So when did we all start rolling our skirts up?

[BluesandClues]

Inspired by the recent skirt length issues reported in the paper.

I remember rolling my skirt up, mainly because it was below the knee and I hated it. I remember others at school rolling it up far shorter. Tried it once, and it like I had a towel wrapped round my waist.

So when did we all start the whole skirt rolling thing?

Never - it wasn't fashionable in the mid-to-late 80s when I was at secondary school. The fashionable crowd wore tight pencil skirts with splits, to below the knee. I wouldn't have bothered even if it had been fashionable, what does skirt length really matter in a school scenario?

I did in the mid 80s when I was 14/15.

Then we switched to longer very tight pencil skirts with slits that we could barely walk in (as they were so tight). If they didn't have a slit, we tore them along the seam until they did.

Never. Didn't even occur to me to do it back in the 80s. DD wears trousers.

I used to be a bit of a goth so mine was trailing on top of my doc martins with my dads huge shirt
So never rolled up but loads of my mates did late 80's early 90's

Never bothered wasn't allowed trousers either

Seriously though in my school no-one bothered to roll there skirt they did the whole "fat" school tie thing but the teachers weren't concerned unless it was school photo day then they told us to fix them "for the photo" the whole environment was about education they didn't really give a shit what you wore

We all did it in the sixties

Late 90s early 2000s. Must have looked dreadful as I already had a belly so adding another roll wouldn’t have helped. I just wanted to fit in. Nothing to do with boys ( it was an all girls school anyway). We had very long below the knee pleated skirts and all the girls rolled them up. Frankly I think schools are doing girls a favour trying to keep the hemlines longer. It’s freezing. Half the girls I see have got skirts barely covering their bottoms and no tights on.

I was about 14. Most girls started doing it sooner but I didn't actually like doing it! Thought it gave me a roll around my waist.

I didn't roll mine up but it was very short to begin with! We used to think we looked the business in our short skirts, massive white shirts and jumpers that were nearly as long as our skirts. Complete with slouchy socks and clompy shoes! This was 88-91 when I was 13-16.

Also a pinafore when I was at school . Accompanied by a mandatory gabardine coat . All girl convent school . I reckon the nuns were more fashionable in black skirts and cardigans.

Now all secondary schools have nearly ankle length heavy lined tartan skirts . No point in rolling up . The Spanish and Italian exchange students were horrified until they realised how warm they needed to be.

Not me - couldn't be arsed, and besides which I was tall and thin so the uniform never got to knee length (one length fits all apparently) - but I recall many girls doing it in the mid-60's.

We did at secondary schools in the early 90s. Then the nuns made us kneel down and if they didn't touch the follow we had to unroll them. Such fun times.

I did it in the late 60s, in 4th and 5th year. So short that from behind it was shorter than my blazer. I bite my tongue now when I see girls from the local grammar school and their teeny tiny skirts, but the old fogey in me thinks 'look at the length of those skirts, ridiculous'. And then I remember ....

I never rolled my skirt. I was at an all girls boarding school, the uniform was a great leveller as we all looked hideous and none of us cared. My mother who had been a veteran skirt-roller in the 60s found this hilarious.

Meanwhile my DDs rolled theirs from age 11.

At my DDs' school, there seem to be a divide between girls who try to be wear their skirts as short as possible and those who try to wear it as long as possible. There isn't quite an age divide though at the start of the year, the Y7s who wear them short were more likely to shout things at those wearing them long, but it's very much in social groups. There are even a few wearing ankle length skirts (the uniform policy only gives a minimum length).

I didn't go to uniform schools so didn't have this, but it's been interesting. Even when talking to the uniform provider, they presume all the girls who wear skirts are going to roll them and seemed confused that some girls wear the longer lengths. He assumed any girl wearing the 26" drop was near 6ft, when there are girl much closer to 5ft wearing them there.

I went to a strict grammar in the 80s who were really bothered about skirt lengths-especially later on in the early 90s but friends at other schools seemed to be able to wear any black skirt they wanted, with no particular rules on length or style so they didn’t have to roll theirs up!

Early 1990's all girls private school. We have to kneel on the floor to make sure our skirts touched the floor.

If they didn't then we had to "borrow" a skirt until we got a new one.

We had to kneel so the girls mistress could measure the length of the skirt. 1970's at a public school

90s for me, and everyone did it. With clunky heels as well.

I was surprised to see that news from (?) St Helens, as here in Liverpool proper, girls just don't roll their skirts. They wear them long, and have over the last 20 years I've lived here.

I totally support them. I think the conforming of wearing uniform is enough, I don't think it matters if the skirt is rolled up, the shirt is untucked, or the hair is pink on one side. But schools do for some reason.

round about 1959 (new headmistress started checking skirt lengths; hem had to touch the floor when kneeling on the ground). Followed by the michelin-man look as we rolled them up so that our brightly coloured/patterned nylon passionkiller pants were not quite on view.

Does anyone else remember the passionkillers? They were knickers with a longer leg.

girls grammar school (passionkillers)

I stopped rolling my age 11-12 skirt in the GCSE years. I hadn't outgrown the waist and didn't fill the waist of 13-14 until I was in my 20s.

I hated uniform purges as a teacher. Such a bloody waste of time and escalates minor issues into big ones and creates so much bad feeling.

I loved working in a non-uniform school. There was no novelty to it and no issues. People just wore what they were comfortable with and no piss-taking went on.

I watch DS12 leaving in the morning looking like a mini second hand car salesman. There he goes with DH with his open collar, and woolly jumper off to his professional job. Most secondary uniforms are out of touch with what is happening in society/ business, and then management get themselves in a tizz about it .

I was at school in the 70's and since I was tall and thin my skirts were short on me already. I had so much trouble finding skirts to fit. The school insisted that the shortest they would allow was 2" above the knee. If they fitted in the waist they were stupidly short and ones the right length would have gone once round me and twice round the gas works (as my gran would have said).

We had serge A-line skirts so rolling wouldn't work.
Some people used to tack-hem them shorter on the school bus to school but it looked stupid.
I still remember a girl called Alex who had straightened and shortened her skirt with loopy tacking stitches in a non-matching colour, sounding off to the teacher that she was just growing and her skirt was a bit small now and it wasn't her fault that they couldn't afford a new skirt for her.

1. this was the 70s and a very strict school so not a generational thing.
2. she was from a very wealthy family who certainly could buy a skirt
3. her sewing was crap. I can't remember that girls surname but that memory makes me smile. It was LV so 14/15 years old.

I was 14 and there was a disco in the school hall on a Friday lunchtime.
The skirts were pleated so very bulky. The really brave girls wore PE skirts which were thigh high jersey fabric in maroon. However the head mistress would cane you (on the hands) if caught and I wasn't that brave.