--- title: "What to Wear to a Rave: Start With Your Shoes" description: "What to wear to a rave, for men and women, at 22 or in your 40s: the shoes that last all night, one good layer, earplugs and the brands people dance in." author: "MNEEMO (Yaroslav Gorovoy)" section: "Scene" published: "2026-11-15T16:40:00Z" modified: "2026-11-15T18:40:00Z" canonical: "https://www.mneemo.com/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/" --- # What to Wear to a Rave: Start With Your Shoes _What to wear to a rave, for men and women, at 22 or in your 40s: the shoes that last all night, one good layer, earplugs and the brands people dance in._ ![Black and white photo of white laser beams fanning out over the silhouetted heads of a rave crowd](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/hero.jpg?v=d5e51a61) The short answer Wear shoes you can stand in for six hours, clothes you can sweat in and one thin layer you can tie round your waist. Put earplugs in your pocket. The same rules work for men and women, at 22 or at 45. After that, wear what you like. Check the club's own rules before you go: fabric, for example, turns away business suits, flags and glow wear. As a DJ, I spend the whole night looking at the floor. Here is what I would tell a friend before a big night out, and the brands that keep coming up. ## Start with your shoes Your shoes decide when you go home. A rave means hours on concrete or a sticky wooden floor, and somebody will stand on your toes. So go for grip, a closed toe and a sole with some cushion. Wear them in for a week first. Four pairs come up again and again in the fashion press, and each one suits a different kind of night. 1. Flat and lightadidas SambaFirst made around 1949 to 1950 for football on frozen pitches, with a non-slip rubber soleBest for a club. Thin sole, so not for a 12 hour day 2. GripSalomon XT-6A trail running shoe from 2013, relaunched for the street in 2018Best for outdoor festivals and wet warehouse yards 3. CushionNew Balance 9060Out since 2022. It borrows from the 990 series and is chunkier than any of themBest for long all-dayers on hard floors 4. CushionASICS Gel-Kayano 14A 2008 running shoe, brought back in 2020 by designer Kiko Kostadinov's teamBest if your feet hurt by 2am The Samba is the one you see everywhere now. Sneaker Freaker puts its comeback down to designer collaborations, including Grace Wales Bonner's with adidas from 2020, and to it being "a good shoe at an accessible price point". The Salomon took a different route, from mountain trails to Paris boutiques. Gear Patrol says the Paris shop The Broken Arm got in touch in 2015, and their collaboration was Salomon's first real step into fashion. In winter, a pair of broken-in boots does the job too. ![A chunky dark grey trainer with a thick ridged sole, lit from the side against a black background](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/img-01.jpg?v=1228c0c4) *FIG. 02 · A chunky trainer with a thick, grippy sole.* ## Clothes you can sweat in A full room is hot by 1am, whatever the weather outside. So think about the fabric before the look. Cotton or a sports fabric on top. Shorts, cargo trousers or loose trousers with a pocket that zips, for your phone, card and ID. Heavy jeans get hot and stay wet. Take a small crossbody bag or no bag at all, because bags get searched and some venues refuse big ones. ![A DJ in a black vest and small pink sunglasses dancing behind the decks in a brick-walled club lit blue and amber](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/img-03.jpg?v=f70a92ee) *FIG. 03 · A DJ dancing behind the decks in a small club, dressed for the heat.* What people actually wear changes from night to night. At Pouffe, a new queer rave in Tottenham, Dazed saw people "dressed to dance and sweat, in sporty shorts and navel-skimming vests, or lacy mesh and studded bras". The organiser of Northern Nasties in Manchester put it more simply: "Clothes you can dance in and don't mind getting sweaty in." Some nights set a theme. Mixmag found UK club nights going medieval in 2025, and 74 Hall in Istanbul made dark, mostly black outfits compulsory in 2026. Two brands sit in a lot of those wardrobes. Carhartt WIP makes work trousers and jackets with proper pockets. It started in 1994 as the European distributor of the American workwear brand Carhartt, and its first shop opened on Neal Street in London in 1997. Stüssy started as a surfboard business in Laguna Beach, California, around 1980. But its first "International Stüssy Tribe", a crew of friends who wore and spread the brand, was in London. Mick Jones of The Clash was one of them. ## The one layer, and the shades From October, part of every big night happens outside: the queue, the smoking area, the walk to the night bus. A thin waterproof shell covers all of it, and it packs into a pocket. Fashion has fallen for outdoor gear in the last few years. Dazed calls it gorpcore, a word the writer Jason Chen coined for The Cut in 2017, and describes young people "decked out in Oakley, Arc'teryx, and Salomon". Arc'teryx was started by climbers in Vancouver in 1989, and its first product was a climbing harness. Nike's ACG line, short for All Conditions Gear, became official the same year. Fashion brands now design for the dancefloor too. A-COLD-WALL*'s new capsule with BACARDÍ is, in the brand's words, "engineered for movement": zipped pockets, hands free, and a shell that "weighs almost nothing". Wraparound sunglasses go back further on the dancefloor than people think. Dazed dates Oakley's Eye Jacket to 1994, the years of gabber and Thunderdome, the giant Dutch hardcore raves. In January 2025 it spotted mesh tops and wraparound shades at an underground rave during Milan Fashion Week. To me they belong at a sunny festival. In a dark club you want to see the room. ## What to wear to a rave in your 40s People search for this a lot, and the answer is the same as at 22. You do not need to dress younger, and nobody on a good dancefloor is checking. If anything, the comfort rules matter more. Pick the shoe with the most cushion, a shirt or T-shirt that fits, and a layer you actually like. Oakley, Stüssy and Carhartt WIP were all around in the 90s, so you may still own the original. ![A packed dancefloor lit red and blue, people dancing with their arms up](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/img-04.jpg?v=a8b13869) *FIG. 04 · A full dancefloor.* ## Earplugs are part of the outfit This is the one thing I would make compulsory. The hearing charity RNID says a nightclub averages 100dB, and that at that level you risk hearing damage after just 15 minutes without protection. Yet very few young people wear them every time. **100**decibels, the average nightclub **15**minutes in a club before you risk damage without earplugs **7%**of 20 to 29 year olds always wore earplugs over the past year **37%**of them think earplugs spoil the sound Music earplugs are made to fix that. RNID says they lower the volume without muffling it. A hearing researcher at the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness told Mixmag that a pair cutting 16dB takes 100dB down to around 84. Loop, a Belgian company started in 2016 by two friends who loved clubs, makes them look like jewellery. Flare Audio's Isolate are small metal plugs with foam tips that cut up to 30dB. A hearing specialist can also make custom moulded ones. And RNID says most venues keep free earplugs behind the bar, so ask. More on volume in the hearing guide. ## Check the door before you dress Every venue sets its own rules. fabric asks people to "dress as they like" but does not permit business suits, flags or glow wear. Some London rooms ban football shirts, masks or sportswear. The full list, venue by venue, is in [what to wear to a club in London](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/what-to-wear-london-clubs-dress-codes-2026/). ![The queue for Berghain just after midnight on New Year's Day 2025: a line of people behind metal barriers under street lights, beside the club's huge concrete building and a large steel ring sculpture](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/img-02.jpg?v=07171dfc) *FIG. 05 · The Berghain queue just after midnight on New Year's Day, 2025. Photo: Lear 21, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.* Then there is Berghain in Berlin, the door everyone asks about. We could not find a dress code published by the club. Asked by GQ in 2015 what he looks for, its door head Sven Marquardt said: "It's subjective." The "wear black" advice you read online comes from blogs and shops. My advice for any strict door is simple: dress like you came to dance. ## FAQ **Can you wear jeans to a rave?** Yes. Most London clubs that publish a dress code allow jeans. But heavy denim gets hot and stays wet, so light jeans or cargo trousers are more comfortable for a long night. **Can you wear sandals or heels to a rave?** You can, but you will regret it. Floors are crowded, dark and often wet, and people will stand on your feet. Closed shoes with grip are safer and last the whole night. ## Sources - nss sports, on the history of the adidas Samba, Lorenzo Bottini, 4 January 2023 - Sneaker Freaker, on why the adidas Samba is everywhere, Sebastian Bugeja-Drinkell, 3 May 2024 - Highsnobiety, "It's 2023, So Why Are We Still Wearing adidas Sambas?", Tayler Willson, 2023 - Salomon, XT-6 history page (Salomon Indonesia) - Gear Patrol, on the history of the Salomon XT-6, Rae Witte, 29 December 2023 - Sneaker Freaker, "Release Date! Joe Freshgoods x New Balance 9060", Sebastian Bugeja-Drinkell, 17 May 2022; Highsnobiety, on the New Balance 9060, Tom Barker - Opumo, on the history of the ASICS Gel-Kayano 14; Sneaker Freaker, on the ASICS and Kiko Kostadinov partnership, 3 October 2020 - Dazed, "What people wore to Pouffe, London's 'silly, sexy' new queer rave", Elliot Hoste, 10 November 2026 - Dazed, Northern Nasties street style, Elliot Hoste, 7 April 2025 - Mixmag, "Go bard or go home! Why are UK club nights going medieval?", Henrietta Taylor, 15 May 2025 - Mixmag, on 74 Hall making dark clothing compulsory, Gemma Ross, 11 February 2026 - Carhartt WIP, official history page - Highsnobiety, on the history of Stüssy; Farfetch, Stüssy history and sizing guide, Joseph Furness, 29 April 2021 - Dazed, on gorpcore, Alice Crossley, 11 July 2023 - Arc'teryx, brand history page; Nike, on the birth of ACG, 2 February 2026 - A-COLD-WALL*, ACW* x BACARDÍ capsule page, read 15 November 2026 - Dazed, on gabber style and Oakley, Charlie Robin Jones, 26 June 2019; Dazed, Milan Fashion Week men's street style, Elliot Hoste, 21 January 2025 - RNID, "How loud is too loud?", updated 26 May 2026; RNID, "Listen to music safely", updated 3 June 2026 - RNID, press releases of 30 July 2025 (free earplugs at venues) and 25 August 2026 (the earplug survey) - Mixmag, on hearing protection in clubs, Megan Townsend, 12 February 2024 - Loop, About page; CNBC, on Loop earplugs, Tom Huddleston Jr., 10 October 2023; Flare Audio, Isolate product page - fabric, FAQ, read 15 November 2026 - Mixmag, "This is what Berghain's bouncers look for in a clubber", 28 July 2015 (reporting Sven Marquardt's GQ interview) --- Source: https://www.mneemo.com/blog/what-to-wear-to-a-rave-2026/ · © HOUSE OF MNEEMO. Written by MNEEMO (Yaroslav Gorovoy).