Did you have "Goldies" in school?

[Azzure]

Ok not sure if this was just a local thing but when I was at school there were very clear groups. We did not have a uniform, so the cliques were obvious straight away. You had the nerds, the quiet ones, the artsy kids who drew anime in class, the emos, the wannabe beauticians with bleached blonde hair and extensions, the goths, and the kids who didnt really fit anywhere. Then there were the 'goldies', who I got on with best. They were mostly lads, apart from me and one other girl. I called them that because they always wore something gold, usually a chain, bracelet or ring, probably cheap gold plated stuff. They dressed a bit gangster with caps indoors and baggy grey or white tracksuits, like old school American rappers. They looked like they were trying to cosplay early Eminem or something. They loved playing R&B and this beaty House music. They looked intimidating but were actually really kind, loyal, and funny. If someone was having trouble they'd look out for them. Not great at school though, as they were always messing about in lessons

Did anyone else have 'em or was it just a local thing on my end?

I think most schools had random cliques such as this, watch any teen tv/movies and you’ll see… Clueless, The Breakfast Club, Wednesday et al.
Are you in Australia?

In the UK

Based on the poll looks like it was a local clique thing. thanks for voting everyone!!

There aren’t many schools in the uk that didn’t have uniform. When was this?

Well - I went to an all girls boarding school with very strict uniform rules 55 years ago..... So no!

Was this a private school? Even so struggling to think of schools in the UK without uniform?

Mid to late 2000's. It was a small school, don't want to say which one because I don't wanna reveal my location lol. But people were allowed to dress however (within reason)

most Schools wouldn’t have been non uniform so you’re not likely to find many others unless they went to your particular school.

True. So now I'm wondering about after school/on weekends. If the school doesn't allow non uniform clothing then cliques would only be 'visible' after school/on weekends etc

There’s a non uniform secondary in my city but ds didn’t go there. I don’t think there were any non uniform secondaries in my area when I was growing up. Enforcing of the clothes rules was relatively mild I think but enforcing the jewellery and makeup rules was much more strict. I’m sure the cliques existed to some extent but thinking about it, I think they genuinely were weakened in their impact by the uniform. How about that! An actual argument for uniform, which I’m generally against. Also the cliques would have been visually different because it was the 80s. We had the soul girls, the casuals and the goths, some arts/theatre kids, and quite a few of us who essentially looked as if we hadn’t left primary school and who talked mainly about telly and comics - by which I mean the Beano, not 2000AD.

Like this?

Yeah! That's partially where I came up with the name for them. Kinda similar, except less colourful clothing. They looked more like they were trying to be early 2000's Eminem

(No ‘goldies’ here but I’m older than you OP - same era as @PermanentTemporary) I think teenagers will find a way to express themselves through clothes even within uniform rules, but I agree it makes it harder. At my school the goths managed to make themselves visible by wearing black eyeliner and cool-toned lipstick (make-up rules were much slacker then). Casuals had short wedge cuts and wore their knee-length socks slumped around their ankles, and always had school shoes that were dead flat. The cool kids somehow memefied themselves into wearing school cardigans that were about three shades lighter than they were supposed to be. My friends and I (nerds) were identifiable by the fact that we stuck rigidly to all the clothing rules!

They were also very proud of their 'bling' even though it looked cheap. It was always gold, never silver, and some of them wore multiple items of gold at once in the form of rings, bracelets or necklaces that were interlocked chains. I never found out if they were being ironic or not. looking back it looked kind of ridiculous but it was charming in a way!

No , I was at a boarding and day school in the 80s with the worst school uniform in the world.

I think we had these (though we had uniform, so this would only be how they dressed at the weekends) but we called them Townies.

I went to secondary school early 90s, in a council estate, all girls wore lots of solid gold jewellery, think large hoop earrings, lots of chains and rings, back when it was cheaper to buy. Nerds were called boffins, I’m sure not so many other polite names lol. Definitely uniform but they were relaxed on whatever footwear, whatever trainers, branded of course! or high heels for the most glamorous ones and don’t forget the perms!

Did you see lots of them up town? Asking since even today I'll catch some 'goldies' walking about up town, often in groups. Some are teenagers but others are well into their thirties. Up town seems like a spot where they like to gather, especially in the evenings

Went to boarding for GCSEs then standard state for A Levels and in both the ones wearing all the gold were 'chavs' or 'gyppos' in late 90s in south east.

I’m not quite sure why they were Townies tbh. Everybody hung out in town, it wasn’t exclusively them: I grew up in a very small city, there weren’t many other places to go! Could have derived from some old slang etymology that people who dressed “cool” and wore flash jewellery regularly were markedly town-dwellers as opposed to those who lived rurally, perhaps. Couldn’t say.

We called them chavs in my uniform wearing state secondary too.

DC1 was on the "nerd herd" at their comp. (Very brainy. Very intellectually curious about everything. Now working full time as physicist.). I wasn't aware of DC2 being in any particular clique (at the same school).

I went to an all girls grammar. I would say nearly everyone was some type of nerd herd person (but we didn't have a name for it) but within that there were two ends of the spectrum - the science geeky ones and the arty musical (and often religious) ones.

Long time since I was at school, definitely had uniform, but looking back also definitely had cliques,no Elmo’s/ goths back then but there were the rockers, the punks, the sporty ones, the arty ones, the swots, the bad boys( and yes they were almost exclusively boys) I think all schools have cliques if you look beneath the surface .

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5473268-aibu-by-dressing-like-how-my-old-clique-at-school-dressed-since-it-comes-across-as-gangster-to-some-people

Maybe you went to the same school as this poster?
There have been a few chav/gangster and now "goldie" threads recently so it can't be that uncommon.
I wasn't aware of it but my schools had uniform.

That was the chav look in my school (though we never called ourselves that!).