What to wear when dining in London

Next month? August? Since when is August winter in London? It'll still be warm, mild. In the restaurant I'd wear dark suit pants, black leather shoes, a white long-sleves shirt and if it makes you feel comfortable carry a black/grey uni-color wool sweater os so (Banana Republic style) along. I've been to many fancy restaurants in London, including the "Simpson's" and that kind of outfit would be ok.

Those temperatures really aren't out of line for August in London, it certainly doesn't get hot days the way Florida does and it can cool down dramatically at night. It's definitely not winter weather for London. If you go to weather.com, search for London and click on the 'averages' link, you'll see that the average high for August is 73 and the average low is 55.

Anyway, you may just have to bite the bullet and bring a warmer sweater and maybe a light wind jacket...those with nice black pants and you should be fine.

I'd double the advice on wearing black - you'll really feel like you fit in, as it seems to be the dominant colour on the streets by the locals. Nice shoes too, lots of heels.

There are still a few really stuffy restaurants that insist on jacket and tie, but most of the time you'll be fine in smart casual so long as you aren't just in a grubby T-shirt and jeans (unless they're really expensive designer grubby T-shirt and jeans). Ask your hosts what the restaurant merits.

It would also help to know if you are a man or a woman.

I need to do a weather check of London because I thought it'd be hot.. Ill be there in two weeks and I have no sweaters in my luggage! When you say 55 to 70 as the temperature do you mean degrees or celsius?

Since RC is from West Palm Beach, anything below 80 is going to be winter for him or her! LOL!

Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Your body temp is about 37 deg Celsius. The USA and UK use the Non-Metric system of feet, miles, and Fahrenheit. Sometimes, in both countries, you will also see the metric system, just so nobody thinks I am saying this is 100% the case. In London wear conservative clothing for dining. If you are a man, travel with a necktie. For a woman, you can never go wrong with black. I've been in London recently. Travel with a scarf to dress up your outfit. Sometimes there is a summer heatwave in the British Isles. Maybe you can find a weather forecast for next month.

Good grief, I didn't realize global warming was taking such a toll on Europe...131-158 degrees Fahrenheit is unacceptable! Why wouldn't you just dress as you would for a nice dinner/special occasion at a fancy place in Palm Beach or Miami?

Dear Andrea, you may want to check the weather channel.com. The temp in London yesterday was H 72 and L 59. Right now is 6pm in London an is 66 degrees. I don't know you, but living in Florida all my life anything below 70 is cold..very cold. Furthermore, if you check the projected temp. for the next 10 days in London you can see that some days the high temp in the 60's and the low in the low 50's. That sound pretty dawn cold to me.

Mike as much as I would like to dress like I dress here, I can't. There is something call cold urticaria, and you feel very uncomfortable when you are expose to the cold weather. Like a said, it's cold over there for me. I am just trying to figure out how can I dress properly, and feel warm without having to stuff my Rick Steves suitcase with fancy warm clothes that I am not going to wear during the rest of the trip.

Sometimes you guys are not helpful! :)

I am going to make you feel better. They are forecasting an extreme heat wave for about the middle of August...perhaps record-breaking like 100F.
No guarantees though! I would suggest that you watch the Britih press on line.

Another idea....you could mail your dressy clothe home...it will cost a bit but it would be worth it
Not to have to haul them to Italy. Youf friends could be helpful here.

Letme tell you that if it is 90 or above, you are not going to like London much,,,,as very few things
are a/c like in Florida.

Good luck.

RC: I always want to be helpful, but you failed to mention both your allergic condition and the fact that it's cold over there for you in your original post. And unless I missed it, you were only asking about what to wear in a fancy restaurant. You said something about needing to meet the weather, suitcase, and restaurant requirements, but I didn't really follow that part. Maybe I could have provided a more suitable recommendation had you provided enough detail up front.

At any rate, it seems that in light of this new information, you're the only person who can answer your question based on what you know of your sensitivities and the climate in London in August.

Hopefully, others will will have some good ideas for you. Have a great trip!

If you live in Florida, you are used to cold temperatures, at least indoors, where people air- condition their houses so much it feels like a Massachusetts winter. But, to answer your question, if I were you, I'd go buy a matte jersey black tank top with a jacket and skirt in the same material, then dress it up with a colorful scarf. Matte jersey doesn't wrinkle even if you roll it in a ball and stomp on it, can be washed in a sink and dried quickly, and you can pair the various elements with your other clothes for less dressy days, so you're not wasting packing space.

August in the UK is summer, you will not need winter clothes. We have been there several times in August and the weather was great. If anything you might put a light weight sweater in your bag, but no winter clothes. August can have some hot days.

55-70 degrees is deceptive. I live in the "hot" part of CA where 55-70 is our winter weather. So when i went to the UK for the first time in June i brought a warm jacket, long sleeve shirts and a few short sleeved ones in case they had a warm day, haha. Well wouldn't you know it, the long sleeve shirts never left my bag and the only time i used my warm jacket was on the plane going to and from the UK.

I did use my light rain jacket to keep the occasional rain off of me as i sweated underneath it. The humidity makes it feel MUCH warmer than the temperatures suggest. AC isn't common and you're lucky to get a fan so RC i would plan on it being warmer than you expect. i also wish i had brought shorts and sandals.

Check weather.com or a similar website a couple of da,ys before you leave the U.S. My wife and I and two sons flew to London on July 4, 2007. It was 90+ at home. It was quite cool and windy in London. Photos of our sons riding in the opentop hop-on hop-off bus show some passengers wearing wearing wool caps (we call them "tobaggans" in the South). We've made return trips to London without such extreme weather so we doubt that you'll need much. However, we always take one light sweater which, combined with slacks, dark shoes, and a collared shirt, are adequate "nice" clothes and something warm. If you have luggage space, a dark-colored blazer is gnerally dressy enough for men. My wife always carries a brightly-colored scarf and a light-weight tailored jacket which are multi-functional.