What determines something as common and tacky

I think I am rather shabby lately since lockdown but I have never been what I would call chic.

Shabby unchic?

One of my pet hates is shabby chic, I call it shabby sh*t. Fortunately it seems to be on the way out of fashion.

Some one on a FB local group I'm in last week posted a photograph of a labrador-sized silver and glass bejewelled lion for sale. I was so horrified I couldn't even muster a comment.

Yes Grammaretto we did.

Victoria Wood was very clever at the way she laughed with people of a certain size or with afflictions, not at them. Her characterisations were fabulously funny ?

Slightly at a tangent - my parents once took us to a fairly posh restaurant on holiday (chip shop closed) and we were in mortal fear of being thought 'common' or 'showing ourselves up' in front of the other diners. This would have been fodder for Alan Bennett.
I expect 'tacky' clothing is the type that Coronation Street's Bet Lynch would have worn - flashy jewellery, animal print, heels just that bit too high, etc. Don't many of us like to think that our own taste is better than other peoples?

Did anyone else catch Victoria Wood last night ^ Our Friend Victoria^ on diet and appearance. She was brilliant and managed to poke fun so gently without cruelty. She sent herself up and took us all with her.

I can still remember my mother's look as she was introduced to a boy my teenaged sister brought home. She was polite but his winklepickers were a step too far!

Definitely eating in the street - I also had that school rule drummed into me! People who swear in public and I know this will be very unpopular with some people: tattoos; try as I might to get along with them, I just think they look awful.

Well, I'm quite happy to judge people as common and tacky by what they wear and how they conduct themselves. I think it is human nature to do so and the rest of you are being very uneconomical with the truth because you're all happy to make comments about anything!

Here's a list-for both sexes
dressing with boobs or stomach hanging out in too short a skirt if you haven't got the shape for it
dressing in any clothes which are far too tight.. see above
a multitude of tattoos and piercings
hair bleached to resemble straw and make up an inch thick with ridiculous false eyelashes
constantly shouting at your kids and they take no notice
leaving litter everywhere
having poor understanding of the most basic of general knowledge or current affairs
chewing gum and spitting it out
throwing fag ends on the floor
leaving dog poo for people to tread in....and so

Eating on the street. Talking to someone sitting down eating whilst you’re standing, poor table manners, too much jewellery, long fake nails, plastic shoes except when gardening, animal prints and sparkly clothes combined, hmm so many, not thanking a host with a handwritten note after a stay,

toscalily

I remember years ago being told that white high heels were common

Especially worn with fluorescent socks.

I remember how Paw used to tease me by saying how sad it was that not everybody shared my infallibly good taste

Long white socks were only worn by girls who frequent coffee bars, ie common, according to our headmistress!

As for white high heels . . . . . I'm sure she would have been apoplectic! ?

For most of us women on here I think we were brought up in an age when mothers had a horror of looking 'common'.
Eating in the street as mentioned, not wearing gloves to chapel, short skirts, ladies smoking,
swearing in public, definitely no public displays of affection. The list was endless.

like that vampirequeen

Tacky is “cheap and tawdry” by dictionary definition but I think what looks cheap and tawdry to one person, will look attractive to another.

Being common applies to us all, if we don’t have a Title, by dictionary definition.

Anything else is just our own eyes’ judgement.

Bathsheba, don't we all mentally judge people at times? But say nothing and keep our thoughts to ourselves. Plenty of times I have looked at someone and thought" What a dogs dinner" as my mother would have said but not voiced my opinion. There is an expression in Lancashire "Look at her for the price of fish" you get the gist then! You can be discreet with your private thoughts!

When I was at school I was summoned to the Headmistress as I had been reported for 'eating in the street' which was considered very common behaviour and reflected badly on the school.
(I had eaten an orange whilst sitting at the bus stop waiting for my bus home)!

It worked though - I've never been comfortable to 'eat in the street' since then!!

remember years ago being told that white high heels were common

Especially when worn with American Tan stockings or tights.

I remember years ago being told that white high heels were common

Well I am sitting here in my 3/4 length black leggings and floral tunic and I look neither common or tacky.
So you got that wrong

I'd wear them underneath trousers in winter, but not looking like Max Wall or Humpty Dumpty.

Anything my inlaws or DH's ex partner would have in their houses. Bitchy....oh yes

I thought common was something you see too much of-----like leggings Oh dear, that's me for the high-jump.

farview

Oh we need Gabriellahere for this one...come back soon!?

?

I always think that a certain extremely rich man manages to look common and tacky

As Dolly says: "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap"

Opinion determines common and tacky - and everyone thinks their own has the most importance!

Lucca ???

Bathsheba you might think that but I couldn’t possibly comment.
In fact how I judged them was nothing to do with tacky it was to do with a poor choice of outfit for their shape teamed with enough make up to sink a battleship meaning they’ll probably ruin their skin.