Lorna at Vicenza

I remember Sunday best or "smart" clothes.
We had school uniform, playing out clothes and then smart clothes. We wore the smart stuff to go somewhere though and not just an empty walk around a ghost town to show off.

When I was a bit older I had work clothes and going out clothes. I still have a few things that are smarter than others and not the kind of stuff I'd wear just around the village. I used to love the getting dressed up to go out.
Doesn't happen often anymore as jeans and tops are fine for all the pizzerias and local eateries.
Made more of an effort and wore a pretty dress on Easter Sunday though as I'd booked a smart restaurant .......... and we all ended up in the pizzeria/cheaper restaurant next door as the stupid idiots hadn't registered my booking.
I was not a happy bunny and told them I would be their worst pubblicity.

indiebird

I guess you're right TR... I didn't think about it like that... I think that one of the things that has proliferated since the 1990's though has been a deep-seated anti showing off in the UK... it's kind of vulgar to show off what you've got too much isn't it now and only the really chavvy people I know are the ones who appear to have everything or 'aspirants' to some upper-class ideal that exists only in their head (I am so thinking Chris Ewbanks with his monacle driving around Brighton in his hummer ) Most of the really wealthy people I know are the people pottering around in an old tracksuit buying dented tins in lidl!!

I was more of a style of wearing my party clothes during the day and my day clothes out at night kinda gal.... I guess I wasn't 'the norm' though.... but I had dresses that I would wear with a pair of woolly tights, and an old cardie for day wear with my dm boots and then change the woolly tights for glittery sheer tights and my Biba shoes that I adored (now I wonder where I put those shoes they were seriously gorgeous) and no cardie.... and lots of make-up... must admit I didn't have a distinction really between summer and winter clothes either.... summer dresses over tights in winter with a jumper followed by the same dress in the summer with flip-flops.... and I did love a sarong too!!

indiebird

You Lorna?? Never!!!!!

TestaRossa

They call it "inverted snobbery". You dress down or buy non-labels etc. and look down on the people that head to toe it in labels. Having said that the "upper class" have always done it - wearing hand me down Harris tweed and grandmamma's pearls....The old families here and in the UK aren't too different in that respect I've noticed. But then so much goes in death duty I suppose they have to! Poor them!

I like nice clothes but I think they are to be worn these days not saved and I'm not interested in Alex looking like a twonk - I do get him decent jeans though, but normally in the sale!! His dad does however get Alex his school shirts from Jermyn Street in London...They have lasted well though so maybe worth the expense! I like dressing Antonia up but I'm holding off spending alot as they don't last her long! The bits I bought in M&S last November are already too short and they were age 6! She is a lot bigger in everyway than Alex ever was so stuff doesn't last as long before she's outgrown it. I have my red books from the UK with me (the kids health books) and I weighed and measured her now she has turned 6. She is 75th centile for height, which is why she towers over her classmates, Italians being smaller anyway and she is above average height for a Brit but she is 91st for weight...Sweets and crap are off the menu as are "snacks" for a few months anyway!!

indiebird

I too like nice clothes but I refuse to 'save' anything for best... I want to wear it now as the mood takes me... My kids both need loads of new stuff... need to do that this week i.e go thorugh their wardrobes and see what they actually need. H is happy in jeans, t-shirts and zip-front hoodies but Julia wants to dress like a pink princess every day!!! She is tiny compared to her italian counterparts but then so is H heightwise.... just not round the middle!! although he has lost a load of weight recently.

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm also not a big fan of 'save for best' coz my mum always did that and by the time she let us wear anything it was generally too small or horribly dated - even though we were not that fashion conscious as kids but there was a time for rara skirts and pedal pushers and it wasn't 18 months after they were trendy.

Chloe and Alex have a couple of nice things that they don't wear for school mainly because a frilly skirt is not ideal on most days and Alex has to have at least one pair of decent trousers that aren't threadbare on the knees or that don't come home ripped at the knees after a fall in the playground or permanently stained with some god awful paint.

TestaRossa

I'm careful what tights Antonia wears for school but because they wear Grembuli all the way through their school she can pretty much wear anything as it doesn't get wrecked. They have a gym outfit too so that's taken care of as well. Some of the parents do go over the top though, especially on coats. I've seen a few Montcler and Woolrich on the kids which, personally, I think is loonacy! A woolrich overcoat for a kid is around €400 - why??? I'd rather spend it on something that will last, like an Xbox , but you know what I mean. What do you do with it when it is too small here as well?? Sell it on e-bay??

Do they grow them big in the North then Indie? I'm surprised your kids are smaller! Antonia really stands out from her classmates. She is one of the oldest too, but comments are always made when I tell people her age.

indiebird

I've often wondered this.... about as 'designer' as we get these days is a look around the Boden website!! They do make the most lovely hardwearing t-shirts for boys and I love their prints on girls dresses.... I normally go to Asda for Harrison's jeans as he is big(ger) round the middle and they seem to cut them more generously.... Next's are waaay too skinny and Julia I tend to look in Next and Tescos as she is more long-line (have no idea where she gets it from though.... perhaps I too am longline under this fat... I can't remember anymore!! ) I hardly ever buy clothes here!

I dunno, Julia is quite small anyway and always has been but this year in H's class the girls seem to have all turned into great big lolloping giants and he has hardly grown... his face has changed a lot though. Both mine would have been some of the oldest in the Uk but here they are almost the youngest. Julia has a September birthday and H has a November birthday! Many of his classmates are 11 already!

TestaRossa

Explains the changes in his class then! Give it 18mths and he'll be sprouting too! Alex did. And Julia being September will be smaller - she's probably average here by the sounds of it. I spoke to a friend from Alex's last school a few weeks ago. Her son was the fat boy in the class - I do mean seriously overweight and he was a right lazy b* to go with it! He was a sometime mate of Alex's, partly because they would have Alex at the drop of a hat and we would have Hugo (unfortunately named!) We had him stop over one New Year while his parents went to Paris and they had Alex when I was in hospital having Antonia, so it evened out over the years. Anyway, her son is now over 6ft and rows and cycles nearly every day! Still beefy apparently but more Rugby player than flabby!! Alex doesn't believe it!!

bricwood

talking of clothes last time I was in vicenza I went to a place called something like ramada it was huge bought some nice jackets there it was pretty cheap, it was out of town

Lorna at Vicenza

Do you think it might have been Sorelle Ramonda? That's the only huge clothing place I can think of around here though I haven't been myself for over a decade.

bricwood

thats it very good, I bought so much stuff she gave me a tea towel with there name on

dina1965

My 13yr (1.70m-75kg) is going through a fashion phase at the moment. Thank goodness I've worked out his exact size from TopMan: jeans online at eur 25 instead of the ridiculous prices in the shops here. This year I tried to get my SIL who has a 25yr old to pass on some items but she seemed shocked I'd let my son wear her son's used-one-season (therefore, old) piumino. My friends in the UK are always exchanging items...

malcesine99

Thats the one thing I know that I will miss when we move, decent boys clothes shops. I'll be on regular stock up shopping trips to the UK. Boys are not into labels or anything Primark, Next, Asda, Markies will do, but there is just so much choice is'nt there and much better value, especially buying for 3! I have a v. thrifty MIL who recycles everything (not altogether a bad thing I know) the childrens bedroom in Italy has my DH Smurf duvet covers (that he had when he was 5)(cannot remember for the life of me what they were called in Italy). Our bed has Snoopy covers (from his teenage years!).

indiebird

Puffi = Smurfs here I believe.... I know this as it is an icecream flavour... guess what colour??!! ;-) I would love a retro smurf duvet cover!!

My son doesn't care at all. I take him to Asda, we go round the clothes, I pick a load of stuff, he moans about trying it on, he tries it all on, he says 'yeah' to everything, I choose what I think looks best.... now my dd at 6 is another matter.....