Europeans Tried Giving Americans Summer Fashion Advice and It Backfired Spectacularly

It started as a simple style tip and turned into a full-scale transatlantic roast. A thread posted on X listing out things Americans should avoid wearing when visiting Europe this summer quickly went viral, but not for the reasons its author likely intended. The original post warned American tourists against items like cargo shorts, loud graphic tees, trainers with every outfit, sports team shirts, clashing colors, beach shorts, and hats worn indoors. Sensible enough advice, some might say. Americans, however, had a few thoughts of their own.

The clap-back was swift and merciless. User JayJurden fired back immediately with a simple observation about European fashion staples, writing “Ok skinny jeans and pumas,” cutting right to the chase with a dig that resonated with thousands. Someone else under the handle BoronTheFloor added that instead of the offending American items, Europeans apparently want visitors to be wearing “tight denim shorts and a Levi’s t shirt for some reason.” The irony was not lost on anyone in the thread, given that Levi’s is, of course, an American brand.

User frayedcollar took things a step further, pointing out what many Americans have noticed during their own travels. “Europeans will say shit like this and then wear the most obnoxiously logo’d Abercrombie And Fitch t-shirt you’ve ever seen in your life,” they wrote, calling out a very specific brand contradiction that sent the thread into overdrive. Abercrombie and Fitch, another American brand, has enjoyed an almost cult-like status among European shoppers for years, making the irony particularly pointed. ArthurBoreman then chimed in with a mention of Europeans’ apparent love of factory-shredded jeans, adding another item to the growing list of European fashion habits that Americans found worth noting.

The roast didn’t stop at clothing brands. User CarolinaHomo suggested Europeans need to “stop wearing large print 2007 Aeropostale t-shirts,” a reference that hit a very particular cultural nerve. Someone else shared a photo of a French bulldog standing on its hind legs in skinny jeans, captioning it with a comparison to their older Irish cousins’ fashion sense. The image practically broke the thread. A now-viral photo of a group of men walking in a European city, all in matching casual summer outfits with tiny crossbody bags strapped across their chests, also made the rounds, with one user noting the only thing missing from the look was a “bookbag strapped TIGHT.”

@raimeetravel Not the man working out in them?! Someone please explain because that cannot be comfortable? #europeanfashion #europefashion #americanfashion ♬ sonido original – Joaquín Sebastián Amaya

The conversation then evolved into its own viral thread when user usddos posed a question that gathered over 1.8 million views: “do european tourists know they’re highly identifiable in america as well?” The replies came flooding in. User aliyahInterlude described what they called a European tourist uniform as “designer scarf, tight ass skinny jeans, white short sleeve top, smell like cigarettes at any given time ….” Another user, katefeetie, joked that “europeans can easily spot american tourists because it’s often their first time seeing someone in a shirt that’s not from armani exchange,” flipping the original premise entirely on its head. The whole back-and-forth captured something genuine about how both sides view each other through the lens of fashion.

Perhaps the most quoted response to the entire debate came from user johnkartch, who addressed the original fashion advice thread with a condition of his own. “Will consider this provided you agree to learn the recipe for ice cubes,” he wrote, a nod to the long-running joke about the European preference for drinks served without ice, which American tourists consistently find baffling. It was the perfect punchline to a thread that had already said everything that needed to be said.

Cargo shorts, by the way, were invented in 1938 by the British military for soldiers to carry field supplies, and their popularity in American civilian fashion didn’t really explode until the 1990s. Skinny jeans, the European silhouette that dominated so much of this thread’s mockery, actually originated from American rock and roll culture in the 1950s before becoming a European staple decades later. The Abercrombie and Fitch brand, which Europeans reportedly wear with pride, was originally founded in 1892 as an elite outdoor and sporting goods retailer in Manhattan.

What do you think — are there fashion habits from your travels that immediately gave away a tourist’s nationality? Share your experiences in the comments.