To think where you live dominates how you dress?

[lolliwillowes]

Not just the climate/weather, I mean the styles of the locals.
I lived in a really outdoorsy place for a decade, never thought about it much but tended to wear outdoorsy stuff, most of the shops sold it, and to some extent, most others had some semblance of similarity.

Then I moved to an urban area, no weather related stuff at all, most people hardly bothered to wear raincoats or weatherproofs in winter, and sportswear /leisure was the most common style such as basic leggings, jeans and tee, guys in footy garb, etc.

When I visit friends in my closest city it is quite different there too, obviously, but tons of dresses everywhere! Lots more colour and variation.

I also think we now have much longer summer months than we used to, and less rain. This will also affect how we dress too. As a nation we are usually so tied up with 'bad' weather and buying the perfect coat, etc, but maybe this will change from now on. Last summer seemed to last from march to november here!

So we like to think we are original to some extent with what we like to wear, but I strongly suspect where we live has a bigger influence than we are aware of.

I agree. I used to live in wellies in my last village which had unmade roads and mud everywhere. Now I've moved to a house in a village that has proper roads right up to the houses and real hard drives and have never worn wellies since.

Yep. I live in a rural area and am constantly in walking gear when I'm not at work. And always have a waterproof with me. Where I live we don't have longer summer months. Blink and you miss summer flashing by in between the months of rain!

Yeh, but I hadn't thought about it, until a recent clothing crisis got me thinking, and now I realise why I feel a bit at sea. I never really got over chucking my hiking tights on with a sloppy jumper ;) I love dresses so much but still feel out of place. I wonder when my brain will catch up!?

We only have a couple of clothes shops in my small town. One of them is Sea Salt.

I reckon around 50% of women over 40 living here own the same Sea Salt coat. One Saturday in Waitrose it was more like 70%.

And yes, one of them was me. (In my defence, it is the warmest, most waterproof and practical coat I have ever owned.)

Janelle?

I love my seasalt coat.

I think my dress would suit more country style (no make up, causal but not sportswear) instead of town area Im in!

I went to Tunbridge Wells from Devon once wearing my best Devon clothes. I have never felt so ridiculously dressed in my life! I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I have a friend in a very remote coastal area. She generally wears a complete mish mash of odd things, mostly influenced by not having modern heating and some disability issues. I think she is fabulously bohemian but if she dressed like that in some urban areas I know she would possibly receive abuse.
It's a funny world.

Where are you that it rains less than it used to 😮 It's been getting wetter and wetter, year on year here, except with weirdly dry springs, wet winters, wet summers and wet autumns.

But you're not wrong about rural areas having a different dress code to urban areas, for sure.

My local city is either fashion - at any price point - or ethereal Bohemian types. Local town is all Seasalt and prairie dresses, but rurally, you're more likely to see a woman in a greatcoat worthy of my namesake 😂

I went t Cornwall last year and there were people in restaurants in flip flops and wet hair. Never felt so overdressed in my life, that's never been known here, outskirts of Northern city

@thenightsky Plant Hunter here (what exactly is a person who hunts plants? They hardly make a run for it....)

Well, obviously...

I live in a village, ten miles from the nearest town. I just wear normal clothes as far as I am aware, and so does everybody else.

was waiting for this

was waiting for this

Glad to oblige. It’s true. The only people that seem to dress differently are people visiting from towns.

That sort of confirms what the op is saying doesn’t it? You consider what your local town wears to be ‘normal’ because it’s what you’re used to seeing.

out of towners aren’t ‘normal’ because they have a different version of the norm.

Except that what I see people wearing in towns is pretty much the same as I see locals wearing in the village. There is no difference.

Visitors stand out because they wear what they think they should be wearing in the country.

I wear what I like, but having learnt to dress for bad weather, for hiking, for other outdoor sports etc... I lean more towards the practical and comfortable than I ever used to. Baselayers, midlayers, anything with 'technical' in uses to be like a foreign language.
We are tribal and I do think our aesthetic changes depending on what we're used to seeing. Hence I'm much more comfortable in the above than I would have been in the past, even if I'm the only one at an event that's dressed for practicality.

I also think that there never used to be such reasonably priced cold, wet weather gear despite our climate and that that kept most people in cafes, shopping malls, soft play etc for their free time in the colder months, but that is now changing and especially Pele have cottoned on top it after the past two years.

My neighbour apologised several times for catching me in my pajamas until she realised that my hippy harem pants that are my favourites for summer are my actual clothes.

Yes , we lived in Yorkshire and lived in skinny jeans, jods, joules tops and boots . Everyone dresses similar moved down to Essex and I stand out like a sore thumb because I’m not wearing a tracksuit or pleather

'It's a local town, for local people'

... who wear local clothes.

Nobbut a sweater with fourty neckholes between um.

Last summer seemed to last from march to november here Where on earth are you? Last March/April/begginning of May were awful - we were still in winter coats in May.

I wear what I like and what suits my lifestyle, also weather appropriate when outdoors. What other people wear is irrelevant and what's in local shops too as if I can't find what I want/need I'll buy it online or travel to find it if I want to try something on.

It's never occurred to me to copy what others do or restrict what I buy to what's available locally. I wouldn't wear leggings as a matter of routine as I'd probably be too cold most of the time.