Has your clothing ever got you into trouble overseas?

[JohnK]

As in wear a blue tie?

I think there is a reference to some incident in Australian politics which I try to avoid if possible. Rudd vs Gillard?

Anyyway I didn't mean ties. Conservative clothing. No slogans. No images.

 

[seanpodge]

I haven't gotten into trouble based on my attire yet, although I was rather selective with my sartorial choices when I went to Belfast, especially when I discovered that my hotel was in a heavily Loyalist area.

 

[juddles]

I have seen absolutely ridiculous choices of attire all around the planet. Some are innocent mistakes, but some are just sheer stupidity. marijuan_ t-shirts through south east Asia, women in skimpy tops in the middle east, a backpacker in camoflage pants getting around Colombia. Darwin, please work your magic!


Totally off-topic, but the other day in Medellín, Colombia, I saw a woman drug-addict homeless person wandering in the homeless person área next to the river in the centre of town. She had a t-shirt on that declared in huge letters: ¨I LOVE MY LIFE¨.

 

[juddles]

And for the record, my favorite long haul clothing is jeans and a black polo shirt. Casual but respectable, hasn´t offended anyone yet. At one stage I did work in a very anti-American country, and due to me being a white person, I used to always have Australiana stuff plainly visible, t-shirts, aussie carry bags, etc. I have still not found a race that hates Aussies - we are so lucky!

 

[harvyk]

I tend to wear jeans / shorts and a checkered shirt. No logos or designs, relatively neutral. It's not that I'm not making a statement, it's just that's what I tend to wear at home.

I also tend to try and not look like a tourist, there will be some places where I will stand out (there is no way I'll ever be mistaken for a Asian local for example), but for the most part I tend to look and act like a local (can be a little interesting when people stop and ask me for directions). The one exception is in the USA, where I'll ham up the Aussieness, simply because I've made many a friend (real friends whom I talk to and visit from time to time) doing so.

 

[kingzac]

When heading into DPRK I was told told to wear something decent when going to the statues of the leaders out of "respect".
I got off the flight to Pyongyang wearing a stupid t-shirt with a picture of a dog wearing a suit and we diverted from the printed itinerary to stop in at the statues to "pay our respects". They didn't seem to really care but I did notice a few weird looks on peoples faces as they glanced at my shirt.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

When heading into DPRK I was told told to wear something decent when going to the statues of the leaders out of "respect".

I got off the flight to Pyongyang wearing a stupid t-shirt with a picture of a dog wearing a suit and we diverted from the printed itinerary to stop in at the statues to "pay our respects". They didn't seem to really care but I did notice a few weird looks on peoples faces as they glanced at my shirt.

I don't think the suit wearing dog t-shirt was disrespectful in any way it would just be so 'out there' and something that locals wouldn't have seen before.

By the way did you see any of these Dear Leader tongue scrapers in the shops while you were there? Fastest way to being a chick magnet by the looks of it.

 

[kingzac]

By the way did you see any of these Dear Leader tongue scrapers in the shops while you were there? Fastest way to being a chick magnet by the looks of it.
View attachment 34667

Wow I definitely didn't see those, I would have stocked up!
I did get a nice cook book of authentic North Korean meals. None of which look enticing or borderline edible

 

[vetrade]

A little OT but in the days when “Deep Throat” was considered the most scandalous movie ever I recall a video clip (it was on the ABC, I think) showing a young teenage boy in PNG presenting a gift to the wife of a visiting Aussie dignitary while wearing a T shirt with “I choked Linda Lovelace” emblazoned across the front.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I remember someone on a BNE/PER flight was upset at the attire of a fellow pax and complained to the CSM about what he was wearing which was one of those 'Mr Men' (Mr Happy, Mr Grumpy etc) inspired t-shirts only this one said 'Mr Jihad'.

The pax was spoken to and happily did a quick change in the aerobridge turning t-shirt inside out before putting it back on and reboarding the aircraft.

Wow I definitely didn't see those, I would have stocked up! I did get a nice cook book of authentic North Korean meals. None of which look enticing or borderline edible

I hope dog didn't feature in any of them. :shock:

 

[v8Statesman]

One time transiting through NRT I was wearing a black T-Shirt with Japanese writing on it that I had bought in Australia. It was just coincidence that I had it on for that trip. Didn't think about it. In the JAL F lounge a gentleman came up to me and asked me did I know what was written on my shirt. I said no. He told me what it was (I forget now) and that it was quite insulting to a section of the Japanese population. Fortunately I had another T-Shirt in my hand luggage and promptly changed it.

 

[kelvedon]

One time transiting through NRT I was wearing a black T-Shirt with Japanese writing on it that I had bought in Australia. It was just coincidence that I had it on for that trip. Didn't think about it. In the JAL F lounge a gentleman came up to me and asked me did I know what was written on my shirt. I said no. He told me what it was (I forget now) and that it was quite insulting to a section of the Japanese population. Fortunately I had another T-Shirt in my hand luggage and promptly changed it.

I guess it works both ways. Some of the nonsensical or incoherent English catchphrases on Japanese youngsters suggest they don't know what they read either.

 

[Cossie]

In Albufeira Portugal in the early eighties, I was wearing a T-shirt promoting Redgum's album "If you don't fight, you lose". This drunken Scandinavian took offence to it and really wanted to have a fight. It was about 2pm and he obviously had a problem with the world!

 

[SamR]

.I was wearing a baseball style long sleeved shirt with New York Jets on it however it was not as in the American Football New York Jets but a souvenir from the musical West Side Story which we'd seen on Broadway. I was going through the TSA screening point in San Juan when one of the staff mumbled semi-sarcastically "woo - go jets".

I gather he didn't challenge you to a rumble, then?

I've not had trouble with clothes, but one time I was travelling with an Australian friend in Wales. We'd just stepped off the train at Cardiff and into a cab late in the afternoon, and noticed a lot of barricades and police around. We asked the cabbie what was going on, and he explained that an Aust vs Wales rugby match was about to finish, and Aust had beaten Wales. We had to walk the length of the main street of Cardiff a little while later, which was full of bars full of Taffys drowning their sorrows and spilling out on to the street. We weren't game to speak to each other, lest our accents betray us. And come to think of it, we didn't see a single person that night who was game to wear any kind of Aussie clothing in public.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

One time transiting through NRT I was wearing a black T-Shirt with Japanese writing on it that I had bought in Australia. It was just coincidence that I had it on for that trip. Didn't think about it. In the JAL F lounge a gentleman came up to me and asked me did I know what was written on my shirt. I said no. He told me what it was (I forget now) and that it was quite insulting to a section of the Japanese population. Fortunately I had another T-Shirt in my hand luggage and promptly changed it.

I saw Jimmy Barnes interviewed on tv (might've been Andrew Denton) about back in the eighties when he wore that Japanese bandanna for their album 'East' & apparently a Japanese guy came up to him and told Jimmy his headband was upside down.

I gather he didn't challenge you to a rumble, then?

I've not had trouble with clothes, but one time I was travelling with an Australian friend in Wales. We'd just stepped off the train at Cardiff and into a cab late in the afternoon, and noticed a lot of barricades and police around. We asked the cabbie what was going on, and he explained that an Aust vs Wales rugby match was about to finish, and Aust had beaten Wales.

We had to walk the length of the main street of Cardiff a little while later, which was full of bars full of Taffys drowning their sorrows and spilling out on to the street. We weren't game to speak to each other, lest our accents betray us. And come to think of it, we didn't see a single person that night who was game to wear any kind of Aussie clothing in public.

Sounds like you would've been about as popular as anyone wearing a Barbarians jersey around AKL back in October 1999. :shock: I was working over there for a few weeks doing some training/post cutover support for a client & couldn't believe how the K1W1's were acting like they had the Rugby World Cup in the bag before their semi-final match had been played.

Well the inevitable happened and they lost to France and for at least the next 5 days the front page & most of the first section of the NZ Herald newspaper consisted of a post mortem on how they lost the unloseable, Taine Randell this & that, blah blah blah, so much so that the Egypt Air crash on 31 October was relegated to the second section of the paper!

A Wallabies jersey probably wouldn't have been well received either as although they didn't actually knock NZ out of contention, the fact that the Aussies were the ultimate victors would probably have only rubbed salt into the wound as it was a harsh reminder of what was supposedly 'theirs'.

 

[Cynicor]

We were in Tokyo and about to head out when we actually looked at what a mate was wearing. Not quite this image, but similar in nature- a cartoon mushroom cloud with a smiley face on it. We asked if he was actually planning on going outside and he then realised what he was wearing...

 

[NFF]

Homophobic passenger at Dallas airport attacks man for wearing a pink shirt | Daily Mail Online

 

[Denali]

I noticed Sunday that lots of All Black fans heading to USA/Chicago for a rugby game were wearing NZ onesies at the gate. I thought they looked cute although I didn't understand the middle aged woman carrying a teddy bear in a holster/baby carrier contraption thingy. Now that got a WTF from me. Unless you are aged 10 and under, leave the freakin' teddy bears at home, people.

 

[rioter]

I noticed yesterday that lots of All Black fans heading to USA/Chicago for a rugby game were wearing NZ onesies at the gate. I thought they looked cute although I didn't understand the middle aged woman carrying a teddy bear in a holster/baby carrier contraption thingy. Now that got a WTF from me. Unless you are aged 10 and under, leave the freakin' teddy bears at home, people.

No! I travel with a stuffed monkey everywhere. Just something small that reminds me of home. (although i don't really carry it onto the plane, just packed in carry on)

 

[Denali]

No! I travel with a stuffed monkey everywhere. Just something small that reminds me of home. (although i don't really carry it onto the plane, just packed in carry on)

I was going to dis' the travelling monkey to remind you of home..... then I remember I travel with a bigger monkey, aka the husband.