Dress and white trainers

[MJFEB2026]

Dated? Or still acceptable to wear?!

@PhaedraTwo , you seem to be taking everything far too personally.
I'm not particularly interested in your opinion.
You come across as difficult on many threads.

If you dislike terms like 'dad' style, 'mumsy' or 'frumpy', feel free to offer synonymous ones.

I don't mean the terms in a nasty way.

Well I didn't say that either. And your understanding of patriarchy is very limited if you think it's about blaming individual men.
You don't see anything sexist in how women are judged on their appearance and their youth in comparison to how men are valued. I do.

Well that ain’t true. Men are constantly bitching about women’s appearance.

“You don't see anything sexist in how women are judged on their appearance and their youth in comparison to how men are valued. I do.”

Quite.

I’ve never in my life heard a man say gosh her dress is a bit frumpy or she looks a bit mumsy. When men talk about women’s appearance it tends to be about the body, or the face, not what it’s adorned in. That’s all women.

If you dislike terms like 'dad' style, 'mumsy' or 'frumpy', feel free to offer synonymous ones.

I'm happy to be described as unfashionable or old fashioned because that would usually be a factual statement about me. If you said that an outfit was unflattering on me and suggested something more flattering I would listen to you.

If you described me as frumpy, mumsy or wearing dad style clothes I would think the statements were perjorative and sound like you were sneering at me, which you would be.

I’m 33 and still wear a dress and white trainers from time to time. Indeed with the (shock horror) denim-style jacket over top. I personally think it’s a classic look. And I am indeed a mum, so if I look “Mumsy” then so be it!

Well yes those are female words, men would say fat, dumpy & unshaggable.

Women merely criticise an outfit, men demolish their whole being.

Exactly, I am unsure what point you’re making, as you appear to be agreeing with me, but positioning it like you are not. This is a thread on style and beauty talking about what’s current, and the conversation is about the pressure women face on dressing current, where someone said it was men’s fault. We are saying no it is women.

this is not a thread about women’s bodies but let’s face it, women can be even more brutal about other women’s bodies. Particularly if they are slim. Then many want to attack.

women are mainly the ones who judge how other women dress. Women are the ones who judge how men dress. Sure a small amount of men do it, but it is women in the main.

and yes men will decide if a woman is shaggable or make comments about her body, but it’s a fucking lie to say women don’t attack other women for their bodies. They do. On repeat.

Once again; I didn't say it was men's fault.

If you described me as frumpy, mumsy or wearing dad style clothes I would think the statements were pejorative and sound like you were sneering at me, which you would be.
Not true. Mumsy to me would be a 'tv mum', someone like a mum in a tv commercial or soap opera, and a 'dad' would be the male equivalent.

I've had people tell me that my clothes or items tried on in a shop were 'old' or 'frumpy' I know some blunt people. I didn't take offence because they meant the clothes didn't suit me.

I don’t think you know what point you’re making tbh.

Your original point was : Who is giving women this scrutiny. It’s other women. It’s not men which is 100% baloney.

You then shifted that to ‘men don’t criticise women’s clothes’ - which is hooey too but it’s true they’re focused more on taking down a woman’s entire appearance.

women are mainly the ones who judge how other women dress. Women are the ones who judge how men dress. Sure a small amount of men do it, but it is women in the main

Spot on.

As RampantIvy has pointed out you could say unfashionable or old fashioned or dated, or dull or uninspiring or as, someone else pointed out about the links you posted, I'm paraphrasing, the sort of clothes sold in brochures given out with the Sunday Express.

"Frumpy" is completely meaningless. "Mumsy" even more so - clothes worn by a woman who is a mother?

Those words are used pejoratively on here. It's very naive to say otherwise.

"Frumpy" is completely meaningless.
It's not
"Mumsy" even more so - clothes worn by a woman who is a mother? Yes. Also not meaningless.

"Clothes" worn by a mother is completely meaningless. There's no standard uniform for a woman who has given birth.

"Frumpy" means nothing beyond perhaps "not flattering" if you (general you) find "flattering" a useful criterion.

@PhaedraTwo Why do you think men have boring choices? Lots of men don’t look very far and like what they like, but they can experiment a bit too. Every year a new style of jacket might appear or different style of trousers. There’s a big choice these days if men look.

They can experiment a bit, but not to the extent women can. There's a limit to how much difference there is between a new style of trousers and another style of trousers. I do think they have boring choices compared to what is available to women. So does my husband. And my husband does look.

He had wonderful suits when he worked, but is retired now. He still wears tweed coats and suits from Walker Slater and has lots of fabulous Scottish and Irish knitwear. He buys a lot from here.
https://frontiers-man.com/

But compared to the choices available in the sister shop?
https://frontiers-woman.com/

Frumpy is usually applied to women though, just as mutton is - the Collins dictionary even specifies (usually women).

Gammon though is generally applied to men. 😄

I don't disagree. Gammon doesn't tend to refer to sartorial choices though.

No but you can picture how a 'gammon' is likely to be dressed. It's just as much of a stereotype as some of those aimed at women rightly or wrongly.

Not sure why people are pretending these sort of comments are aimed only at women, surely everyone has heard of dad bod, dad jeans, dad dancing, old fart, fuddy duddy, dinosaur , old fogey, square, fusty etc.

@Firesidechatter , because they want to take over the thread for their own agenda?

Dress and white trainers - Dated? Or still acceptable to wear?!
Lets argue about some words instead.

Most pf those are also aimed at women - and the couple that are aimed at men have little or nothing to do with what they're wearing. It's disingenuous to suggest that men face anything like the same level of judgement that women do when it comes to what they wear (or what they look like).