If you were at secondary school in the late 1980s ...

[fivestarperformance]

... was the fashion at your school to wear a long skirt almost down to your ankles?

It was at mine. We wore a long navy pleated skirt, with opaque tights in winter and white ankle socks in summer, and of course thought we were very cool and 'alternative'. 😁

It struck me that the current trend for "branded" school skirts not only fails to stop skirts from getting too short (because they can be rolled up), but also prevents girls from rebelling by wearing a long skirt. Shame.

Yes, long pleated skirts and then grolch bottle tops on the big clumpy shoes (we got in trouble for that and had to remove them)

We had this fashion in my secondary school in the 2000s!

No. Left in 1988.
We had straight knee length skirts with knee length white socks bunched down around our ankles.

We had uniform skirts, so there was no option to wear them long. We did roll them shorter, and the really enterprising girls made them tighter, too.

Yes! Left school in 1989 and I wore ankle length skirt with a big split at the back, over knee socks, white shirt and tie but we had to wear the school v neck jumper. Lots of girls had a shaggy perm held up with a comb each side. Sixth formers wore the baggy plain knit cardigan (they were so cool). My teen DD thinks she looks like a nun unless her skirt is rolled up

That's what I remember. The white socks deliberately ruched down. They looked really daft and I wasn't into it as a goth/indie kid. I had black tights. I think we had to wear navy jumpers and navy or grey skirts. I had one pencil skirt and another one with pleats that I hated. No branded school stuff.

Ours was quite a poor school.

I loved sixth form with no uniform!

Yes long straight number with a slit at the back.

Although by the time I'd finished secondary the school weren't pushing the uniform it was shirt tie, jeans and casual jackets. A couple of years later they relaunched the complete uniform including Aussie dresses.

I wish, strict Catholic school and our uniform came from the school outfitters. Knee high white socks, A line skirt which was incredibly obvious if you tried to roll the waistband. Tights could only be worn between set months. I envied all the other schools with their relaxed uniform policy.

Sixth form we had no uniform and we loved a long ankle length skirt.

No but we had an unusual colour school uniform so you had to buy your skirts from the uniform shop and they only had them one length. It was the fashion to have knee length socks pushed down to your ankles though so they almost looked like leg warmers all sort of bunched up. And you had to make your school tie all fat and short like a cravat.

I think this was kids just trying to express themselves within a very strict school uniform code rather than actual 'fashion' though.

I started secondary in 1978.

Our uniform stipulated, "knee length skirt", we could get away with about 2-3 ins below the knee.

How interesting, a long skirt and white socks would have been the ultimate embarrassment by the time I was at secondary in the mid 90s. Kids eh?

Ties were another fashion marker, my sister in the 80s wore the short end out (thick end tucked in) with the pointy end tucked up so it was flat edged, in my era it was still the thin end but pointy and as short as you could possibly get it 😁

I've noticed the girls here now wear skirts that are so, so, short, they look like hotpants at first glance, and white socks are back!

The fad at my Secondary school was to wrinkle your socks down towards the ankle so you got a sort of legwarmer effect. The 'fatter' the socks the better so sometimes 2 pairs of socks would be worn to create the desired effect. Long skirts were fairly popular too in 1986.

Left school in 1989 and I only wore navy blue trousers. Most girls did. Those that wore skirts were long skirts.

Yes the socks, I would normally wear 2 and sometimes 3 pairs at a time and wrinkle them down with lazer like precision

Left secondary in 1986. We had a uniform that was very loosely interpreted by the children and very loosely policed by teachers.

It was meant to be grey bottoms, white shirt and maroon jumper, which by fifth year was interpreted as black pencil skirt or trousers and a baggy jumper or cardigan from the men's dept at BHS.

Fishnet tights were acceptable, as long as they were black.

I used to wear 2 pairs of socks, one up under my knees and the other ruched down around my ankles.

Anything to distract from the long bottle green skirt.

Yes, long skirts were the fashion. Our uniform specified navy skirts/trousers, white blouses, navy cardigan/jumper and the obligatory school tie but didn't specify supplier or style (apart from the tie with the school crest on it).

The rough girls had tight pencil skirts with a split (the split was always frayed at the top) flaring out a little round the ankles, worn with white stilettos and liberal orange fake tan. If you fancied yourself as a bit more refined and arty, you wore a loose long cotton skirt with flat shoes. If you were a geek, you just wore a normal knee length skirt or trousers (hardly anyone opted for trousers).

No one, and I mean, no one, wore a skirt above the knee, I don't think it would even have occurred to anyone.

The school still exists, albeit as an 'academy' and in a new building, and when I see girls walking home from it, they're almost always in trousers. It looks as though they have to wear school blazers now, too.

No we were the opposite,

I wore the same school skirts for 3 years, they all started off a knee length straight skirts but with a bit of patience and my mums dressmaking scissors they'd miraculously get a little bit shorter during each holiday.

By the time I sat GCSEs they were very short. Not my fault I'd grown cough was it??

I left in 1985 and yes, long skirts. I made my own, they were long and fitted with a pleated band round the bottom. I had another one with fabric tabs that criss crossed at the side over a pleat - hard to explain. We had blazers, but wore baggy jumpers under and ties the wrong way round so they were skinny. We also plucked threads on the ties to alter the stripes.
I went to a strict girls' grammar, but uniform was just never an issue, first years had to wear certain things, but after that it was far more relaxed.

Trousers were only allowed for religious reasons at my school, it was the one thing they were very strict on.

Yep our 6th form uniform was prescribed and had to be bought from one shop in town.

It was a wiggle skirt with kick pleats in the back and sat just above our ankles!

Was brilliant if you were a stick insect, less so if you were carrying extra weight (like me 😞)

Who the hell ever thought that was a good idea 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Thankfully they now have a knee length one (but still has to be a school one)

You had the trendy girls who wore skirts up to their arsecracks, and then you had the metal/indie/alternative tribe who wore skirts as long as they could possibly get away with, and would try every way going to get their DM boots into school as well.

I started off with the long skirt, but since my mum refused to buy me a new one for most of secondary - it was an annoying midi length by the time I left.

Teachers used to complain about pencil skirts if they were too tight to walk in properly. I was in the 6th form by then, though, so was allowed to wear trousers.

I was at posh school and the skirts had to come from 1 specific supplier so no option other than to have a knee length pleated one (that we rolled up)

Long pleated skirt. White ankle socks. Fake DM shoes and Grolsch tops al a Bros