What to wear in Europe

I do not see what one single coincident picture has to do with the other.

Because a picture of a bunch of old dudes in Sicily is representative of the entire European continent...

Under the 'things that make you go hmmm..............', why is it one never sees the question in the Beyond Europe category, "What should I wear in the US?" Or "Are long trousers OK in Miami?"

Why the obsession with how to dress in Europe?

Why the obsession with how to dress in Europe?

Because there are a lot of self-appointed experts on YouTube (not so much on the forum here) telling North Americans what not to wear in Europe, and most people don't enjoy feeling more conspicuous than they have to be.

I now regret having paid any attention at all to those videos, as they're complete nonsense.

Because “Europe” has this image as the land of style and fashion. It’s easy for Americans who haven’t been to imagine everyone running around in designer fashions 24:7 and them looking out of place. Obviously not true but if you haven’t been you don’t know what to expect! Many people like to look like they blend in to their environment, not stand out.

I posted on the Turkey section asking about clothing because I’m concerned about cultural issues around modesty. Granted, that’s Turkey and there are different issues at play. But I get the impulse from someone who has never left the US to wonder about clothing.

It’s good to want to dress appropriately.

To the OPs point on the Sicilian guys in the photo-yes there are a few super casual men. But more of them are in button down or polo shirts. Find a similar restaurant with old rural American dudes and they would ALL be in t-shirts or sweatshirts!

Because a picture of a bunch of old dudes in Sicily is representative of the entire European continent...

Lighten up Morten (and Mark)! Want do you want, a link to a picture of a bunch of old men sitting in around in every major European city?

It was a light hearted attempt at showing that not eveyone in Europe is waltzing around dressed to the nines.

@JC: I think from the answers you can see that minimum two Europeans on the forum here care more for depth of information than how to dress.

I do not know if Morten would share my recommendation to better read "The Emperor's New Clothes" by H.C. Andersen instead of watching stupid Youtube and blogger stuff?

wear what you want as long as you are comfortable, no one apart from yourself will give a flying fig as to what you are wearing.

Just be aware that Venice is finally enforcing the "Respect Venice" rules

Fine: 200 €

It is forbidden for both males and females, to walk in city streets, stand at any time in public places and establishments, travel with public or private means while bare-chested or wearing swimwear.
(see Urban Police Regulations)

Here's the link from the Comune di Venezia: https://www.comune.venezia.it/en/content/comportamenti-vietati

Or, from Venezia Autentica: https://veneziaautentica.com/to-know-before-coming-to-venice/

It's interesting and a bit entertaining to watch perfectly capable adults suddenly not know how to do basic things in the context of traveling to Europe. How do I dress? How do I take a shower? What it it rains? What if I get hungry?

I'm not exaggerating. I've paraphrased actual recent thread names in these very forums.

". Find a similar restaurant with old rural American dudes and they would ALL be in t-shirts or sweatshirts!"

Depends. Rural Vermont, those folks, esp in the winter, would be in their button down flannel.

I was in London over the London Series (baseball) weekend. Everyone wore everything, including baseball jerseys.

Contrary to the "dudes" description -

I see a group of older gentlemen enjoying a card game with their friends in their hometown. Maybe it is close to 100 degrees and a couple of the men feel comfortable in a sleeveless tee or tank shirt. They are not dressed eccentrically and perhaps don't feel the need to impress by wearing a name brand golf shirt.

I was brought up to respect the older generations. If you are fortunate to age through your eighties or nineties (and even beyond), you may want that same respect afforded to you regardless of a tee shirt, a button down, or a sleeveless tee.

What is more distressing is the fact the Sicilian town is disappearing. It is very probable the men have been affected by the changes in population; although they stood steadfast remaining in their village.

Reading "The Emperor's New Clothes" won't save this village or make a difference for a local or a visitor.

We have twice met up for a few days in Europe with a large group of fellow travelers, the vast majority of which were from countries in Europe. If you were to look at a photo of all of us together, you likely couldn't pick out the few Americans. Some of my esteemed foreign companions wore (gasp) shorts, and a fair amount wore athletic shoes of assorted colors, including white. Jeans - LOTS of blue jeans - t-shirts, jackets, polos, sweaters, khakis, hiking shoes and sandals, cross-body bags and backpacks... Attire was all over the place and we fit right in, except for not wearing scarves as often!

So I don't know what the fuss is about. :O)

@JC: I think from the answers you can see that minimum two Europeans on the forum here care more for depth of information than how to dress.

Mark, you're taking this too seriously! I didn't create a post to illustrate how to dress in Europe, I was simply making a light hearted joke regarding the worries and concerns about what to wear in Europe. The picture I chose was...............ah, I give up. Perhaps there is truth to some national generalisations!

I wear what I want, depending on the weather, to feel comfortable. I am 61, wear shorts and sandals when it is hot. I am respectful in churches and dress appropriately, though.

If I want to see what folks may be wearing, I visit the website of a local department store. Mostly, I am not fussed about what I am wearing. My first (since college) trip to Europe in 2005, I wore a Gortex waterproof jacket with fleece underneath. It did keep me warm. I felt v. self-conscious in Florence and Venice, but when I got to Bolzano, someone asked me in German for directions. Go figure. I still have both the jacket and fleece, but they don't travel with me. I look for lighter weight stuff. Clothes are pretty international now. A musician in my favorite Irish band has worn the same Keen sandals I do when I have seen them in concert. I was sitting next to a woman in the Orangery in Kensington who wore the same Bernie mevs I do - and she was British. I routinely look for shoe brands I like - Camper and Arche - in certain cities knowing when the sales are. I have purchased clothing that was released in stores in London before the US. I know there is great diversity, but not really discord. One of my favorite little summer hats came from a department store in Luzern - can' t wait to get back there to see what is new.

Perhaps there is truth to some national generalisations!

@JC: What do you mean by that?

Reading "The Emperor's New Clothes" won't save this village or make a
difference for a local or a visitor.

@Girasole: My interpretation on this comment is that either you did not read or understand this fairytlale. It teaches the readers (e.g. children) not to believe every message you are told by your self-declared information cloud - so it is one of the world's first fake news prevention tools - highly relevant for living in our times. Maybe it shall be the most read and discussed fairytale for children of our times. It would help thousands of self-influenced participants of this forum to have that fairytale in mind while reading whatever click-baiting bs in "news" about clothing and dresses or whatever in Europe.

@JC, ahh, lightheartedness. I got it. But I think it was you that said that one should use emojis to indicate humor and irony in a post. 🙂

Wow markk, you must be a peach at parties.

I commented on the "dudes" characterization by you. It does not matter what book you reference or whatever you believe the article to be. I still stand by what I wrote.

The answer to the question is there is no answer. You be you.

It's interesting and a bit entertaining to watch perfectly capable adults suddenly not know how to do basic things in the context of traveling to Europe. How do I dress? How do I take a shower?

Hotel plumbing both foreign and domestic can stump many a hardened 100 night a year road warrior. I've even seen an otherwise thoughtfully put together Hyatt room where they had to attach a laminated piece of paper to the bathroom wall explaining how to turn on the pretty but way too complex tub and shower hardware.

@JC, ahh, lightheartedness. I got it. But I think it was you that said that one should use emojis to indicate humor and irony in a post. 🙂

I didn't think it was necessary on this occasion!

"Go figure." Usually never worth figuring out anyway. Bolzano is in a bi-lingual area. You can call the place Bolzen too.

In the early 1990s I met an Italian high school exchange pupil in SF from that area whose school was a bi-lingual. Thinking American, I naturally assumed Italian and English. He corrected me that bilingual as it applied to his school meant Italian and German, ie that these two languages were mandatory in curriculum, plus they had to take English as well. Passing their final exams in all three languages was one step to graduation.

Lighten up Morten (and Mark)! Want do you want, a link to a picture of a bunch of old men sitting in around in every major European city?

Yes if you want to make it representative of Europe, then you would need a whole lot of pictures. Still it will only be representative of how old men dress.

We had a new mattress deliverd yesterday, bought from John Lewis, the archetypal Middle Class department store, and deliverd by their own vehicle and staff. We were told that this year, for the first time, delivery staff were being allowed to wear shorts at work.

I am not a shorts wearer myself, but my observation is that more people in England are wearing shorts this summer, and that not all of them are new and well-tailored.

No one but me ever mentions the “leg factor” when it comes to wearing shorts when touring (or any other time really). So I will come right out and say everyone, make or female, young or old, fat or thin, should stand in front of a full length mirror and make a judgement, as unbiased as possible, on whether shorts are good for you (and the viewing public) and whether or not you do indeed have the legs for shorts, outside of your own back yard.

Yes if you want to make it representative of Europe, then you would need a whole lot of pictures. Still it will only be representative of how old men dress.

I think it's fair to say that you've missed the intention of the post.........by some margin!

@Norma, I am certain that there is a shortage of mirrors in the US. 🙂, actually🤭.

Aside from being respectful as it pertains to clothing in Europe, I wear what I want on my summer trips there. That means no shorts, no caps, no golf shirts, no T-shirts, no polo shirts,

What the locals wear is absolutely their choice, such as in 1999 my last time there in blistering hot Toulon/France in July, over 90F and over 90% humidity, I saw old men in shorts out and about.

JC I got the intention of your post just fine, I just think your premise and sweeping generelisation of "Europe" is every bit as ridiculous as all those post where people think shorts are not allowed in Europe etc.

Agree to Morten.

JC I got the intention of your post just fine, I just think your premise and sweeping generelisation of "Europe" is every bit as ridiculous as all those post where people think shorts are not allowed in Europe etc.

Lol, quite evidently you didn't get the intention! It was satirical for the very reason you've just mentioned.

(humming)

Hakuna Matata, hakuna matata..... 😉

Ten of them are probably thinking that Guido needs to go home, shower and put on some decent clothes before the Americans see him and think he's the leader of a new fashion trend.

Got home yesterday from 12 days in Barcelona and Interlaken.
All I wore from when I left the house to yesterday were blue jean shorts and t-shirts of my favorite sports teams
To hot wear long pants. Never brought any with me.

Too late!....

I think it's reasonable to want to not stand out looking like a stereotype of an American tourist. I think many Americans know how we're viewed abroad and want to avoid that as a first impression, even though when we open our mouths it's obvious that we're visitors/tourists/foreign.

I will also disagree with the common consensus and say that there ARE differences between how the average American (or Australian, or Canadian, etc) looks and dresses compared to Europeans (and there are differences between countries, too!) This is what makes playing "Guess the country" at a popular square in a touristed city so much fun, after all.

BUT the differences are so much more nuanced than "Europeans don't wear shorts" (a lie) and stuff like that. A lot depends on age, social class, etc. If I see a guy in his 30s with a baseball cap that's curved/bent wearing a graphic tee, cargo pants, Oakleys, and Tevas, that guy is probably an American, so I could say, "Baseball caps and sports jerseys give you away as an American." But if I see a man in his early 20s wearing a flat-brimmed baseball cap, a long sports tee, and shorts, he's probably German. A lot of the basic elements are the same, it's the way they're combined and the age of the person that gives it away.

It also depends on what the activity is. Germans dress a certain way for hiking that's not dissimilar to how Americans might dress, but they're likely to be wearing Jack Wolfskin branded clothing that sets them apart even in Europe.

So there's no one "way" to fit in when traveling in Europe. For Americans over 30, I'd recommend dressing a little bit less casually than you might at home - think nicer sandals instead of flip-flops, maybe - especially in the evening, as Europeans seem to differentiate a little bit more between daytime and nighttime casual especially in sit-down restaurants . My husband was going to wear a t-shirt to dinner recently - I suggested something else. When we arrived at the restaurant, sure enough, there wasn't a t-shirt in sight, but polo shirts. Still casual, but a little bit less so than my husband's instinct.

For people under 30, it matters less, as youth fashion is incredibly globalized now. What's trendy in the US is trendy in Europe, at least for casual dress.

And despite this there are always exceptions. During the last heat wave I saw a young woman wearing a t-shirt and bikini bottoms in the center of downtown Stuttgart. THAT was unusual, but the rules do go out a bit when the heat gets intense.

I'm a little late to the party with regards to entering into the conversation, but I've been reading this thread with interest. We leave on Saturday for a week in London and another 8 days in Paris. My wife was worried about not looking like a tourist and I'll admit I was as well.

So we did all the usual reading and watching YouTube videos of "experts" discussing the do's and don'ts and bought/packed accordingly. Still we worried more than we should have about all of this.

I began to relax a little over the last few weeks as I watched other YouTube videos of those cities. Not necessarily tourist sites per se but just general locations. And guess what? I saw jeans. I saw Tee Shirts. I saw baseball caps. I saw sneakers. And I feel fairly certain the people I was watching were locals, as they did not have phones and/or cameras in their hands, no maps, no back packs, etc. And the French videos you could over an occasional conversation in the French language.

Now I realize, that I could be way off base in my assumptions, but I have FINALLY convinced my wife (and myself) to remember that we will never see the local folks again, nor they us, and as long as we don't act like the stereotypical US tourist, and if we make an attempt at speaking the language, I'm not going to worry about what I wear. The temps for Paris look to be rising again (upper 90"s next week) and I'm going to wear what is comfortable and not worry about it.

The temps for Paris look to be rising again (upper 90"s next week) and I'm going to wear what is comfortable and not worry about it.

This is the correct answer in Paris when the heat gets above 90. That city traps heat like nothing I've ever experienced. I like to look good when I travel but that would be the least of my concerns at that point. If your hotel/apartment doesn't have AC, please consider changing if possible.