Thread: Jeans and Tennis Shoes! Oh My!

We travel to Europe a lot, and I always keep an eye on what people are wearing over there. I always take note of what the locals wear versus what the tourists wear. The differences always interest me and it's fun to try to use these clues to guess where people are from.

In the past, whenever thinking of what I should pack for a European trip I have always gone by the basic rule of never wearing jeans and tennis shoes "because you will stand out as both a tourist and an American". Even though I think there is nothing wrong with looking like a tourist or an American (since I am both) I still always pack a lot of black slacks, black walking shoes, and other black pieces in my wardrobe. They wear a lot of black over there, you know.

Well we just got back from ten days in France, and I noticed something new. I saw a lot of jeans and tennis shoes on the locals ! It's true, they're everywhere...from artsy types at the Louvre to the man selling Camembert at the farmer's market. But only during the day. At night the locals...and any traveler who doesn't want to look like a tourist, for whatever reason...primarily wear black on black with black footwear and black handbags.

In fact, the fastest way to tell the tourists from a local woman is that the tourists were mostly carrying oversized shoulderbags with big designer prints, or bright colors, or bling-encrusted. I guess that trend just hasn't caught on over there yet.

I thought they were the trend-setters there and we folk here just played along.

Originally Posted by FinelyCruising

I thought they were the trend-setters there and we folk here just played along.

Maybe the tide is turning.

Is that good?

I don't worry about what the Europeans wear. I'm usually there in winter and worry about not getting sick. When I'm there any other time of the year, I wear what I feel like wearing.