Dressing up or dressing down

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

I'll put a French Twist on this, although my original reason for asking this question was not French related.

When on holiday, people in restaurants are generally casually dressed. But I wondered, do the French dress up when they go out to better classes of restaurants, special occasions or the theatre? What do you do, when in France or in England?

The reason I ask is because this evening, we went to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, to see Taming of the Shrew (with Ross Kemp ex-East Enders, of all people - but he was very good actually!) Anyway, I suggested that my son (nearly 13) wore his smartish trousers and a shirt and my daughter (nearly 16) a skirt and top that they had had for a wedding we attended recently. My husband wore a suit and I also dressed up - not OTT, black trousers and a devore top. My daughter kept saying she felt stupid because everyone was wearing normal clothes and she felt they were staring at her (they weren't)because she was over dressed (she wasn't). I said if you can't dress up to go to the theatre, when can you dress up? We seldom have an opportunity to go out. If we go out for an evening meal, I like to wear something other than jeans and a T-shirt, make it feel a special occasion. I felt that the only time my daughter would wear that outfit again was for a school disco - and not more than once - to wear the same thing twice is unheard of! Well really!

When I was in my late teens, we wore long dresses to go out for special meals, and dressed well to go to the theatre or restaurant. Who wears all these "party" clothes you see in the shops - they can't all be going to night club?!?! I certainly don't have opportunities to wear anything other than casual clothes. In my job, I wear leotard and tights and working at home, just casual clothes. To me, it adds to the evening if I can wear something I don't usually wear. It's true that most people looked as if they had come straight from work or were just in jeans and casual trousers. Am I old-fashioned, or what?

Do you think that on a Saturday or in London or Paris there would be less casual wear?

Jill(99)

[letrangere]

Apologies if this appears twice. I was in the middle of typing an earlier reply when hubbie appeared with this morning's newspaper.

We used to have a season ticket to the opera at the Theatre Musical (Chatelet), often went to the Bastille, the theatre at la Comedie Francaise and the Garnier ballet and found that people dress in Paris much as they do in London. You'll get a good mix of styles depending upon the age group, this usually being determined by the performance. I don't think Parisiens regard wearing jeans as dressing down, especially if worn with a silk shirt or a jacket and I go everywhere in Paris in mine.

Margaret