What to wear in london

[GiBlues]

Please help!
I’m due to go to London for the day/evening at the end of the month.
I’d like to dress up as we are going for cocktails through the day and a meal in the evening.
However I have no idea what to wear on my feet, I’ll probably wear wide leg trousers and a nice top and we’ll be doing a fair bit of walking so I need something that’s comfortable and warm but also look dressy and not frumpy.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
TIA

Clutch bags have been huge for several years now - see Bottega Veneta, and COS do a lovely copy of one of the formers best selling styles. Clutch bags have come on a long way, they're surprisingly capacious and tres chic.

As for heels, yes, people wear them, particularly at The Ritz. London is a veritable melting pot of styles and people. If the OP wants to wear heels, she can. Lots of people in London do.

That outfit is perfect for Mayfair and the Ritz. I went there for drinks and dinner recently (DH work do). Not my usual stamping ground but I go up to London a fair bit and, having a horror of being over dressed, dressed down. Or rather dressed up a 'day' dress. Wished I hadn't because all the women I could see were in outfits like yours

Perfect. Add some black boots maybe with a small heel you can walk in during the day and you are sorted. Suede might be nice.

Of course people glam up in London, or have they closed Selfridges? DM boots for cocktails at the Ritz, heard it all now.

I wear a dress and heeled boots for my annual work do in London and it's a lunch. Loads of my colleagues get much more dressed up, many have beauty stuff done too.

I'd defo say heeled boots or flat/kitten slingbacks with your outfit OP. Enjoy your fab night out!

Take a bigger bag, wear comfortable boots/shoes/trainers for walking and take a nice pair of whatever shoes for evening

And as for a bag, go for something you can wear as a crossbody on the Tube and then tuck the strap inside to turn it into a clutch for the evening.

Keep the outfit and Uber it around

Absolutely dress up nicely for the Ritz. It’s a beautiful bar with lovely service and a relaxed chic vibe. A great place to have a few drinks, lucky you.

You can literally wear whatever you like.
if you are taxi hopping you can wear heals, my lady-that-lunches cousin is always in sky high heals, but she doesn’t walk on pavements at all. she has a driver. She doesn’t even hail cabs.

but if you’ll be walking at all wear shoes or boots that you wouldn’t give a second thought about to walk in. Wincing and tottering isn’t cool anymore.

Yes. Yes they do. Nip down Bond Street, plenty of both still for sale. These are global brands, if it didn’t sell, they wouldn’t stock it.

Never mind Bond Street, John Lewis would go out of business tomorrow if nobody bought heels, dresses and handbags.

I'm in London once a month or so and barely a heel or clutch bag to be seen. Obvs some people do wear them but very much in the minority

But where in London? It's a large non-homogenous place!

Clothes

Well, I said it was a prefect outfit / look for a hotel bar or ‘Sexy Fish’ type spot and given The Ritz is a fabulous hotel with a fabulous bar and Sexy Fish is in Mayfair, your outfit will be spot on! Heels will be very appropriate. I definitely would wear them (and carry my Bottega clutch!).

Have a wonderful evening!

Thanks all, I think I’m either going to go for some small heel boots or bite the bullet and wear heels and take some flats for walking in my bag.

Not mine either. I suppose of course I'm one of those dreadful "day trippers" or"out of towners" (or even as one poster hilariously and wrongly put it "the bridge and tunnel brigade")

That outfit isn't my thing and I would wear flat pumps or Mary Janes, or flat lace up boots, not heels but it wouldn't get a second look as being odd at The Ritz or Mayfair.

Bridgers and Tunnellers is a NYC phrase, and pretty snotty at that.

I have lived in London for decades, and IME Londoners like visitors, welcome visitors, and enjoy the fact that as a Capital City it has a good mix of enthusiastic tourists and residents.

To be fair, in general it is OK to dress less formally in London. Lots of walking = fewer heels, and commuting means people don’t go home to change before a night out.

And crucially, the OP did not mention the specific venues in her OP.

Have fun everyone!

I think in London it’s less about ‘what fits in’ and more your personal preference, appetite and style as to how dressed up you are. You really do see it all in central London. I saw a curvy woman the other day in a skintight light grey bodysuit which left absolutely nothing to the imagination but that’s the only thing that’s stood out to me in my recent people watching as it was like she was naked. That’s how far you have to go. It’s trendy now to mix casual and smart pieces together which takes the edge off being too smart or too casual.

Bridgers and Tunnellers is a NYC phrase, and pretty snotty at that.

Yes but it famously was used by one of the no one gets dressed up in London lot talking about tourists in London.

Why??

Why do we always get here?

It's the same question every time.

And it's the same answer.

And yet you took the time to not just open the thread but make a (completely pointless) comment…

It's not a pointless comment.

I'd actually quite like to clear the 'everyone dresses in sacks in London' idea out.

People wear all kinds of clothes in London.

London is a big city. It's really diverse. There are many Londeners who live a very steady life in their trainers.

There are also Londeners that are fashion forward, but the fashion forward Londener is very different in Shoreditch to the fashion forward Londener in Borough or Chelsea.

So the 'everyone wears sack-cloth in London', is just that.

Nonsense.

Ok that I completely agree with. The competitive “if you wear anything dressier than a bin liner and carpet slippers you’re unutterably provincial” stuff is really tedious. It just wasn’t at all obvious that was the point you were making.

Ah, OK!

We're on the same page then.

Totally agree and your point was very clear