Suiko - I LOVE going to the local shops (where I live in London) in my trackie bottoms - even more so because I cannot do that in Italy! My suocera down in Lecce is obsessed by the bella figura so I have a whole wardrobe of 'smart' clothes that I buy in London and ship down to Lecce to wear when I am there (otherwise she gives my husband grief). Whilst she worries so much about what people think, she just does not realise that I really don't care what other people think. So when I am back in London, I take delight in dressing as slobbily as I can, in the knowledge that Londoners don't give a stuff what I look like! In London, you'd have to be walking around nude before people stared at you ... and even then, we'd most likely just avert our eyes and pretend we haven't seen you.
I think the thing is, she simply can't conceive of not caring what other people think, that's the problem!
I'm Italian.
My suggestion is: sandals and cool sneakers, such as New Balance or Merrell (they fit perfectly even at restaurants).
As for this perennial search for "bella figura", I dare say it's just one of the many stereotypes - and anyway highly overestimated. Most men tend to be as casual as anywhere else. Or to put it in a better way: we wear t-shirt and jeans as the rest of the world, but maybe both jeans and t-shirt are better quality and more expensive.
So as a rule I'd say that wearing casual is always ok, but the stuff you buy must cost twice as much as you'd pay back home.
"maybe both jeans and t-shirt are better quality and more expensive."
Exactly! That's bella figura, isn't it? :-)
# 24 - my Italian father in law wears a shirt, jacket, tie and matching trousers EVERY day. Even on weekends. In summer, when hot, he will take off the tie when at home. I have never seen him wearing casual clothes. My suocera insists that my husband wear a fresh, clean shirt even if he wants to go out round the shops and has a hissy fit if she sees me wearing anything casual. All the men in the family always wear shirt and trousers at weekends if they want to go out of the house. Needless to say, my husband also enjoys his trackie bottom liberty at weekends in London! Maybe this is a Southern thing?? I never seen men over 30 here dressed in any way other than smartly.
# 27 That sounds quite countryside, for sure countryside and south are more traditionalist
In general I would say most Italians dress "casual smart" with very little variance, while here in the UK you have got the extremes, the people in "pijamas" and the people with tuxedos, hats (I think the British have a true passion for formal dressing/parties/events, I think in Italy I have never seen a tuxedo apart from La Scala) and the hundreds of Victoria Beckhams of the saturday nights in the Mayfair nightclubs.
But hardly anyone here ever goes to these "formal events" - they're pretty much exclusively for the 1% of the population who like to believe they are an elite!
njarrat,
I've read your comments many times and as far I can say, you're a Londoner who lives in Puglia, right?
Well, the kind of place you're describing, habits, mentality, suocera and stuff, it all seems to me as if your were speaking about a John Fante book. Do things really go that way? Or are you just trying to depict it in such a backward way in order to promote the old sterotypes of mamma-spaghetti-chiesa Italian? I can hardly believe you're in earnest.
As #28 say, it's casual smart.
Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers will do anytime. And if you want to "look Italian" (as if it was something to pursue.... tsk-tsk-tsk....), buy good labels, good quality jeans, t-shirts and sneakers.
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