June 19, 2009 Photographic evidence
After much discussion of “how they dress in Europe” I realized that I had a conclusive piece of visual evidence. Check out these gentlemen playing big chess on a Saturday afternoon in the Geneva park that is home to the Reformers’ monument:
Note that the gentleman on the left’s coat is hanging on one of the taken chess pieces. And remember this is a Saturday. This look was by no means uncommon in Geneva. I was not surprised. And I had visited The Sartorialist enough to know I stood no chance in Italy.
Frank@OBOW
To be fair, here’s our German tour guide after a making a group photo with multiple cameras in Paris. Not the banker look:
Frank@OBOW
The Sartorialist has been in Florence a week or two after I was there. His photos show the variety to be found there. I half expect to find Till on The Sartorialist one day…
Reader Comments (11)
To be fair, where is the picture of the people playing checkers?
That would be the Parc de Bastions in Geneva, Switzerland on May 30, 2009 at about 2pm in the afternoon...
OK, I get it. I didn't shoot the checker-playing Euro trash yobs who were sunbathing in wifebeater shirts on the green behind me. You got me.
Notice the beer-drinking spectator is wearing jeans.
Yeah, and he has a backpack. That means he is probably a student or tourist. There is another guy in the back with jeans but he is wearing a long-sleeve shirt. Can't see the shoes. That would be my look. None of the seated folks in the back is wearing jeans and t-shirt, either.
We should note that Geneva is probably a little (or a lot) higher standing than the average European city. First, it's in Switzerland (technically not Europe but you get it), second it's closer to France. In France and Italy, people are in general better dressed than in Germany or even in Austria. Germany would be at the bottom of those, clearly. And, most importantly, in Geneva you have mainly three things a university, millionaires and private banks. So the average dress code is gonna be higher.
Perhaps I'm mistaken but if you look at the pants of both of the foreground chess players, they are jeans (though not of the faded blue variety). And what planet is that guy with the white pants and sandals from?
Funny, I thought that Switzerland was in the middle of Europe, not just "technically" in Europe.
Let people wear what they want. I live in jeans at home but don't take them with me overseas. For one reason, I travel very light and jeans weigh a ton. I tend to wear dark pants and subdued button down shirts that are easy to wash, dry quickly and dont' wrinkle. My look is similar to the chess player on the left. You can't go wrong with that look and for me is easy to maintain while traveling. I also find it comfortablle.
Robert - I think he means that Switzerland isn't a member of the EU. But then, there are a lot of countries within the continent of Europe that aren't - Iceland, Norway, Albania, all of the FYRs apart from Slovenia, Belarus, Ukraine, etc - you get the message. And that's before we get to whether Turkey should be admitted or not, or those somewhat skeptical nations that could leave.
Thing is, Europe != the EU. After all, when it started, there were only six members, and it stayed that way for nearly 20 years.
Thanks for the clarification, Dan. There are at least three notions of Europe: the continent, the cultural community and the EU (economic and political community). Parts of my family being Swiss, I know very well about any of these notions. Sorry, this has been misunderstood.
The German guide is on the fashionable, traveler, intellectual side in terms of his look. If I didn't know where he was from I'd say Germany, England, Holland, Denmark in that order.
Buzz's look with dark pants and button-down shirt is a very good look, I find. It is very neutral in terms of cultural, societal and even economic connotation. I wear that look myself quite often, notably for travel.
To me, that's definitely a German look.
A fun game to play in airports or major city centres is "Where do they come from?"
If the clothes don't give it away, check out the hair and glasses. Oh, and the bag they're carrying.