Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain Under The Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

So far we've talked about formal and smart casual; when it comes to casual, it’s pretty much whatever you wear, right？

Yeah. Casual means that you can start wearing things like trainers, jeans, T-shirts. These are fine for casual events such as going to the pub or just going out.

But you wouldn't really wear this when you’re going for dinner or you wouldn't wear this when you’re going to theater for example.

Hang on a minute. You cannot wear trainers or sneakers. 就不能穿这种运动鞋去正式的晚餐或者说去看戏.

Some clubs and some places in the UK they would actually ban people from wearing trainers.

What do they have against trainers.

Well, because it's seen as too casual.

I think the rules are changing as well.

They are changing, but there are a lot of dress codes or a lot of places that still have dress code, they would actually say no trainers.

To be completely honest, I mean we can talk about that for a little bit in the end. But my experience in London, there are still many places that would really require a dress code.

Yeah, and I would say kind of if you do go to a restaurant or go for dinner, you should be looking for smart casual.

Yeah, smart casual is very safe because you also don't want to overdressed to the point that people think you just went to a baptism or wedding.

Exactly.

But I have to say in English you say dress up and dress down, right? Dress down means dress more casually, dress up means you are more dolled up. You are more sort of formally dressed. But I always want to dress up rather than dressed down because when you're under-dressed, when you're too casual for the venue, for this scenario, you are gonna feel very uncomfortable.

Yeah. I would still say in the UK we are quite conservative when it comes to what we wear. And for example, it’s like trainers, generally I only wear trainers when I'm working out.

Oh, trainers are supposed to be sportswear.

Yeah, so when I go for runs or if I go for like long walks, then I wear trainers. But if I'm going out anywhere else, I would always wear shoes.

Talk about casual, in the very beginning we mentioned there is a layer even more casual than casual called loungewear, 这个就是我们意义上的什么家居服.

Loungewear is basically what you wear at home, i.e. what you wear in the lounge, so loungewear would include things like pajamas, but also things like sweat pants or joggers.

就是那种松垮那种运动裤对吧？

Yeah, so you would wear jogging bottoms, maybe a T-shirt. Women might wear leggings and people would wear these if at home, but they would also wear them if they're working out or going very quickly to the shops for example.

Nearby shops.

Yeah, so if you want to quickly go and buy something from a local shop then you might wear loungewear.

Loungewear is just comfortable wear.

It's just very, very comfortable wear.

You put comfort first. Now before we finish, I would like to talk to you about the whole attitudes, British attitudes towards clothes and the whole class relation. So far we've talked about the four levels like formal, smart casual, casual and loungewear.

Yeah.

You know what, I can give you some of my observations as an outsider lived in the UK. First of all, it is very easy to tell people's class by what they wear. Would you agree with that?

Yes, I would. There is still this whole attitude of class. So for example, loungewear is still seen a sort of lower class really like working class.

Again we're not like judging in that sense, it's more like if you go to the UK just pay attention to what people wear, you would really tell, even if they're in the same space, you would be able to tell their class, economic financial background.

Exactly. And this is not really judging people, but these are just common stereotypes. This is what British people do generally feel, and also think when they associate these type of clothes.

It's the dress code as in how formal or how casual you are. It is the fabric of the clothes, is it natural fabric, or is it synthetic, 比如说合成还是天然的这种, 比如纯棉的, 纯真丝, or纯羊绒羊毛什么的.

Then also I've noticed that people from middle or upper middle class unless with a special situation they tend to be in general, they tend to be more conservative, much, much more conservative when it comes to clothes.

I would say yeah, there's also kind of this whole idea that when you're kind of like really upper class, then you don't really care as much, so you kind of dress in a bit more of an eccentric style. There's also that sort of stereotype.

Well, eccentric aside, I think we're talking about different things I'm talking about, for example, I lived in a pretty upper middle class area in London and then you could see people who are clearly from money, they are wearing very conservative colors.

They wouldn't go like rainbow color or like really daring neon color. They're mostly sticking to beige like white, beige, grey, navy blue, these types of basic colors.

Yeah, I would say, if you go to like a nightclub or like younger people kind of people maybe in their 18 to 25, then they might wear a more dashing colors and also saying that dashing colors are quite popular now with women because they're going back to that sort of retro 1950s, chic, so the idea of kind of very bright, dashing colors, I would say that's become a bit more popular now.

Again I think we were talking about it from sort of the different focus.

You are focusing on more the style choices based on fashion sense, but I'm more talking about clothes as a symbol of class, and this is what I've noticed.

For example, when I was training my students, especially if they want to work in the UK, I often say that if you work in a more, let's say more traditional field, it's better to be more dressed conservatively. It's not really about conservative as in how much skin you reveal. It's more the color choices, the fabric choices.

Yeah, I have to admit, I do kind of somewhat agree with that because generally the clothes I wear, I kind of wear lots of blue, I do wear whites, I don't really wear anything that's too bright. I don't wear red or yellow, but I generally tend to dress quite conservatively.

I can vouch for that. But actually what would you call your style, is it smart casual？

I would say my style’s a bit more smart casual, I do actually quite like Italian clothes, so clothes are a bit fitted and also I like linen as well, so I wear lots of linen in the summer.

Yeah, and based on years of knowing 安澜 , I know that he won't be caught dead in sweat pants.

No, I don't even own a pair of sweat pants.

But then again no judgments, obviously comfort... for a lot of people comfort comes first which is... well it has nothing wrong with that.

Exactly, be at home, why not？

All right, I think that ends our discussion about fashion, clothes, style, class in the UK, if you have anything to share, if you have experience of living in another culture, and you want to talk about... and you want to share with us your observation about the clothes and style, leave us a comment in our comment section.

So until then…

We'll see you next time.

Bye.