It's a Friday night, and you're a Yankee. Exhausted from a week of hard, worthwhile work, you decide to treat yourself to exploring a new restaurant in town. You convince other Yankee friends to join you, and you meet up at a casual place with interesting and exciting cuisine (think Greenwich Village meets classic Southern meets retro diner).
Looking around upon entry, you wonder if you've crashed a birthday or anniversary party of some sort because EVERYONE is dressed to the nines: girls are in strappy dresses and heels with hair done-up (really up, some hair styles are reaching up to heaven); there's not a fellow to be seen without a sport's jacket. Looking down at yourself you see boyfriend jeans (clean?), darling hipster t-shirt (shoot, it's the one with the hot dog on it), funky bracelets, and while the hair is up, there's plenty of knots in it. You ask a friendly-looking couple on your way out if they're celebrating something, and they simply respond, "Nope, just being out."
I have a few thoughts about this. The first is that traditions of the Old South, especially when it comes to the traditions of courting, are, for the most part, still resonant. Without making too many stereotypes, this is pertinent to those who subscribe to the societal values.
On the formality of dress on a night out, I'm going limit my scope to girls. The difference I see is clear: in the South, fashion is much more formal and polished and uniform, in the North, the fashion is more trend-setting, and personal. Girls, even more so in the South, "dress up." Girls in the North, while they dress to impress, do a lot less of the fancy-formal dressing up. You may be asking, well is it all that different who are fashion-oriented and conscious of social status in the North? I think it is. This look to varying degrees is widely seen at any restaurant on any given night, with this accessory. A very northerner look, while still fashion-conscious, is much more comfy-casual. Is this because the temperature is much colder in the north, and we're used to bundling up and taking on layers?
The lesson in all of this? If you're travelling or relocating to the deep South, be conscious that going out is what it should be, a special occasion and something to be celebrated, and you should dress accordingly.
