Volume 18　ドレスコードあれこれ


Occasions for Dressing Up

Ann Slater: Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of Cultural Crossroads. This is for January, and I'm Ann.

Michael Rhys: And I'm Mike. Hi.

Ann: We're very glad to be with you again. So this month we are going to talk about dressing and, uh, dress codes. I'd like to hear actually a little bit, Michael, about in England. What sorts of things, for example, did you grow up with? Like, for example, which kinds of occasions called for formal dress and, or was it more casual, or what sort of thing was it?

Michael: I think probably when I was growing up, the one thing I remember that always required slightly more formal wear was certainly weddings - is the one time where you are gonna be dressed up, in a suit for guys, obviously and a nice dress for the women. I understand in the States weddings can be everything from very formal to incredibly informal. 

Ann: Yeah. I mean, you can have a, a beach wedding, for example, where people are barefoot - you're just, uh, very casually dressed. 

Michael: I think weddings in the U.K. tend to be more towards the formal side. I'm sure there are those casual weddings, but we just don't have the weather for the beach weddings, really. 

Ann: And what about, I noticed, uh, quite a few months ago now at the royal wedding, when I was watching, there were so many hats, which from an American point of view is very unusual. I mean, people, of course, occasionally wear hats but not like, at least, not like I saw on that day. 

Michael: Well, generally speaking people in the U.K. don't wear hats either, and at most weddings you'll go to you probably won't see the hats either. However, there are certain events and kinds of events that, in a way, are quite class-specific. And this is a royal wedding, and when you have an event that, kind of, falls into this kind of category then things tend to get a bit more formal than it would otherwise.