That I would agree with. We do wear jeans in the UK, but even for people in their forties they’re often skinny jeans or at least straight leg. They’re not jeans built for comfort. And t-shirts really are very common, logos and all, for casual wear, even for people in their forties; if I go to the pub half the men and a fair few women will be wearing them. But they tend to be a little more fitted.
And people are slightly more likely, in my experience, to dress more smartly than in the state I know best, California. I often feel really overdressed there. In London and Bath it would be completely normal to see a woman in a nice-ish skater dress or wrap dress at a roughish pub. But she might well be sitting next to someone in a hoodie.
I looked around my neighbourhood on the way back from the shop at about 7pm and there was a huge variation in clothes, so it would be difficult to pick anything that really made you stick out, TBH. Honestly, I’d say baseball caps on someone over 40 is pretty much it.
People do wear sunglasses though. Sometimes those grey-white skies can be as bad as bright blue sunny ones. And it’s not like they’re bulky to pack.
I’ve seen it from the other side. I was born and grew up in Southern California, so I’ve been around by Euro tourists my whole life. It used to be tourists were obvious at a glance, but about 10 or more years ago, it changed. Seems like people dress more alike than they did before. More transnational clothing brands? I watch a ton of Brit TV – do people on those shows dress out of the ordinary? Because I’ve seen baseball caps, T shirts, sneakers, shorts – all worn out and about.
Oh, and my eyes are light sensitive. I wear sunglasses even when it’s hazy out. I’d rather be comfortable than suffer the horror of being mistaken for a tourist – when I am one.
I don’t mean to belabor the point, honestly, but why not? Is this a Briton thing or is it you personally? This is smelling like a flip phone issue rather than a style issue. I can go to the dollar store and get a perfectly functional, glare cutting pair for a dollar. My eyes are light-sensitive even on overcast days. It’s actually painful for me to not have them.
To me, this is different than wearing, say, a leather jacket (which is expensive and could be construed as making a statement).
Not using something as functional and cheap as a basic pair of sunglasses just strikes me as bizarre.
I don’t know about Britain, but I understand that in Japan, most people avoid wearing sunglasses to avoid looking like a thug. Sunglasses are favored by the Yakuza, so regardless of their possible utility, most people don’t wear them.
I suspect people may be talking about two different kinds of sunglasses. Black or mirror are a different kind of animal from lightly-colored; my own sunglasses are brown, you can see my eyes just fine, and nobody would wear them in a meat market video. “Sunglasses at night” wasn’t about someone who’d just had Lasik (heck, I think Lasik didn’t exist yet).
FWIW, I’m well into retirement years, and I’ve reached the age to wear reactolite glasses, so it looks like I’m wearing sunglasses even in fairly dull light - like a lot of people my age.
I suppose my clothes are mostly fairly neutral-to-darker colours. Depending on the temperature, long-sleeved shirts and heavier or lighter weight long trousers (not jeans), leather shoes, extra top layer for warmth as necessary, casual outer jacket. Rarely a “proper” topcoat, unless it’s a dress-up occasion where the weather will demand it. Basically my mother’s mantra: “clean, neat and serviceable”. Probably my most serviceable garment for most seasons is a rain- and windproof outdoor jacket with a hood and detachable fleece lining.
But if the weather is likely to be hitting 25C for more than a few hours, I’ll be in shorts (just about on the knee) and sandals with a short-sleeved shirt of some kind (rarely a T-shirt, since I sunburn easily), at least for slopping around local to home. Going up to central London would make rethinking the footwear advisable, so probably my hiking shoes.
When I’m on the Continent, though, whatever I’m wearing, people seem to know I"m English before I open my mouth. People can usually tell a tourist by all sorts of signifiers they themselves might find hard to define. And as for what might signify you might be one of “those” tourists, clothes are the least of it.
Millions of other people in Britain do wear dark, opaque-appearing sunglasses when it is bright. When they are driving in bright weather it’s possibly a majority. You don’t wear them indoors, but there is no Japanese style cultural norm against wearing sunglasses in bright weather outdoors.
Strange conversation this - I own loads of pairs of sunglasses, and wear them out when it’s bright or if I’m driving. It’s actually a pain as I also wear reading glasses, so find myself carting both around on a sunny day.
Bath is an interesting one - an older, but pretty affluent local demographic, loads of British day trippers, coaches of japanese and US older tourists, French school children - the whole gamut.
London’s a different matter - gazillions of tourists of course, but more workers and residents. If there’s one tip I’d give, it would be to err on the side of darker or neutral colours.
Unless we have a heatwave, then all bets are off, along with half our clothing.
I’m an American ex-pat who has lived in the UK for 20+ years. The clothing question has been addressed so here’s a couple other tips to make you not stand out a American tourists so much.
KEEP YOUR VOICES DOWN! The normal American conversational volume is nearly a shout to everyone else.
Be aware of your surroundings. If you’re walking down a busy pavement/sidewalk don’t just stop suddenly to take a picture, look for a spot where you can get out of traffic. If the pavement is especially busy consider walking single file instead of side-by-side. Pay attention to the “look left” and “look right” road markings at intersections.
Escalators - stand on the right, walk on the left. When you step off the end, don’t stop but keep going even if you don’t know where you need to go. Find a spot out of the flow of traffic to get your bearings.
