Clothing: British vs. North American Terms

“I want you all to walk down the staircase in your pants and suspenders.” This instruction from the female photographer rather shocked our very British friend and his groomsmen during the pre-wedding photoshoot on the day he and his Canadian wife married in her hometown. “Pants” and “suspenders” have rather different meanings in the UK than in North America, and a photo of men wearing the British version is not something that would be appropriate for the wedding album!

In today’s post, in case you haven’t already guessed, we’re going to look at some words for items of clothing that differ between North America and Britain. Let’s start with the aforementioned pants.

Pants

To be honest, this is probably the best-known clothing word difference between the two sides of the pond. In North America, “pants”, of course, refers to the long-legged item used to cover, well, the legs. In the UK, though, the word is most commonly used to refer to underpants, either men’s or women’s. The usual British word for the outer garment is “trousers”. However, “pants” is used in terms like “lounge pants”, “ski pants”, etc. and is also sometimes used in northern England for “trousers”.

Trainers

When we lived in Canada, my husband and a friend of ours were once discussing “trainers”. However, several minutes into the conversation, they realized that they were actually talking about two completely different things. My British husband was referring to the type of sports shoes on his feet, while our friend was waxing lyrical about the training pants he was wearing. I’m not sure if “trainers” is generally used in Canada and/or the US for the latter, but it does highlight the fact that our friend wasn’t familiar with the word being used for footwear. In North America those kinds of shoes are called “sneakers”, so I guess ya’ll wear them for sneaking around!

Vest

I haven’t got a funny story about vests, but I’m sure that whichever side of the Atlantic you live, you’d agree that it’s a good thing to wear one in the winter to keep warm. However, while in North America you wear your vest over your shirt, in the UK, you wear it underneath. A British “vest” is a sleeveless undershirt; an American or Canadian vest is also sleeveless but is worn over a shirt. What is called a “vest” in North America, is known as a “waistcoat” in Britian.

Jumper

When my sister and I were growing up, our mum and our granny knitted quite a lot of jumpers for us, including the ones that were part of our school uniform. Depending on whether you’re British or North American, you now have rather different images of what two little girls were wearing. “Jumper(s)” can mean several things to someone from the western side of the pond, but in the UK it’s the usual word for a “sweater”. Now our school uniform makes better sense to you, doesn’t it?

Knickers

One of my clients once wrote that her 1920s’ female character was riding her horse through the park wearing knickers. While the North American item of clothing referred to by that word was quite daring at the time, going out in public in the British garment would have been positively scandalous! The term my client needed was “knickerbockers” to describe the loose-fitting knee-length pants. In the UK, the word “knickers” is equivalent to the North American “panties”.

Tights

Sticking with the underwear theme, we now come to “tights”, which also refers to two different garments, depending on which side of the pond you’re from. From what I can gather from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it seems that in North America, the word is used for a tight-fitting whole-body or half-body garment. In the UK, it is now only generally used to refer to the women’s undergarment that would be called “pantyhose” in North America, alongside its specialist use for dancers, gymnasts, etc.

Suspenders

And finally we come to the suspenders. I hadn’t forgotten about them – I was just keeping you in suspense! The Canadian photographer was, of course, referring to the bands used to hold up Canadian pants. However, to our British friend and his groomsmen, “suspenders” were the lingerie item used to hold up stockings. Underpants and garter belts sound more like attire a groom might be forced to wear on his stag night rather than something appropriate for the wedding day. Our Brits would wear “braces” to hold their trousers up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our little foray into the differences between the British and North American wardrobe. I know that we’ve only touched on the varying names of items of clothing, but hopefully you’re now a bit better equipped to dress your British characters appropriately.