The Shoes 72% of People Refuse to Wear to Restaurants

Based on how often we all frequent restaurants on a weekly basis, you'd think that what to wear to them would be discussed more than it is. Nordstrom-owned personal styling service Trunk Club is doing its part to change that. The site recently released the results of a study it conducted about deciding what to wear to dinner, and a big takeaway is that what to wear to restaurants is a significant source of stress.

Trunk Club polled 2000 Americans and found that a whopping 65% of those surveyed said they were overwhelmed when it came to deciding what to wear out to dinner. They even said that it's more stressful than making the actual restaurant reservation, and 41% shared that the pressure to look stylish at restaurants is real. And believe it or not, one in four people admitted to altogether skipping going out because of an outfit predicament. 

Of all that was contained in the survey (which you should definitely check out—it's quite interesting), the largest consensus was about what shoes people refuse to wear to restaurants: About 72% would never wear flip-flops or sandals to restaurants. Now, the exact types of flip-flops and sandals aren't specified, but we're guessing that it's referring to very casual rubber varieties that are best suited for the beach or pool, as opposed to the plethora of chic, elevated sandals on the market. 

Keep scrolling to find out what else people refuse to wear to restaurants and shop shoes that we think are restaurant-appropriate.

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(Image credit: Backgrid)

The 10 Items People Refuse to Wear to Restaurants

Flip-flops: 38%

Sandals: 34%

Sweatpants: 32%

Shorts: 30%

Hats: 29%

Tank tops: 28%

Leggings: 28%

Cargo pants: 28%

Overalls: 28%

T-shirts: 26%

Shop Restaurant-Appropriate Shoes

Next up, the official dos and don'ts of restaurant dress codes.

Allyson Payer
Senior Editor

Allyson is a senior editor for Who What Wear. She joined the company in 2014 as co-founder Katherine Power's executive assistant and over the years has written hundreds of stories for Who What Wear. Prior to her career in fashion, Allyson worked in the entertainment industry at companies such as Sony Pictures Television. Allyson is now based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She holds a BFA in theater. Her path to fashion may not have been linear, but based on the number of fashion magazines she collected as a child and young adult, it was meant to be.