British holiday fashion disasters

Tourists from Birmingham and the Midlands have worst fashion sense in the UK, followed by Newcastle & the North East and then Scotland, a survey revealed. Americans voted as having worst fashion sense in world, Italians

as best.

As thousands of UK tourists return from summer holidays, a new piece of research on holiday fashion disasters reports that socks and sandals are the worst trend on holiday, followed closely by exposed beer bellies, and also that people who come from the Midlands have the worst dress sense.

The survey polled 600 people around the country on their thoughts of the wardrobe of average British holidaymakers, with skimpy trunks on men, women's thongs, bright red sunburn and 'logo overload' all at the top of fashion's mistakes. A third of people said that women wearing football shirts was a no-no, while 20 per cent of people think that men wearing football shirts is also out of style.

Questioned on which Brits have the worst dress sense, 20 per cent of people responded those from Birmingham and the Midlands, with Newcastle and the North East, Scotland, Essex and then Manchester and the North West coming along next.  Tourists from Yorkshire and East England are considered the best dressed travellers.

The research, conducted by money saving website DiscountVouchers.co.uk, also gathered views on also asked respondents which nationality they thought had the poorest fashion sense, with Americans topping the poll for their loud shirts and socks and sandals, closely followed by the Germans, then the Greeks and British. Italians were voted as the best dressed, followed by  the Spanish.

Over 83 per cent of all respondents (92 per cent of male respondents) believed men to have the worst fashion sense, despite men (43 per cent) being more likely to buy new clothes each year for their holiday compared to women (32 per cent).  57 per cent of men and 68 per cent of women said they wear clothes on holiday that they have had for more than five years.

When asked about the main factors in their decision to buy new clothes for a holiday two thirds said they bought an item if it looked good on; but for 1 in 5 the key factor is price. 14 per cent of respondents said they spend less than £50 on their holiday wardrobe, while the majority (70 per cent) spend between £50 - £200.  2 per cent said they spend over £500 getting their holiday wear right.

Simon Terry of DiscountVouchers.co.uk said: "Keeping costs down is important to everyone at the moment, and with  respondents stating that price is the second largest influencing factor in purchasing new clothes, it goes to show just how important it is to shop around.

Image: Sock & sandals