What to wear to school “culture day” if you are white British?

[Whatcanshe]

My 14 year old DD attends a large state school in North London. It has a high proportion of pupils who are Asian and black. Last year for the cultural day the Asian girls wore saris and a lot of the black girls wore traditional Nigerian dress.

My DD is white and last year just went in jeans but is worrying about what to wear to this event on the last day of term. I have no idea what to suggest. We are not Irish or Scottish so can’t for eg wear a kilt.

I wish schools wouldn’t do this as it’s just a nightmare for some kids who don’t know what to wear. I know she is going to beg me to have the day off rather than have the worry of it all.

Any ideas as to what she could wear?

Not sure if this is true for your school OP, but I suspect that at dd's school any overt 'british-ness' would not really go down very well amongst the other pupils - or at least my dd would see it that way.
I like the idea of seeing your 'culture' as including your hobbies. But I reckon that we will end up going with the usual jeans + t-shirt, and maybe if asked dd can just say that she hasn't thought much about her outfit but is keen to learn about other cultures...

My daughter would borrow one of my old punk / new romantic outfits that I've hung on to.

Pearly Queen

England football shirt and an empty Stella can. (sorry no help)

Modern British culture is individualistic and tolerant to a wide range of clothing styles. It has a strong history of fashion.

Therefore she can wear whatever she likes.

If overt Britishness would be frowned upon at Culture Day in Britain then they shouldn't throw them.

Last year DD went in jeans and she said the rest of her form were very unkind about what she’d worn. There are 30 girls in her form and only a couple who are white British. The rest were in their traditional cultural outfits. But I just don’t know what else DD could wear. If she went in “dress up” clothes like the refugee dress of flower girl I know she’d get laughed at.

Im just so angry at the school. I think it’s great if you have a strong cultural identity with the clothes to represent it but DD doesn’t. A previous poster put it really well when they said the British culture is not really expressed via our clothes.

Dd had this and wore Wellington boots and a floral dress.
Dc are Scottish & English so DS wore a kilt.

Or it would be easier if the school chose a country to celebrate, a new one every year, and then we could just improvise or buy some stuff!

Ideally don’t spend money on something she’ll only wear for 6 hours!

My daughters secondary does this as well and I hate it. She is one of few white British children in the school and never knows what to wear or how to celebrate.

If from London, she could be a pearly queen or princess.

If she is a country girl she could go as a milkmaid!

What are her white, ethnically British, friends going to wear?

I think you might be better off arming her with some information so she can discuss it better with anyone questioning her. ‘Normal’ clothes probably wouldn’t be entirely normal in any other country and would be perfectly passable as ‘English’ (Probably closer to western truth be told).

Her cultural identity is harder to pick out because we’re all so immersed in it and actually living it.

It sounds like people choosing their cultures formal dressings, so maybe she should wear something she’d attend something formal in, like a wedding.

What did the other white girls wear last year?

Band t-shirt and a mini skirt?

I agree that this is very difficult for England (and possibly Wales?) as there's not a standard national costume like so many other countries have.

itcouldhappen white British are a minority in the school, DD said they wore jeans or tracksuit bottoms but majority in full traditional costume.

I think some of this is going to be attitude, if she is confident rocking whatever outfit says white English to her then she is unlikely to be laughed at seriously.
If she feels uncomfortable then she is going to struggle more.
So she needs to pick something that works for her.

A previous poster put it really well when they said the British culture is not really expressed via our clothes.

Of course it is. English culture might not have a specific national dress but typically British culture is expressed as individualism, anti-culture and a lack of conformism. I think it's actually because of school uniform that British teenagers wear more alternative clothes than their European peers.

Jeans and a Sex Pistols t-shirt works. Pretty much any British band shirt.

DD had one of these days every year in primary. Usually for the white British kids a lot of football shirts were worn, some Union Jack/ St George's cross clothes or face paint. Tricky in secondary though

Just wear something red, white and blue?

Primary school kids in Wales either wear traditional Welsh costume, tall hat, scratch traditional wool shawl etc for girls or a Wales rugby o'r football shirt for boys on the patron saint St David's Day.
I suppose they'd do something similar in secondary school if culture days were a thing, but I've never heard of that happening in Wales.

Could she channel the wives from Six the Musical? A strong but modern take on the Tudor look.

*scratchy wool shawl

Can you not just pick a culture she wants to dress up as?

Or go for eg pagan clothing or traditional Welsh girls dress & bonnet? Irish dancing girl? Tartan?

Pretty much zero% of the white Brits are 100% English! If she's fair and has freckles she's highly likely to have some viking ancestry, for a start!

Viking would be a good one, actually. Fun to dress up as and lots on eg Amazon. Our days are names after Norse Gods - what about Thor for Thursday?!

Pearly Queen? THE Queen?!

So many options!

I think the wearing red, white and blue idea is the best. Maybe I can persuade her to me to some face paint, could do UK flag on her face or maybe red white and blue nail varnish.