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! 😂

What's wrong with dresses?

Nothing dresses are great. 99% of the time I'm in a dress.

Nothing, many dresses are lovely. The fiercest defensiveness on this thread is from people who wear the absolute style vacuum that is a cheapo ditzy/flowery dress with trainers and a denim jacket.

For years there have been exhortations from every level of the "style" press saying that floral dresses are over, yet women is the UK still wear them - OP, you are not the first person to make this observation.

It's because they are really practical. They don't ride up and show your knickers, you don't get too hot, you don't feel cold in an air-conditioned office, you don't look out of place at work, on the school run, in the park, at a wedding, down the pub, out for dinner, or anywhere else. If it rains, they don't stick damply to you (unlike, say, jeans). If it's sunny you won't get burned.

Also, on a grey day, they're quite cheering - easy to enjoy tasteful black linen when you have 4 months of reliable sunshine, but in an unpredictable island climate you need clothes that make you feel summery when the weather doesn't play ball.

Partly this is just groupthink, in the same way that skinny jeans persisted for years after they were over according to the fashion pages. But it's also because they tick a lot of boxes, just not the fashion ones.

I hate floral dresses, so bloody twee. There are so many other prints you could have (tropical, ikat, oriental, colour block to name 4) but everyone goes for ditsy floral. Then they add white trainers and a denim jacket.

I like dresss just not floral ones and never with trainers always with sandals in the summer. If I need practical footwear then dresses aren't the right clothing.

"everyone" does not go for "ditsy floral".
I've seen quite a variety of clothing this summer. Different styles of dresses with patterns or none, wide legged trousers, trouser suits, jeans, leggings etc. Some women like the florals. Why is that a problem?

I require practical footwear every day of my life. I walk everywhere, and for quite some distance. What should I be wearing in the summer? You needn't answer because I will continue to wear what I want, and often it will be a dress - I'm not ruining my legs for the sake of what some random person thinks I "should" be wearing.

My dresses are spotted, animal print and 3 are small floral. I am petite (under 5ft) and small patterns suit me way better than large bolder prints...which often means ditsy floral. I did buy a plain dress this year though!

She’s just stating her opinion, she’s not dictating what you should wear. I think ditsy florals look dated but really, who cares? It’s just a debate on a S&B column. Obviously, everyone can wear what they want so what’s the point of S&B if it’s not to have a debate?

This is more like a war than a debate! The point of S&B is surely to give friendly advice and recommend things to others. Not slagging others off for their choices.

l love my dresses (although not usually flowery) rarely wear trousers or jeans, but don’t opt to have a pop at those who wear trousers all the time.

I had a day out in Bristol with my dd a few days ago. I joked that I clearly missed the dress code as I’m in my 40s and not wearing a mid length flowery dress and white trainers. It was everywhere, especially for middle class looking women.
I think the op has a point.

I live in Bristol, work in the city centre and it’s not something I’ve noticed!

bluecurtains14 · 01/08/2025 07:45

EconomyClassRockstar · 01/08/2025 00:15
In the heat, exactly what I wear at home. Shorts and a tank. Smart shorts and a smart tank. Basically, as little as possible, a good fake tan and great shoes!
Show quote history
Not sure there's any such thing as a good fake tan!

Not agreeing with anything else from the OP, but actually Tropic works for me - where St Tropez etc are streaky and smelly and generally crap. My legs are light grey otherwise, and I am less than keen to get them out in that hue.

S and B has not been friendly.for quite some time now. Have you missed posts like:
I would rather die than wear that to a wedding. Die, I tell you.
Wearing X or Y is so unimaginative. I, of course, wear Z because I am such a deep and original thinker.
How bourgeois to want to wear something that flatters your body type. You should wear this sack which costs £600.
😂

Yes l have, but still yearn for supportive comments. Along the way, l’ve have been helped on here and like to think l’ve helped others.

I'm a big fan of dresses - no faffing about with tops etc. I don't wear skirts ever. We need to enjoy the warm weather when we get it. I also holiday in hot locations at least twice a year so have my dresses for those trips too. Ditsy prints - no.

Of course people from similar backgrounds cultures and ages wear similar fashions.
Go to any time or place and people will be dressed in similar styles. It's not a revelation.
That's what fashion is.

The idea that middle aged women should be all manage to be more imaginative and individual and creative to resist this phenomenon is weird and just another unnecessary pressure. It's fine and interesting to notice the phenomenon of current fashions and sub cultures but unnecessary to sneer that people follow fashion (well women no one is sneering at the men all unimaginatively wearing shirts and jeans to concerts).

The dress and trainer fashion has been great for middle aged women. Comfortable, flattering, scope for adjusting to your own preferences in fabric and pattern, looking put together if not original and therefore feeling like your doing pretty well in the pressured beauty stakes most of us often feel like we're failing in.

Yes once it becomes too much of a uniform the trend setters will move away but most of us will take longer to abandon the style that has been working and we've invested in.

I think the long dress and chunky flat shoes has been a great fashion period for women and we've looked great in it.

Lol, you know in...2008? I posted on MN for the first time, right here, in Style and Beauty. I recommended some, IDK, Edwardian urchin type clothes at Zara and, my god, it was brutal. I can still remember the sting! 😂But I was very young then.

I still maintain that dressing as an Edwardian urchin is a valid style goal. But then see above re BFF who has variously described my attire lately as "hobbits go to London", "CBeebies reject", "technopeasant", and aforementioned "city scrubs" for... other views on this matter.

It's only clothes. It's a bit of fun.

I'm glad you have fun with clothes, @Sellenis !
Please post an image of your Edwardian urchin/techno peasant attire!

It’s because we all like to pretend we are ladies from Bridgerton, wafting around the country, visiting county homes (on our national trust tickets), eating picnics with strawberries and cream whilst watching the tennis, drinking afternoon tea and going for a promenade. You can’t get that vibe in shorts and vest top

S&B can become a clash between those whose aim is just to look nice but not necessarily exceptionally stylish and those who are more creatively interested in fashion.

It can result in horrible rejections of perfectly pleasant socially acceptable outfits the OP would often feel confident in (particularly on mother of the bride type threads where wearing a nice Phase 8 dress you like is akin to being so old and boring you should just give up now)

Or comments to those who have unique or interesting styles that if they wear that urchin blouse they'll be hounded out of town by a mob and will never recover.

The really skilled S&B posters try to gauge the personality and aim of the OP and respond accordingly, and there are some lovely skilled and knowledgeable ones who've been around for years and helped loads of women.

I agree with your first point @MalagaNights but I think the thing is that some people who drop into this board really do talk as if they themselves are too creative and individual to be influenced by fashion. I imagine some (note not all) of the indignation on this thread is due to displeasure at being reminded that perhaps we're all susceptible to some degree.

I don't think it can wholly be explained by fashion. There's also something very British about a flowery summer dress and I don't think it's just down to our unpredictable summers, otherwise you'd find it elsewhere in Northern Europe and I don't think you do.

I think it's interesting that it's become largely a trend that middle aged women enjoy but I don't think we'll ever manage to have a decent discussion about that on this board and I've no intention of trying.

For the record (no pun intended) I have a big soft spot for Rod Stewart, even though I think it's been largely downhill since The Faces broke up.

Edited because I cross posted with you @MalagaNights - I was referring to your first post, I've not read the second one yet!

I unashamedly love dresses (including florals). My current summer wardrobe includes a navy 1950s daisy print sundress, a 1960s turquoise/fuchsia mod style shift dress, a 1970s patchwork ditsy floral wrap dress, a couple of tea dresses (one red with pink roses, one green with big blue flowers), a 1960s Polynesian dress with pink flowers and a macrame waist panel, a loose shift with orchids. Depending on the great British weather and what I’m doing I’ve been wearing them with a cropped cord jacket, sweatshirts, cashmere cardigans, trainers, metallic loafers, cowboy boots, sandals, chunky belts. I love playing with what I wear and would be very bored spending the entire summer in shorts and a vest top (plus work might have an issue…). I find a loose cotton dress way more cooling than anything else and I’m conscious of sun safety so anything that keeps me covered is ideal.

These threads always go the same way though - lots of bitching about how terrible British women look and why can’t we be more like the Europeans etc etc. It’s very tedious and usually veers off into quite a nasty body shaming and classist tangent.

There are some amazingly stylish British women and some amazingly unstylish Italian/Spanish/Norweigen/French women. No country has a monopoly on style (or lack of it).

Wear what makes you happy, not so some random person in the street might think for a split second you’re French.

I think it's just easy to sneer at women, particularly older women. Mocking their clothing choices is just part of that.

It is interesting why the cultural differences of floral dresses in the UK but neutral colours & simple lines in Spain.
I think the Bridgeton thing is probably right. At least in my case, I love an English garden aesthetic.

But I have become a bit obsessed on insta with Spanish wedding guest attire. They are so stylish.