Where did all the eccentrics go?

Happy Birthday Molly Parkin

I saw a young lady driving an open top Bentley through Liverpool wearing pyjamas with curlers in her hair .
Thought … WAG ? (it was 2005) she looked daft !

I arrived in London from rural Switzerland in 1970 - and I fell in love with all the 'excentrics' and the 'excentricity'- the choice, the tolerance, the humour, the vast variety. And yes, I do miss it whenever we are in the UK now.

Eccentric, demented, or an affectation?

I wear massively wide HiLo bloomers from the Slow Wardrobe Layercake and their tunics and tulip dresses. They’re eye-wateringly expensive, but all linen or wool and the finishing is superb - so it’s one garment a year and look after them. I’ve never seen anyone else wearing them

New topic - new etiquette rules
If you were contributing to a book on good manners for our current times, what would you add?
Here are two I’d like to see people observe.
1. In public toilets with those drum toilet roll holders filled with very thin paper, users should always leave a length of paper outside the drum for the next person.
2. In dimply light, drivers should turn their lights on. Lights are for others to see you by, even if you can see without using them!

I'm a southerner but lived up north for a while when kids were small. Looking back it would have seemed eccentric NOT to have your hair in rollers with a neat headscarf over them when you picked kids up from school. When we moved down south I only did it once....

I agree with the contributor above: It's the 'normals' you need to look out for.

Iwore patchwork jeans in the 70's my uncle was horrified he said my late GF would be ashamed to see me dressed like that.My GF was a master tailor who used to hand stitch the latest fashions for his daughters ,patchwork jeans wouldn't have made the cut

These are Traffic Wardens seen at the Pride festival. there are many many different modes of dress here in Brighton. It is only the tourists/visitors who take any notice, if you live here you are used to odd/unusual modes of dress.

I don't know that's its always dress which marks people out as eccentric, it is behaviour as well. Every family has an eccentric aunt I am told, and I am also told by my nieces that I am thar eccentric aunt.....

Agreed

I wonder if jeans ripped at the knee were “eccentric” when they first appeared? It now seems like a uniform. Never saw the point of it really.

We live close to a traveller site and the women often go to the shop , Morrison’s or petrol station in pyjamas and dressing gowns plus slippers and heavily tangoed skin! They really don’t care !!! ??‍♀️

annab275

When I was at school in the sixties one of the mums collected her child wearing a bikini. She must have leapt off the sun lounger straight to the school although in those days parents just waited in their cars and it was up to the children to find them

I bet she was in good shape, though, annab. I would have got dressed and been late.

Just in case you didn't get it....absent/still around ?

absent

Some of us are still around.

Had to laugh!

I feel the same.

I loved how everyone dressed in the late 60s, early 70s. Sometimes I look at the photos of Marc Bolan and David Bowie and feel sad that young men no longer dress so flamboyantly. And if they do, they seem to have decided they must be trans. Shame really, I loved all that glamour, all those clothes from Granny Takes a Trip etc.

It used to be well known that if anyone behaved/dressed a 'bit batty' it was eccentric if they were posh, but if poor they were just plain batty.?

All the 'eccentrics' are residing in the houses of parliament- they're the conservative party??

DH bought me a a bright gold corduroy baggy trousers and jacket Lucy & Yak suit to celebrate our Golden Wedding.... I love corduroy and, at one point in the 60's had shoes, bag, skirt and shirt all in cord... so I bought an burnt orange version of the same ensemble, both of which I wear with startling colours such as purple and black. Many people have commented favourably... One waitress recognized the brand with great enthusiasm and we had a lovely chat about it.... I've always revelled in being eccentric - in several ways - and am unlikely to change now. To answer the OP's question....I'm in Orkney...with quite a few others of the same ilk....

Lucca-??

There is a lovely lady in my town who makes her own stunning costumes that she quite happily wears when out and about - think of My Fair Lady and you will get the idea.
She has amazing Edwardian style hats and bonnets and I don't think that I have seen her in the same thing twice!
She always draws looks from people that haven't seen her before , but the look of absolute serenity as she is standing there waiting for her bus, just makes your day seem a little bit better !
There is also another lovely lady who is often seen around town, usually dressed in red and white, who loves to share her beliefs and the love of God with anyone that is happy to listen!
Not forgetting the man that is well known for arriving on his pushbike to direct the traffic, whether needed or not!

I think people like Rees Mogg are just "try hards".
It's just an affectation, not eccentricity.