Ridiculous uniform policy for secondary

Maybe because Poland was a communist country in the past and (I assume) designer clothing was hard to get it's become more of a "thing" to show you can afford designer clothes.
That's completely a guess btw.

From the comments I've read on here that is the near universal experience. The only comment I've ever read saying school is a fashion show and competition every day is from @Smoothie23 who says that is what it is like in Poland.

Teen movie?? 😂 You know they're not real!!

I was going to say this but then I couldn't be bothered!

But yes my DS is autistic he couldn't give a fuck what other teens are wearing! He can actually think for himself! As can so many other teens. If yours can't then maybe you have some work to do!

@Smoothie23 In the original Mean Girls when Cady wears pink because "It's Wednesday and on Wednesday's we wear pink" she wears a plain baggy pink polo style shirt and ordinary jeans.
The Plastics don't seem to mind 😂
I forget what Cady in the new version wears - I vaguely remember a line about borrowing one of Damien's jumpers.

Your experience of teens is very different to mine!

You're completely missing the point!

You're missing the point! What people are saying is from experience when DC can wear what they like every day it isn't a fashion show or a competition. It's not like a non-uniform day. And honestly, kids can like fashion but they have other things going on in their lives than just clothes!

For some reason it is obviously different in Poland, but from the comments in this thread and many others I have read, Poland is the exception.

Exactly!

But I've never said it's wrong to do that. All I and others have been saying is when they can wear whatever they like at school they don't tend to wear brands or see it as a fashion show or competition as you think they would.

And that's exactly the point - it's not like non-uniform day because the novelty wears off!!

and they cherish it by looking at it on the mantelpiece? And they purposefully dress down to school in rugs. Yeah...

Branded clothing is not only evening wear. 2004 Mean Girls movie and now follow up second part - all about it. Queen Bee and her guardians. Every teen movie talks about rich, popular kids in branded clothes. Art mimics life. Life mimics art. And this is very laid down US when it comes to clothing. In Europe oh god...
I was a teen in a non-uniform school. I remember how girls were endlessly babbling about who and what is wearing. Kids can be mean.

And I really do not see children and teens in expensive brands when I see them round town

Doesn't mean they're wearing them in schools

Even babies wear high end designer gear! Start them young!!

@Natsku It is not a matter of experience. The numbers of sales in £$€ of branded merchandise for the specific age groups and countries speaks for itself. Somebody is buying it in those countries and I recon they also wear it

All of this depends on the child and family income. It’s fairly normal in the UK for dc to want certain trainers or bags. If dc don’t care, that’s their choice but many schools spend a lot of time being anti make up, anti jewellery and anti certain shoes and hair - although the latter has had to stop. My DDs would have been very keen to express themselves with jewellery, make up and hair extensions (are those banned?) but the uniform rules stopped it. They wore school pe hoodies and swapped them with ones from other schools but I preferred them wearing uniform. Generally they did too.

The vast majority of schools have uniforms in the uk. I doubt we care much about France (the home of LMVH for heavens sake!) or anywhere else. My DC expressed themselves through fashion and why on earth not? It’s legitimate and fun but not when at school.

That might be your experience, but my experience in a country with no uniforms is that the kids do not care anywhere near as much as you seem to think they do. They care about what they wear to a disco or special occasions like that but everyday wear for school is just everyday wear.

The Kings speech today mentioned school uniforms

Children's Wellbeing Bill
A bill to raise standards in education and promote children's wellbeing, including measures to remove the exemption from VAT for private school fees, which will enable the funding of six and a half thousand new teachers.
This bill will also require free breakfast clubs in every primary school, limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kits that a school can require and create a duty on local authorities to have and maintain Children Not in School registers.

You are saying that the capital of fashion is indifferent towards fashion?

French I have meet are obsessed with fashion and they spend a lot of time in front of mirrors working out how to look great without showing that they are. This is from makeup to way how they wear things. Brands matter but not the American ones. On the opposite spectrum would be Russian style. Oh yes they want to look and smell.

Also, it is worth looking at sale of branded clothing. France is not shy from buying it. On the contrary

You may be very much right.

What you saying is correct in UK because they wear uniforms. But in countries where there are no uniforms kids do anything not to look "cringe". Oh fashion industry knows that the teens are most easy to infuence target audience but they realise that in UK there is limited point of the campaigns for teens. So their focus is on other countries. In general, in the non uniform countries you have much more choice of clothes for teen years.

@Smoothie23 my teen is autistic. At her SEN no one cares what anyone else wears.
Sometimes I think the ASD kids are the ones who have actually figured society out.

Hopefully change is on the horizon and the 'three logo'd items' guidance will be clamped down on. I challenged this with my dd's school and it was ridiculous, with the bloody PE kit being the main issue. They said that technically the kids don't need the PE tshirt, jumper, leggings and skort (all branded). Not sure how she'd feel about walking to school in what is effectively a microskirt and no jumper in the middle of winter🙄

www.tes.com/magazine/leadership/compliance/school-uniform-costs-how-things-could-change-under-labour

France is my home country.
I don’t see this fixation of brands….. not when it’s about getting dressed to go to school.

So it doesn’t seem to be something universal but rather a cultural issue.

Or maybe because they’re dressed the way they want day in and day out, there is no more incentive to show off all the time.

Im finding this obsession on branding that you hear about so much on MN simply isn’t there when clothes aren’t ‘special’ aka when you go out to town with your friends, a party etc… vs when that’s what you wear for school.
The shine goes away quickly tbh.