✈️ Episode 4: Dressing for Dinner (Yes, It Matters).

✈️ Episode 4: Dressing for Dinner (Yes, It Matters)

I once heard someone say: “I’m not dressed up, I’m only out with the family.” And honestly, that line hit me in the wrong way. Why would you make less effort for the people who matter most? If anything, they deserve the best version of you, not the “it’ll do” version. These are the meals that turn into memories, the photos that get pulled out years later, the moments where self respect and pride in your appearance quietly ripple into something much bigger. Your family are the ones who deserve the version of you that isn’t still in chlorine sodden (probably a bit of pee too) shorts from six hours ago if your on holiday, or your grey, gravy stained custody tracksuit if you’re at home.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to go full James Bond just to order a plate of calamari (top tip: order well before the place shuts, the chef may not hate you as much if they close in 15). Wear shorts later if you want, change back at the hotel/Airbnb, swap into linen if that’s your thing… wear linen trousers in the first place. No problem. But when a restaurant has a dress code, it isn’t a personal attack. It’s just saying, make a bit of an effort. Trousers, shoes, maybe even a shirt with actual buttons. That’s not “fancy”, it’s not too much to ask in all honesty, that’s just “not smelling faintly of sun cream and pissy pool water.” The fact that a restaurant has a dress code probably says where we are in society these days if they have to have one..!

Because the “I’ve been in these swim shorts all day and I’m wearing them to dinner” look? That’s less casual Mediterranean chic and more lazy teenager who discovered Aperol yesterday at the back of their parent’s cocktail cabinet.

Making an effort isn’t about showing off to strangers. It’s about respect for the restaurant, for the occasion, and most of all for your own family. Especially your family. They’re the ones who’ll remember these dinners long after anyone else has forgotten what you wore. And you’ll definitely remember the people who didn’t make the effort.

And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say any of this, I don’t want to be eating lobster my pasta in a nice restaurant while the guy at the next table is in sliders, a sagging vest… saggier than his moobs poking out the side, and letting his beer belly hang over a pair of pool shorts and under said vest. That’s not “holiday casual,” that’s “greasy spoon fry up chic.” There’s a world of difference between being relaxed and being careless. One elevates the whole experience, the other drags it down for everyone nearby.

And yes, that extends to kids too. They’re not exempt from the idea of effort. Dressing them properly isn’t about stifling fun, it’s about teaching the same pride and respect you expect from yourself. Because if we shrug and say, “They’re only kids, let them wear anything,” then why would they ever grow up thinking differently? Effort isn’t just a dress code, it’s a value.

In the end, it’s simple, meals, whether abroad or at home, are memories waiting to be made. So why not make the effort to dress like they matter? 

So here’s the deal, you can always change back into your shorts later, after a meal somewhere. Just don’t bring the chlorine, sand, and sun cream to the dinner table. The restaurant deserves better, your family deserves better, and honestly, so do you. Because nobody wants to be remembered as “the guy who smelt like the hotel pool during dessert.”

In the end, this isn’t about trousers versus shorts. It’s about turning dinner whether at home or abroad into a memory worth keeping. Dress like it matters, because it does!