'Prissy style' of the South east - WHYYYY????

[windygallows]

I live in a smaller town in the home counties after many years in a large urban centre in the North. Lovely place but the style is so different and I'm still struggling to make heads or tails of it.

Up north people wore a lot of black and the look was a bit more slick... down here women my age (40s) and even younger dress in what I can only describe as a kind of prissy, prim style with:

• lots of cardis
• lots of bright colours including loads of floral dresses and skirts
• Very rarely do you see lots of black or all dark colours
• bootcut mum jeans with heeled boots a la 1995
• lots more 'ortho' sandals and shoes

When I see women in brightly coloured mary janes wearing spotted Boden skirts and sporting floral Cath Kidston bags I honestly think it's an outfit more suited to a 10 year old girl.

Help me understand the style down here. Where does it come from? Is this quintessential english style? Or are the home counties stuck in a style warp? I don't think I'm some style guru and certainly don't want to be teetering around in a sparkly dress in heels....but it feels v different here!

Ohh I love HBC. I imagine she wears a lot of black.

I live in the South and I am just as likely to be found head to toe in black as I am to be floating around in a floral dress!

However, I don't "do" Cath K as her style is a bit "done" for me. I get a bit annoyed when people rave on about Cath K thinking she virtually invented floral fabrics! I know that not everyone knows of Horrockses and the designers of the fifties. All Cath K has done is latch onto it and make money from it, hiring artists and having her "wares" made in Chinese sweatchops. Clothing should reflect personality and mood. I don't dress to please others, I love florals, but I am NOT a fan of anything Kidston! I don't get why people would buy into that. There are loads of much more original clothes and accessories out there

I am working at a Tube station right now, this minute. It's in West London, zone 2.

There is a lot of navy going around. Hair is long in messy buns. Because it's been hot today some women are wearing TO DIE FOR patterned frocks but not flowers, necessarily. Maxi dresses, knee length skirts, or high waist shorts. Shoes are flat, sandals or ballerinas.

Men are wearing slim fit shirts and shorts or jeans, with Converse trainers or loafers. The 1950s and hipster vibe clings on with some.

We are a lot closer to cutting edge fashion houses here so my customers pick up trends quickly. I look at them before I plunder the savings for new things!

Cath Kidston is passé now. You see bus loads of Chinese tourists carrying the bags now. London has moved on!

Footnote: you can go out wearing a teapot on you head like Gaga and no Londoner would bat an eyelid. Fashion is relative.

Oh wow. No Londoner would bat an eyelid?

What do you mean by "Fashion is relative."? Frankly, it doesn't make any sense.

I'm probably one of the culprits that the OP so dislikes. No kids, but I'm 51 and work from home and have three dogs (and dog training is my hobby). Virtually all my friends are also into dogs/horses or both, so my usual uniform most days is skinny jeans, sensible dog walking shoes, and depending on season, layers of things like long sleeved jersey tops, jumpers and gilets (often with a Joules scarf). On days like today when I met a friend for lunch, it was a floral dress/cardi combo. Most days I wear no/minimal make up - light make up for lunch dates, going out in evenings etc. It would seem utterly ludicrous to me to get dressed up when my days are spent either in a muddy field zigzagging round some cones with a lurcher in tow, going to the vet, the post office or parked in front of the PC when I'm working. I suspect my look is typical of someone who dresses for practicality and comfort and has zero interest in looking minxy when I'm out with my dogs.

I completely agree the look is very different in London but as I don't live there I'm not at all worried by that - it's fascinating to see when I visit (and I love looking at all the lovely clothes in the shops) but then I'm quite happy to come home and slip back into my very happy provincial life with my passe CK bag and Joules tops. It's all about dressing for your lifestyle and mine isn't geared towards fashion.

I moved from SE London to a commuter town in the home counties a couple of years ago. I can list our shopping options; fat face, white stuff, joules, phase eight, crew, m&s, Viyella, m&co, mint velvet plus a couple of independent boutiques geared at the more mature lady. No surprise that my style has become a little less urban.

Southeastern Goth here, originally from Oxfordshire and now live in Cambridgeshire.

I actually own a Joules dress that I picked up in a charity shop, which is simple black and white gingham in a 1950s style. I love it. I also have some floral pieces, but if I wear something with a fussy pattern I always wear something plain with it. On the other hand I love mixing stripes, I love stripes. And I always wear combat boots and a spiky dog collar, so it's hard to look prissy with that going on.

Make up wise I love bright colours, dark colours and in between. I have a thing about dark purple lipstick at the moment. And something I like to do when wearing something bright is match my lipstick or eyeshadow with it.

TwoDogs - that's the shopping options for my town too! (are you in Kent?) I tend to do a lot of ordering on line or going to bluewater...

Hahahaha! laurafairycakes my dsis has just moved to the south east and the first thing she bought was a spotty raincoat!

I live in the Home Counties and don't recognise your description. Presumably we're not posh enough? Although unless something has a big logo I can't spot it so maybe that's why. Most people round here tend to wear muted plain colours, I blame Mint Velvet.

However I do love a good ortho sandal. I have shit feet though, that's my excuse. I'm overdue an operation but can't be off my feet for that long with two young kids.

Possibly Dinosaurs. Just caught myself reading the Boden catalogue on the train. There's no hope.

I live in the (relatively far) SW and I think I live in one of the most casually dressed places I have ever been to. I ALWAYS feel overdressed, having spent the previous 18 years or so of my life feeling underdressed wherever I went. I find it a bit sad that I always feel OTT when I experiment with clothes/hair/make up (and I am not a terribly wild dresser), but I appreciate that's all my issue and I should just wear what I want.

So much depends on what is available locally as well. My nearest high Street has the following:
Joules
Fat face
White stuff
Quba
Slam
Seasalt
Mistral
Little shop selling orla keily and home stuff
M&Co
Musto

Nearby big town has a tk maxx, small top shop, H&M. To get to any decent department stores means a ferry and a train, so a good couple of hours and £££. So unless you do a lot of internet shopping as I do, your range is dictated for you.

I have no objection as such to Joules, but their clothes are very "them" which means that for anyone wearing them, everyone knows where they shop. I also have no objection to White Stuff, Orla Kiely or Seasalt (except the prices!)

I don't recognise that OP but I'm no longer a mum at the school gate- kids long left home.
I was born and bred up north- poor NE town- but have lived in the Home Counties for 30 years and return north quite often to see family. All I've noticed is that in supermarkets I seem to be smarter than anyone else even if I'm just wearing jeans, a top, a scarf and make up. Most people seem to be there in track suits or joggers. On the other hand, older women dress more smartly and it used to be very noticeable that they dressed up for a shopping trip to shopping malls. I am under the impression that for young girls the 'look' is all high buns, false tans, flicky eyeliner and big lips. Oh and huge handbags.

For me, there is definitely a north -south divide with more extremes of fashion. You get people dressed in Primark then others in high fashion / designer labels because in the north there can be a huge variation in incomes and lifestyles within a few miles. More so than in the south where most people have more disposable income.

Do you mean that they dress like Kirstie Allsopp? I quite like that look, but couldn't get away with it where I live.

I'm no longer a mum at the school gates either and I work from home too, so I wear the things I want to wear. Most days I don't wear makeup except mascara/lip balm and put my hair up. I favour skirts and dresses in the summer because I'm a hot person. I'll probably wear the same favourites in winter with tights/boots/cardi....At age 44 I just don't feel the need to impress anyone and dress entirely to please myself! I actually don't care what anyone else thinks, which helps a lot! There are more important things...

Black is cool. Love it.

Loving the sweeping generalisations on this thread. So lazy.

Am in home counties. No kath kidston here, or much floral stuff, but not many people wear lots of black either. Lots of skinny jeans, plain tops. Summer more dresses.

Work clothes are drab: knackered commuterville.