no matter how much the men in red trousers are worth, it is dwarfed by the wealth of others, mostly from China, India, Arab states, Russia and former Soviet states etc.

Many of these people are seething because their grandchildren are being beaten to school and university places and the best houses in the nicest parts of London, which these bastards leave empty for years and sometimes never visit.

And not because these people are any cleverer or nicer than you. It's just because they have more money than you.

Welcome to my world. They'll still do all right though

Bowchicawowow

Wrong HappyLazzer They are being judged for choosing to wear stupid trousers

No she was right first time. Who are you to decide someone else's clothes are "stupid"

I'm surprised you can bear entering Waitrose

It's tragic, MargueritaPink but I do it. There are four near me, if you count work, which is a different demographic that I use as a control.

Since the Morrisons Local was driven out by a Pret A Manger four years ago, the cheapest supermarket by me is a Tesco Metro and it's not cheap; it's just common.

I see it as an anthropological exercise to record their dying breed. I often meet these men in Waitrose. I also encounter them with their wives in the (up market) market quibbling over the price of a dover sole, but they most often gather in their natural habitat of the specialist cheese shop and independent wine merchants or Oddbins on Saturday afternoons when they are doing free wine tastings.