What to wear for tea and church in England?
 

My daughter will be traveling to England next month and having tea at Fortnum & Mason and attending a service at St Paul's Cathedral. What would be the appropriate clothing? Fortnum & Mason website says "dress smart". This means what exactly? :) thanks.

Dress smart to me means no jogging pants....jeans send a nice top are fine. Have been to tea many times in high end places and you see jeans there as well.

Service at St Paul's I imagine you can wear anything you want.

Jeans and a nice top...no idea what autocorrect did there...

I wouldn't wear jeans to church, and I live in jeans.
I'd wear a dress or skirt and top probably. Nice trousers at a pinch but not jeans. What does she wear to church at home?

Neat and well groomed.
As it's summer, perhaps a light summer dress or a pretty top with lightweight trousers or a skirt.
Imagine she is having tea with her boyfriend's grandma :-)

In the US anything is worn to most churches (some near a beach have people in swimsuits and coverup or pareo). Tee shirts and shorts are routine for younger people - weather allowing.

If jeans are smart and with a nice top OK for church or F&M. Regular saggy or too tight jeans with casual tee - not appropriate. Also it depends on if this is a regular service or something special. Many churches are happy to have people come at all.

(I usually don't wear jean traveling since they are too thick, too hot, take up too much room and don't dry if washed - so my day pants can go anywhere - although I do bring a couple of dresses or dress pants outfits for going out to dinner or evening events.)

Fortnum & Mason is a posh department store -- but the various restaurants have different levels of 'formality'. If she's dressed well enough to shop in <i>any</i> posh department store, she'll be fine at F&M.

'Smart' means neat, tidy, and not t-shirts/gym suits/torn jeans (no jeans unless they are well fitted and nice looking).

We loved our afternoon tea at F&M. Everything was utterly delicious and the service was terrific. I hope your daughter has as good a time as I did.

We returned a few times for purchases, including sticky toffee pudding and clotted cream. Pretty heavenly. I also bought a F&M kitchen towel that I love.

"Service at St Paul's I imagine you can wear anything you want."

You can

God will not score you down whatever you wear

But the locals will. Basically you should not wear tight clothes or flash large amounts of flesh. A sensible hat (not baseball) would be good.

"In the US anything is worn to most churches (some near a beach have people in swimsuits and coverup or pareo). Tee shirts and shorts are routine for younger people - weather allowing."

as I said above, the locals would be disappointed.

F&M

tight jeans is not smart. It would be seen as vulgar

Not in F&M it wouldn't, it's not Buck House, just look clean tidy and neat and you will be fine. Wear (smart) jeans if you want.

How old is your daughter?

Anyway, I observe that black slacks, a reasonable tank top and light jacket or drapey cardigan top over the tank can go just about anywhere. Walkable flats, decent purse.

Clothing doesn't seem to be worn as tight-fitting there as in Italian cities.

Tea at the Ritz was dressy; upscale but a bit rulesy. Tea at F&M seemed more like business casual, which is lowest level of what I would wear to St. Paul's.

Personally though I love well-fitted jeans with a jacket I would not go with jeans or more casual and definitely no "trainers." JMHO.

hetismij2 on Jul 5, 14 at 7:48pm

I wouldn't wear jeans to church, and I live in jeans.
I'd wear a dress or skirt and <b>top probably</b>. Nice trousers at a pinch but not jeans. What does she wear to church at home?


So does that mean you can go half naked ;-)

bilboburgler on Jul 5, 14 at 9:53pm
God will not score you down whatever you wear

I like that. Even if I am not a god fearing man.
Us humans can be so judgemental at times :-(

We humans. :))

Just teasing, rlb! QED-ing your response.

The problem with wearing jeans is that people have so many different points of view as to which are smart, which are sloppy, which are appropriate and which are not.

If one is sure one is smart - go for it. If in doubt - ask someone, or make another choice.

Jeans? Like these 3????
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/g...iddle-aged-man

why not just trousers instead of jeans? with a nice jacket they can take you anywhere, and be comfortable, and lighter to pack. [and easier to wash]. Also lighter in August, when we might hope for warm weather. Though i might take the opportunity to wear a skirt - they are far and few between nowadays, heaven knows.

Please don't take fashion advice from the Top Gear 'lads'. They for sure ain't taking tea at F&M (Well, <i>maybe</i> James May <i>might</i>)

I guess that a huge, touristy place of worship like St. Paul's Cathedral attracts a much larger and much more heterogenous, urban, mixed, touristy audience than the little village church in Midsomer Boring where the locals can actually see and judge what you wear.