Back to school style
August 22nd, 2008I run into loads of Mums taking kids on shopping sprees at this time of year. I suspect that treating kids to new clothes before school starts is common. Perhaps even an American tradition and a fun bonding opportunity.
The concept of wearing civvies to school is completely foreign to me. I wore a school uniform for both Primary and High school. As much as I disliked my uniform, it made life easy. I knew exactly what I had to wear each morning. There was no clothing rivalry because everybody looked the same (for the most part anyway). As soon as I grew out of my uniform, my parents bought the next size up without pause. My individual school style was stifled, but I made up for that after hours. We dressed up to the nines every opportunity we got. Walking across the road to hang out with a neighbour became a major fashion event.
School must have been a different experience sans the uniform. I’d love to hear what it was like expressing your individual style at school. How did you feel about what you wore, and how did your peers make you feel about your style? Is there really variety, or is it just a new type of uniform as most kids make every effort to conform with their cool outfits from AE, Abercrombie and Fitch, Old Navy and Hollister.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 am
I also wore a uniform through 8th grade. Because of this shoes were very important because there was a little bit of wiggle room. Occasionally, we had “free dress” day and at this age, brand names were the order of the day as opposed to expressing individual style. I was in high school during the period of grunge and so I’m afraid this was a low point for fashion. I don’t remember clothes being as important in my mind. I think we all just conformed to a civvie uniform although there were several distinct uniforms. When I did dress up, I would say my signature was dressy oxfords, flat and heeled.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:10 am
My parents were pretty good about back-to-school shopping and would give my sister and I each $200 (in the 80s) to budget for our wardrobes at the Nordstrom sale. We only bought our clothes at Nordstrom, The Gap and another Portland, Oregon store called Meier and Frank. I remember pretty much buying what I saw in the sale flyer so I knew I got it right. I was in high school during the days of long sweaters, stirrup pants and keds so it was pretty easy to get it right, thank goodness!
I remember being nervous during the weeks before school that somehow all of the fashions would have changed and I would show up in some hideous outfit and stand out like a weirdo. I was already pretty tall and skinny so it was difficult to be slightly different than the pack already so I never ever took any fashion risks by any means. By the end of high school I was comfortable in my skin and probably wore more daring styles but I honestly can’t remember what I was wearing in 1990!
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
I wore a school uniform for high school. It made the days we were allowed to wear “free dress” much more exciting. I wonder if that is one of the reasons clothes are important to me. As easy as wearing a uniform was (no thinking what to wear), one becomes a nonentity.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 am
School clothes shopping was a big part of my life and my kids life. When I was in public school we had strict dress codes. Girls were not allowed to wear pants and the skirt hems had to touch the ground if you knealt on your knees. My kids were in public high school in the 90’s and it seemed anything went at that time. Now my grand daughter is required to wear a uniform in the same public school.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 am
I grew up wearing uniform too. I think school uniforms are great and make things very simple; there was still room for competition with shoes and accessories but it was fairly limited. I wonder about the time when my kids are old enough to succumb to peer pressure - since I don’t have the experience myself, I’ll probably be too hard on them for trying to fit in.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
At my school, what you wore depended upon what group you ran with. We had everything from the latest trends to ripped jeans and flannels to punk/new wave and everything else. Even the students who were confident enough to come out of the closet had their own unique style. We all had the same hair, though…
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Well, my experience is a bit odd. I attended a small Christian school. We did not have a uniform, but we did have an extremely strict dress code. Skirts and tops or dresses only for girls. No pants ever. When we did sports we wore billowing culottes and boxy t-shirts. All of our clothes had to be loose fitting. Necklines could be no more than an inch bellow the collarbone. Skirts/dresses had to be knee length or longer when sitting, and that included the height of all slits in straight skirts. I broke the slit rule frequently, and was asked to pin or sew my slits up often. We all dressed very conservatively and basically made up our own trends, because we couldn’t follow the ones the rest of the world followed.
Now I’m at a Christian college with a much better dress code. It’s basically dress modestly, what ever your own definition of modest is. We can even wear pants now. My favorites are pencil skirts just above the knee. Perhaps that’s because I couldn’t wear them in high school. I also fully enjoy the recent rule that we can wear jeans every Friday.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:43 am
I would pray daily for a uniform. I had a single mom putting herself through college. I had to earn my own money for anything from paper to clothing. Needless to say it was a nightmare. Kids can be very hard on you and jr high was the absolute worst. The only time I lucked out was after spending time in a NYC suburb we moved to rural VT. The styles were about 1-2 years behind. Yeah for me
We moved around a lot. I never tried to have my own style, my goal had always been to just blend in.
My last high school did have dress codes that made no sense. No shorts at all but girls could wear the shortest mini in the world, exposing her underwear at every bend and no one batted an eye. I remember sitting behind a kid in class wearing a t-shirt for a rock band that showed a beat up woman wearing torn up clothing as if she had just been violently raped. He wore it a lot. No one cared or did a thing. But wear a pair of shorts and you would find yourself sent home within seconds.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Sarah, I could have just written your entire post myself!
I also went to Christian school where the dress code was very strict. I often wished for a uniform b/c it was so difficult to find cute clothes that fit into the dress code. But when I was in high school I became less trend focused and more focused on buying clothes that looked good and stylish and were of good quality. I stopped shopping in the junior’s section and moved to women’s clothing. My senior year, my wardrobe was mainly black with some colorful pieces and interesting shoes and jewelry. I wore a pair of black slingback Enzo Angiolini’s into the ground. Wish I still had those shoes. Most of my peers made fun of me b/c I wasn’t wearing tight t-shirts emblazoned with Ambercrombie and Fitch.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
I too wore a uniform in high school. I remember that ‘free dress’ was a big deal and the one time when all the girls really tried to show their individuality. I was in high school in the late 70’s and the one thing I remember is my sister getting a detention because she wore a dress with no pantyhose on free dress day! It was super hot, but we still had to wear hose!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
I have never worn a uniform to school. My mom would take my younger sister and I shopping every fall for back to school clothes (a great experience, as shopping together is still fun for us!). I had good friends in a small Christian school I went to when I was in 4th-6th grade, so wearing something new and fashionable was fun because my small class was friendly and “oohed and aaahed” over each other’s new things. However, I went to a public school after 6th grade, and didn’t know a soul. I was terribly shy and my new things were noticed only by a curt, loud boy on the bus who made fun of me when I tried to look in style.
My middle school days weren’t great and I felt like a fool daily. Looking back, I know a variety of my peers noticed me and complemented my clothing occasionally. In high school I learned to hide behind my clothes so I wouldn’t be noticed and risk being laughed at, although my mom tried to buy me nice things so I would be in style.
There was a lot of variety in stores and styles, and cltohing defined many of the groups in my high school. There were the smart kids (who wore smart casual all the time), popular kids (ambercrombie, minis, low necklines, form-fitting clothing) jocks (dressed in sports clothes/uniforms), gothics (oversized dark/loud clothing, chains, studs), and the quieter, middle-of-the-road kids (jeans and tee-shirts, sneakers, and hoodies).
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
I already shared my grade school/junior high fashion horror stories on the forum (the avacodo pants my mom made me, that split up the back revealing flowered undies; her refusal to buy me straight leg jeans when flares suddenly went out of style).
In high school, I experimented for a very long time with the Preppy look: docksiders, button down shirt, sweater worn tied around my neck. Oddly enough, all my friends dressed completely differently… mohawks and stud collars, vintage leopard coats, punk looks. I hung out with a diverse and interesting crowd.
As for today’s teens, yes, there is a new type of “uniform” …. it is just as it was way back when. You have your A&E crowd. You have your crowd that wears Juicy Couture and designer labels only. Then you have your Emo crowd, Hippy crowd, and goth crowd. Not too different than my high school days - just with slightly different labels.
I have one DD who is an Abercrombie/Hollister/Old Navy kinda gal; the other has experimented with hippy… then goth… then emo… settling in to kind of a hybrid. Don’t know what you would call it! Plus, she has been making her own clothes for several years, out of old tee shirts and vintage finds. She felt right at home when we were in Paris - often grinning ear to ear when we’d pass by a teen dressed in similar style as her own. If you ask her what her style is, she’d say “Chic Geek.”
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
I taught at a school that went to uniforms (ugly ones: school colors were black, red and grey so that’s what we did) and have to say that combined with the fluorescent lights, everything just felt stale and angry. (if they can feel both at once!) I never thought of it as anything other than an aesthetic difference till one of my 8th grade boys, a little overweight, sweet, very smart, individual sense of humor and, of course, not popular wrote that he hated uniforms because they just pointed out people’s flaws and ugliness — he thought he looked awful in them and thus he was ugly in general. And, of course, the kids who looked good in anything, looked good in uniforms. Whenever I hear about uniforms now, I can’t get the image of how they exacerbated this wonderful kid’s sense of his own insecurities and how awful it is that we think uniformity is the way to go. That said, private schools at least tend to have nice soft blues and colors that warm you rather than rile you up. Wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the effect of uniforms & color?!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Ughh…Talking about school brings back good and bad memories- it’s such an awkward time too (I can hear it in many of the posts too). I was a Catholic school girl all the way, blue and grey uniform. As a result stayed away from blue almost my whole adult life. But even in uniform there were the “cool girls” who wore their skirts slightly higher, with more jewlery to individualize themselves. So I think no matter what situation, all the different groups emerge. It was fun reading everyone else’ story. Great post!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 am
Two years ago our schools voted against uniforms. But much like you say the kids at our school wear jeans and t’s from Abercrombie, Hollister etc. Not all that exciting. To be honest it is most difficult to dress my 5 year old daughter then my teens.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I loved not wearing a uniform. I used to wear Victorian styles dresses and goth styles for a few years. It was nice to be able to express myself the way I wanted to. Yes, there were times where I would say “I don’t have anything to wear!” but the thought of uniforms made me shudder. I think individuality is important when you’re growing up and clothes are definitely an expression of that!
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Well I just got out of high school two years ago, and I can honestly say, at least from my experience, that your hunch about a “new uniform” because kids conform is pretty much true…at least for the younger ones. I grew up in a pretty wealthy area (now I’m a broke college kid…), and in our early teen years, there was very little variety. Everyone shopped at the same stores at the mall, wearing outfits that usually consisted of a Hollister t-shirt along with light flare jeans, flip-flops, and Coach handbags. The t-shirt/sweatshirt/tanktop plus jeans only varied brand-wise between various social groups. In high school, especially near the end around junior/senior year, people started getting much more creative with dress.
I personally wore a lot of comfortable J Crew/Gap/Old Navy basics that my parents bought me, and bought funkier pieces from H&M and cheaper stores like Forever21 with my own money. I think that kids’ (girls especially) styles evolved in my school because as we got older, we started making trips/outings to NYC (we live little over an hour away), and it became a trend to look trendier than the person next to you than. High school style became influenced by urban/bohemian touches and pulled us a little bit farther away from cliched teenage mall culture. There were still the Ivy League-legacy kids that dressed smart, preppy casual all the time, as well as other kids with certain designer bags and stuff to display their wealth. High school was a period of time when I was convinced that the more money someone had, the less original they were. However, now I realize that there are many exceptions to that rule.
So basically, near the end of high school, every day was a dress-up day, in which your outfit would probably be picked apart by certain peers. It made me really fashion conscious and really got the creative juices flowing though.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
I never had a uniform and I’m glad. Very, very glad. I actually think uniforms make the competition worse, in a way. I was an ugly duck in high school, and that isn’t me being self deprecating, it’s the truth. Pretty girls would be pretty no matter what they wore, but I had to rely a lot on my clothes to make me feel better about myself. Of course I did not have one consistent style throughout high school, but I was always unique. I can just imagine how bad I would look under Sarah’s dress code. Those high necklines would actually just draw more attention to my chest rather than less. So in a weird way, uniforms can certainly favor some people over others, and of course, people will always find ways to push the boundaries a bit with shoes and accessories.
I also went through my punk phase in high school. I’m glad I got it out of my system then, otherwise who knows how I would have dressed in college and beyond? I had a friend whose parents did not allow her to dress goth, and the moment she left the house for college, she went nuts. One way or another, kids will find a way to express themselves.
Schools today have much more pressing issues than dress codes, and most of us will have dress codes for the rest of our lives anyway. The time to goof off and experiment with clothes is while you’re a kid and it’s still safe. I know we could always switch out our uniforms after school if we had to, but since I didn’t really go out much, it wouldn’t have done me much good.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
I HATED going to a public school with no uniform during middle school. I was never much bothered by my uniform when I was in private school, but I thought it would be cool to be able to wear regular clothes to school. Apparently I had absolutely terrible style back then, and even though I wore t-shirts and jeans like everyone else, I constantly got made fun of for my outfits. I don’t even remember exactly what I used to wear, but it must have been terrible. I couldn’t wait to start wearing uniforms again. Luckily, once I got to college my taste had improved by miles.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Me again! wow only 1 other person felt that way. Back me up here! I feel like such a dork
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
I loved reading everyone’s different experiences dressing for school. I wore a uniform for primary school, then went to a high school with a strict dress code. It told you what you could wear rather than what you couldn’t, so it almost amounted to a uniform, only with more color and pattern variation. My classmates at both schools complained about it a lot, but quite frankly, I was OK with it and it made things simpler. I didn’t have much spending money, so I probably would have ended up wearing the same few things over and over again anyway. Fashion and style was just not something I cared about until I was in college, although even there I almost always wore jeans with a large variety of tops, shoes, and accessories.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
My daughter wears a uniform, but I never did. When I was going to high school in the 80s in Los Angeles, I felt a lot of clothing rivarly and pressure from the other kids. At my daughter’s school, I’ve observed the older kids (8th grade) coming up with other ways to rival each other. For example, what you eat for lunch seems to be something to compare and pressure each other over.
One problem I have with the uniform is that it’s not flexible for the differences in body types. It just doesn’t look that good on all kids, specifically girls who tend to be bigger around the middle, since it emphasizes the waist.
Other than that I do appreciate that it lowers our drama quotient in the morning.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
I was a kid in the 70s and a teenager in the 80s. In the late 70s the brand I wore was called Love its and it was jeans that had some type of design on the pockets a the outfit had a shirt that matched; the same design on the shirt. In the 80s I was in to Esprit; I ordered the catalogs and dreamed of being able to dress in head to toe bright colors. My favorite pants in the 7th grade were a pair of Esprit red capris. Sadly I gained weight the next year and became kind of a fashion drop out. Later in the 80s, after going to many aerobics classes, I switched to a harder, gothier type look; ie, black leggings, lace up boots, oversized Esprit sweater or tunic, eyeliner, etc. Brands I remember liking were Benetton, Gap, Girbaud, Guess. I got my first pair of zipper Guess jeans in 1984, a size 27 or 28, the fat period. They were acid wash-ish and dreadful. In the early 90s I dropped my highschool look, got a bob and a set of neutral Prescriptives make up. By the mid 90s I’d dropped out of fashion altogether. At one point I had a pair of Birkenstocks that I wore with a long flowery dress. The next year Friends went on the air and I tried to reform. In the late 90s I had a shag hair cut and a little black bag that I carried everywhere. It’s a good thing I don’t like to take pictures.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I went to L.A. public schools (1960s) with strict dress codes: girls couldn’t wear pants, dresses had to touch the floor when you kneeled. Girls won the right to wear pants the year after I graduated from high school. Boys had dress codes too; if I remember correctly, jeans were taboo. (But they weren’t really popular yet anyway–only “country” people or the desperately impoverished wore them. You’d have been mocked mercilessly if you wore “dungarees” to anything but a costume party. I bought my first pair of jeans in college.) In junior high I very nearly got expelled for circulating a petition to allow girls to wear knee socks, which violated the code. I don’t remember any status fights over clothing; hair was the big issue. (I went to a mostly African-American and Asian-American high school; EVERYONE wanted “Asian” hair.)
I envied the private-school girls in their–to my eye–classy uniforms in sherbet pastels or timeless plaids. They never looked unkempt; they never made bad fashion choices; their clothes always matched. I still gravitate toward the concept of a uniform (black pants, knit top), and although I don’t have kids, I like seeing schoolchildren wearing uniforms. Just one less thing to fret about.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I was at a public high school in the early 70s and I put a lot of planning into what i wore each day. Pants were only allowed as pants suits my junior year- no jeans. My grandmother worked at an upscale retail store and she bought me the cutest clothes (a quality dress was $28 then), which i had altered to as short as possible. She really loved me. That should have been enough of a wardrobe, but I learned to sew and made an equal number of dresses and pants suits- Betsy Johnson was in vogue. I emphasized quantity over quality when it came to my sewing; fashion was tons of fun- I even dreamed of becoming a designer. Although my grandchildren wear uniforms at their private school and look adorable, I cherish the memories of style in HS as part of my evolving creativity.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I had that Joan Jet/Siouxie Sioux/Christina Amphlett/Chrissie Hynde/Patti Smith type of influence thing going on in high school.
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
I wore a uniform in HS…it was somewhat flexible and girls were always pushing the envelope. I definitely dressed to be different once outside of school–but in typical teenage fashion–different was probably a lot like all the other teenagers trying to be different.
My daughter is entering middle school. She is very confident with her sense of style and knows exactly what she wants to wear. She never hesitates or concerns herself with what her friends will think of her choices. She is the kind of kid who will start a trend and stop wearing it when it becomes mainstream. Her latest “project” are a homemade pair of sneakers. She took a pair of white canvas plain jane sneakers ($11 at PayLess) and decorated them with colorful Sharpies. Everywhere she goes, people ask her where she got her shoes….grownups and kids alike. I’ve already heard her friends telling her they were getting some plain white sneakers to decorate too.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Nicole, your daughter sounds exactly like me in HS. I went through all kinds of phases but I would give them up quickly after they started becoming mainstream. I remember I used to have a little backpack purse I decorated with safety pins, and one day this girl (who I didn’t know) came up to me and asked me very rudely and plainly, “Why do you have safety pins in your bag?” Soon after that incident, I saw her in the hall with her own safety pin purse. It made me so mad! I was a creative kid and would have felt very stifled and depressed if I couldn’t express that through my clothes.
For the record, I hated all of the brands/stores Angie mentioned in her original post. Those clothes WERE like a uniform to me, which is why I avoided them like a plague. To this day, I am still unsure of why they are so popular amongst teenagers. I can’t imagine what was so enthralling about having “ABERCROMBIE” emblazoned on your rear. I found their clothes very plain and completely lacking any personality.
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I grew up fairly poor, so elementary school and the first year of junior high were a nightmare for me, since I was wearing hand-me-downs from my babysitter (so, very 70s stuff). In junior high, I started babysitting myself and earned enough money to start buying my own clothes - I became a real bargain hunter and would search for hours to find that treasure.
High school is where I really got creative - it was the 80s, and I embraced the huge variety of styles available. Raided Mom (and Dad’s!) closet for whatever I could find, wore vintage 50s dresses with elbow-length gloves, did crazy make-up (Cleopatra eyes!). My mom was so smart: she never forbid me to wear anything, but she did insist that I not get stuck in a rut. My rule was to change it up as much as possible. “Why be like everyone else? she said.
Today, I still like to change it up as much as I can - I shop consignment stores, and still bargain hunt for my clothes. I discovered in high school that I could change people’s perceptions of me through how I dressed. A great lesson that I’ve never forgotten.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:45 am
I am Australian and I had to wear a school uniform to school. Everyone did. Now I am a parent my children wear a school uniform and this takes away any emphasis on the child’s appearance and equalizes everyone who may not have a budget for fashionable clothes. I am a big fan of fashion, but think that school is one area where fashion should not be involved. There are never any arguments, there is never the pressure to have to have the right look for school (although after school is different) and the money saved on school wear can be spent on extra activities and better quality and a lot fewer clothes.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I am also Australian, but while I had to wear a uniform at Primary School, my High School had a very loose uniform which wasn’t well enforced, the boundaries of which changed every year. While there was a set number of uniform items you could choose from, the guidelines ranged from shirts in one of 3 colours, to no patterned shirts, to no shirts with advertising on them. The rules were often bent, even basic ones like to wear footwear!
I found it annoying, as a fairly rule keeping type, to stick to the uniform when heaps of others didn’t! I tended to express myself by small changes - like buying shorts that were the same colour as the school ones, but a slightly different style, by wearing my Mum’s old mini skirt instead of the school skirt (same colour and also pleated). I also wore berets, a grey felt hat and a blazer.
My school had a fairly opshop sort of fashion vibe, and it was popular (I am talking around 1990-1) to wear old menswear jackets with the sleeves rolled up. My sister and I wore out Dad’s old dinner jacket.
I am all for uniform, specially if there is a range of items you can choose from which hopefully would address some of the body type issues. I wished all through high school for a real uniform, not a wishy washy dress code.
Incidentally my high school dress code allowed jeans (I remember I had a pale striped baggy pair!) but my friends and I often wore skirts of dresses to “go out”. We noticed girls from stricter school tended to wear jeans to the same occasions while they were just everyday to us. Recently denim has been banned in government school in my state.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I wore a uniform when I was little. Middle & high school time was spent in other school, so no uniform for me then. It’s interesting how self-image and self-esteem reflect on clothes (or maybe it’s the other way around?) - before puberty, I was a slim, pretty child. I didn’t care what I wore - jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, there were only two girlish things about me then: small gold earrings and long hair. My parents had a bad period, job and money wise, but I felt great about my looks, even though most girls wore much nicer clothes & had more clothes anyway.
When I hit puberty, an accident forced me to cut my hair short (chin length), and I gained a lot of weight, my skin looked worse too. Together, that made me feel like an ugly duck, even though the financial situation improved greatly and Mom bought me lots of nice clothes to make me feel better.
In a few years my hormones finally decided to behave again, I got my looks back, and I became a tomboy again. It’s like the better I looked without clothes, the less I cared about clothes themselves.
August 24th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Thanks for the comments. You gave me wonderful insight into what wearing civvies at school was like. It’s interesting hearing the differences of opinion.
Going to school in different countries is different, and so is going to school now as opposed to 25 years ago. Because of these differences I am still very much on the fence about the benefits of school uniforms. I totally get how wearing civvies to school is an expression of you at an impressionable age; but I’m also with Australian Karen : “school is one area where fashion should not be involved”.
I suppose if I had to do it all again, I’d still favour the school uniform idea if I lived in a country where EVERYONE wore school uniforms to school.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I wish we had had a uniform! My mom always told me that there was no money for clothes, so I wore the few pairs of jeans I had and free t-shirts from 4-H or school events nearly every day. Now, I’m on my own, still don’t have a lot of money for clothes but would like to start spending some to build a wardrobe and I’m clueless!
With a uniform, it wouldn’t have been so obvious that I had no money for clothes…plus it might have been more flattering than baggy t-shirts!
August 24th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I also wish we had uniforms, I being one of the many public school grads [graduated early 80's from high school]. Although we got a little money for clothes, not much direction from my mom or friends [the only direction being: you're going to wear that??!]. I was never in style but always assumed I was invisible anyway so it didn’t matter. Now in my 40’s, I’m finally starting to figure out fashion, thanks to this site and shows like “what not to wear”.
I swear, Angie, if you ever came down to the SF Bay Area on business, I would SO set up an appointment with you to get some ‘rules’ for myself.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:37 am
It also depends on the uniform I guess
When I went to a Russian school, they had the ugliest dresses: small turtleneck-like collar that shortens any neck that doesn’t look like a swan’s neck, pleated skirt with pleats starting at the (badly fitted) waist (which makes even the slimmest girls look like they need to lose ten pounds or are somewhat pregnant), the shade of brown reminding of cow’s droppings…
August 25th, 2008 at 8:58 am
One should not expect a school uniform to be wildly flattering. A school uniform should look like a school uniform – generic, neat and durable.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Well, maybe something that will at least look decently appealing.
I’m not much into the idea of school uniform anyway - I don’t know about boys, but it often makes girls overcompensate after hours, and not always in a nice way.
Though I must say that the clothing rivalry and discrimination described in some of the comments here sounded like an alien experience to me. None of the schools I went to had any of it, or at least I never got influenced.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I had the opportunity to swing both ways in a manner of speaking - up to 4th grade I had no uniform, then from 4th to 8th, I did, and from 8th through high school I did not. I found that life was actually MUCH easier when I wore a uniform. I always had a good sense of style, as did my mother when she dressed me those early school years, but I never had to spend half an hour figuring out what to wear and how to accessorize because it was all laid out for me. However, after the uniform days were over, I did find it refreshing to start thinking for myself when I got dressed. The bad news is that I was a bit out of practice and had to re-learn it.
August 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I’m amazed at how many people had uniforms. I went to public school in Hawaii. We had no uniforms. In elementary school it was shorts and t-shirts. Hopefully I remembered to wear slippers to school so I could run in the grass without worrying about stepping on pokies. I’ve come a long way.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 am
I wore a uniform for 12 years. In elementary school, I do not recall any issues of trying to stand out. We all had the exact same uniform down to the shoes. In High School, we also had the same uniform but you could mix it up a bit with a winter skirt or pants. I remember expressing my individuality by buying izod sweaters(they made the perfectly matching kelly greeen that my school required). Izod socks(which we wore scrunched down but you could still see the little alligator) and penny loafers complete with the requisite penny. I wish my children were required to wear uniforms. I think overall, they look much better than the skin tight hollister shirts they want to wear that only the size 0 girls look good in. I never felt that I was missing out on anything either. After school or weekends we wore whatever was in style at the time. I was preppy(in the 80’s) so for me it was all about the Preppy Handbook! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Preppy_Handbook