Journal
What "Smart Casual" Means on the Riviera
The coast has a dress code and almost never writes it down. What the good rooms in Cap Ferrat, Antibes and St Tropez actually expect after eight.
The French Riviera has a dress code that is rarely printed and universally understood. It is not formal. It is precise.
Daytime is unstructured: swimwear at the beach club, a cover-up between the lounger and the restaurant, sandals. The only firm rule is that swimwear stops at the sand. Walking into a town restaurant in trunks reads badly in a way that nobody will mention and everybody will notice.
After eight the coast tightens. For men that means a collar, trousers or well-cut linen, and loafers rather than trainers. A jacket is rarely demanded and often worn; it is the difference between being seated at the terrace and being seated inside. For women, a dress or well-cut separates and a shoe that survives a gravel drive.
Beach clubs at lunch are their own register — the most relaxed room on the coast and the one most photographed. Dinner at the same club is a different evening entirely, and the staff will not warn you.
The Monaco exception is real. The casino and the hotels around it still enforce jackets in parts of the building after dark, and shorts will be turned away. If a Monte-Carlo evening is on the itinerary, one jacket in the bag settles it.
Yachts invert everything: soft soles that will not mark a deck, and no heels. Ask before you step aboard whether shoes come off at the passerelle, because on many boats they do.
The through-line across the coast is that expensive and appropriate are not the same thing. Understated linen in a neutral colour is never wrong between Menton and St Tropez. Anything that looks like it was chosen to be seen is working harder than the room requires.