I have a very important question to ask about UK style....

[EconomyClassRockstar]

What is with all the dresses?!! Especially the flowery ones. I've just got home from 6 weeks back in the UK and I've never seen so many women in ugly dresses in my life! Is it just because they're cooler in the heat or has Me+Em just brainwashed the entire country?

This is meant pretty tongue in cheek before everyone starts coming at me with their pitchforks...which they're entirely dressed appropriately for! 😂

TBF, your average Brit has way more boobage to manage than your average Japanese woman.

Gosh OP you have accidentally fallen headlong into a pit of vipers here! 😂

I have no idea what's fashionable or what looks good, except that what used to look good on me has sort of ceased to have quite the same effect with advancing years.

Must put my hand up to weariing midi dresses all summer. Some of them are floral. And ALWAYS with hiking shoes (because I do a lot of walking)! I'm going to be scared to go into Tesco's now for fear of all the sniffy Mumsnetters sizing me up!

What I have found is that there are a LOT of hideous dresses around because that's what's in the shops. I bought a couple of nice-ish ones, in one size down, imagining that this would finally be the summer that I get fit again. Well, you guessed what happened next... they are still in the wardrobe!

In great excitement I just checked the Me & Em site but they are actually more expensive than I can bring myself to fork out for (I am a cheapskate when it comes to clothing). Plus, not very nice either!

Two dresses I ordered online turned up yesterday. I haven't yet had the heart to even open the package, still working up the courage to face it 😨

What "pit of vipers"? It's a discussion thread. There are various opinions.

I grew up in the posh part. I don't think I'll ever return back people have money and they do look down on you. I went back there a few months ago it's changed so much. The people did look miserable where I live now people say hello to you. I agree a lot of parts you can wear what you want but not this area of London.

That’s very true!!!!! But I suppose what I’m saying is that over here a lot of people wear revealing clothes, whereas out there people just look presentable or quirky. Even the teenagers with their way out fashion go for quirky rather than revealing.

That outfit sounds terrible tbh. Also clearly you've been away from the UK too long because your attempt at humour was... let's say American...

I don't think I've owned a dress for 30 years (except my wedding dress!) - just don't get them at all!

Re Sunday - I suspect far more people go to church regularly in the USA than in the UK. There is no Sunday best or 'only suitable for church' in the UK.

I grew up in a country with a conservative Christian group/sect that dresses in ankle/knee length dresses and skirts, and subsequently no one outside the sect wears long dresses, because they don't want to look like one of those nutters.

I'd love to be able to wear a dress in the winter with boots, but the ones I have seen are all too long. Could I ask where you find shorter winter dresses - I might be tempted to buy one and give up the jeggings/jumper/scarf look!

I must have just read the wrong ones 😬

You couldn't wear this to work though. Or to anywhere smart really could you? Also if you're not keen on your legs, dresses are a good alternative.

Maybe because not everyone looks good in a tiny pair of shorts? Maybe we feel comfortable in our floaty dresses? Maybe we don’t think the flowers are ugly?
I have no idea what Me+Em is, so don’t feel particularly brainwashed, but I do know my fat, heavily pregnant ass has loved the comfort of my flowery dresses these last few months!

Long, loose cotton clothing is actually better when it’s very hot - you don’t have the sun beating down on your skin. As I found out while living in the Middle East for 13 years. Same goes even for the U.K. during real heatwaves, which we’ve certainly had lately, at least in the south.

In any case, shorts and vest tops really don’t look good on anyone who isn’t reasonably young and slim, with nice legs.

If you don’t care what you look like, that’s fine, but some of us do.

Always fascinated by these 'everyone is wearing' threads because they never hold true for my town, which is generally in lower socio-economic bracket but attracts lots of tourists, mostly from the same demographic but there is also a sizeable element of yachties and DFLs drawn by our world class sandy beach.

Granted the weather is a bit cooler but I'm out and about and I have seen 2 floral floaty numbers - one on a child, the other looking fab on an older lady. More common by far is the variation on leopard print, which I've seen in blue/red, black/white, on dresses, tops and a skirt.

Right now I'm in the m&s cafe and it's an ocean of every shade of blue and breton tops.

Nobody is wearing a tank, unless they're at the tank museum up the road 😉.

Nasty.

It's not "a very important question" though is it OP?
"Tongue in cheek" means something is supposed to be funny. It wasn't.
It was just a chance to bitch at women.
I guess it made you feel good.

But what about the micro skirts, particularly on teens? You see a lot of those.

Yes, because the only person liable to criticise what you wear seems to be the OP. Everyone else seems to have a broader and more varied approach to dressing.

Smug, self satisfied, judgemental people with no sense of humour has just been added to my list of many reasons never to visit the US.

She says "back in the UK" so I'm assuming a Brit learning to be American 😏

Of course Japanese women will look very different to your average British woman. It’s like comparing. 5 foot 11 size 8 woman to a 4 foot 11 size 20 woman.
I would not wear one of those sleeveless fasten down the front with bows tops that are in most of the high street shops. The reason being I have large breasts. I always wear a bra and don’t want either my bra on display or chunks of breast flapping around on display.
My dd on the other hand would look fine in one. She doesn’t wear them though, but she can go bra less.
I saw a lot of oriental women were I was yesterday and without being rude, none of them stood out as being stylish.

Genuine question, does it matter if it looks obvious? I mean, people with makeup on aren't supposed to look like they're not wearing any...

The "vipers" comment was more about the way OP is being treated...

So anyone who isn't slim and toned or young must consign themselves to being hot in summer? What about menopausal women suffering with overheating? Or someone disabled who can't exercise and achieve the toned arms look? Must they cover up? Where is your line?

but as this thread is very judgey and posters are sneering at women who wear floral dresses, they must accept the reality of being judged too.

I agree. I find a lot of threads on style and beauty are very sneery TBH.

I want to be stylish but comfortable. Being fashionable is not my priority but wearing outfits that suit me is. I would far rather look stylish and "dated" in colours that suit me than a tragic fashion victim in something that looks awful on me.

In terms of "dated" that is rather arbitrary anyway. I don't live in a particularly "cool" part of the UK so what might look dated to an uber cool twenty something Londoner wouldn't look out of place here.

What exactly don't you 'get'?