Couple of ishooz that prove uniform DOES enter the equation: Notice how the prep schools of many of our esteemed Public Schools' uniform come straight out of Enid Blyton? (I'm talking purple striped blazers, boaters, caps, SMOCKS. In 2008!- all in lurid 'Look at me!' colours) yet many of those senior schools' uniforms are muted and smart: navy blazers, perhaps, distinctive badge etc etc. The conclusion is fairly obvious: Some schools pander to the parents' 'I can afford this school/look at my child' attitudes, but there's no way their self respecting 12 year old would wear the purple striped blazer or boater so the school has to drop it!
ALSO there's a reason why many upmarket private schools in Australia get DESIGNERS in to design the uniform because they know that when it comes to 2 otherwise equal schools, if DD (most likely!) gets given the choice, she will choose the school with the best looking uniform! Fact.
Fwiw, I have to say I much prefer shirts and ties on boys. DS2's Infants had polos and sweatshirts and they looked, by the end of Yr 2, and to use my mother's vernacular, 'like a pig had been sucking them'. DS1's end-of-Yr 4 uniform looks as smart as the day it was bought.
What I don't get, though, is why girls don't get to wear those 'air stewardess' open necked blouses and short/truncated ties, like the old fashioned Brownie uniforms had. Far more feminine. It'd be economical to produce seeing as 50% of the shirt wearing school population would require one!