Office discussion - what was your high school uniform and how was it worn?

[Dumbwaitress]

As usual we've been avoiding work and just been comparing notes on what we had to wear for high school and whether we were rebels or swots in how it was worn and whether we kept to the rules or not. It started because one of the other women in the office was bemoaning her daughter and the fact that although she sends her to school looking really smart, she wondered how long it lasts, because although she comes home looking smart, she wonders whether she isn't so smart at school.

My uniform was predominantly navy blue; straight skirt, v neck jumper, white shirt, blue tie with school crests, socks or tights and black shoes.

I was generally a bit of a swot in how I wore it in the first year - we weren't allowed big fat knots in our ties or to have out top buttons undone and I didn't want to get into trouble. I did soon realise though that it was possible to have the shirt untucked under the jumper and got away with it if it didn't show. I also started to leave the top button unfastened and hide it with the tie and got away with that too most times, then I got braver and my friends and I used to see how far down we could have our ties before we got told off. I think by the end we used to have the tie knot below the v of the jumper!

How about the rest of you?

Ours was very boring, grey skirt, cardigan and socks/wooly tights, maroon and grey tie. Our deputy head mistress was a nasty piece of work so not many stepped out of line. We had to pair petticoats/slips whatever you call them under our summer red and white checked dresses, she made the whole dinnerhall stop eating and pointed out she could see mine which was not acceptable (it had fallen down a bit without me knowing). I've never forgotten stood by all the teachers and 100+ children looking at me.

My daughter has just gone into Y7 and they are stopping big knotted ties by having clip on ties. School Counsel have pointed out the kids do not like them, but they are here to stay. My daughter's skirt is well above her knee which seems okay, but she said she has seen girls having their uniform cards marked for shorter skirts and apparently some have been called into see the head.

Grey skirt , royal blue jumper - blue or white shirts .

Skirts could be of any shape or size - I always wanted a tight oencil skirt but Mum wasn't having any of that !

Oh yes and the big knotted tie - until we got into 6th form and thin was in !

Are you ready for this - blue roll neck jumper, grey pleated skirt and a blue nylon blazer with no collar..... The summer uniform was a blue dress with paisley squares on it. This is going back to the 80's mind you. It was a Catholic school and we asked if we could wear blouses with ties like the boys but were told no as it would show our attributes too much

We were supposed to wear knee length socks but this was the time of over the knee ones so we wore those but had to roll them down if the deputy head was around

No uniform-

Bottle green 6 gore skirt, white button shirt (or blue shirt and tie), bottle green jumper, bottle green knickers (really), and just to finish it off a bottle green purse belt. Brown indoor Clarks shoes, brown or black outdoor shoes, white socks. No boots allowed. Bottle green duffle coat or blazer.

Never ever wear green now....

We didn't have one.

A tweed cloak. Seriously.

Like the sound of the tweed cloak!

Grey skirt - knee length (but of course we rolled them up), blue blouse, grey jumper\cardigan, blue and grey striped tie - if I remember correctly the ties were optional after the 1st year of high school. There was a blazer - grey - but very few wore one - optional.

I do remember the over knee socks - up to mid thigh. They were often held up with an elastic band around each thigh. Shoes just had to be sensible ish.

I was at high school in the early 80s.

grey box pleat skirt, navy v neck jumper, navy blazer with school crest, white shirt, navy tie with gold & royal blue narrow stripe

in the summer girls could wear an open necked blouse with no tie so we would try and stretch summer from february-november

ties were worn skinny, then fat, then normal but with the coloured stripe picked out

and we had no kneel down and if our skirts didn't touch the back of our legs then they were too short!

Black trousers, white polo short, maroon sweater. Ingenious in that there was literally no possible way to customise or adapt it

Navy long skirt, white blouse, navy and maroon tie, maroon jumper, navy blazer, white terry towelling ankle socks and a boater. It was an all girls school but just as i started the boaters started to disappear thank goodness. In the fifth year it changed to navy jumper. And we were supposed to have navy school pants. Yuk. This was the 80's and i can still remember those socks. There were no trousers allowed in those days, but towards the end a lot of Asian girls came wearing trousers and any old tie (we were sure they were their Dads) and obviously a lot of girls wanted to wear trousers but was told no. Just after that the uniform included trousers but i had left by then. Primary school was worse - uniform wasn't compulsory then but if wanted it was brown and gold. Lovely.

Navy blue knee legnth skirt, white socks, black or brown shoes. Navy blue cardigan or navy jumper with red stripes around the neck and cuffs.

White shirt with navy and red tie.

Navy blazer and navy coat.

Summer uniform - pink gingham dress.

BUT

when you became a senior (what is now yr 10+11) you had a different tie and you could also wear an open necked shirt in summer instead of the dress.

Summer uniform could only be worn after easter until the summer holidays.

They got rid of the hats a year or two before I started.

Knee length bottle green skirt, White blouse, Green v neck jumper, Fawn knee socks or tights, Brown lace up shoes. Also a blazer with green & brown stripes.

Yuck.

None of the schools I went to had one (60/70s freedom )

First year it was maroon or black jumpers, black or maroon or white t shirts, black trousers.
Second year it changed to nothing - this was in 2004, mind, when that wasn't common!
Third year onwards it changed to black and white - anything you liked, as long as it was black and white in colour. So girls would come in wearing gypsy skirts or shorts or dresses etc, boys came in wearing trackies and white hoodies..
In sixth year (agd 17/18) we had to wear black trousers or skirt, plus a black or white blouse, plus a maroon blazer and tie for posh days..

They have apparently changed the uniform now and 1-5th year have to wear a school sweatshirt plus smart trousers/skirt. Sixth year have to wear tie and blazer get up every day..

Grey skirt (you could have a black skirt in the fifth year)
White shirt
School tie
Grey cardigan or jumper.
Blazers were optional for girls but compulsory for boys.
Grey or white socks or tights (Grey or black socks for boys)
Black shoes

My DC attend the secondary school I went to, the uniform was less formal when I went (late 80s). We wore grey skirts any style, plue shirts or blouses, and royal blue jumpers or cardis. Boys had to wear ties, I remember them tying them the wrong way round, so the skinny end hung down, and tucking the wider end in.

I remember wearing a knee length pencil skirt and a huge baggy cardi, I thought I looked fab!

Did anyone else get sent to the toilets to wash off their make-up?
We were only allowed 'natural' make-up, but I had a thing about bright eyeshadow.

Very formal and very strict Catholic school, we had to walk past 4 teachers every morning, two on each side who pulled you up on any uniform issues

It had to be all from the school outfitters, our uniform was of a colour that wasn't fashionable or available in any high street shop.

No make-up or hair gel etc, if you dared, and you would have to be crazy, they made you wash it off/out in the cold water from the school sinks, and used that awful soap so you smelled bad all day.

Some people tried it on with the ties but were soon dealt with.

In a way I am totally grateful for that because it meant we were all the same, so there was less for bullies to pick on. And any bullying was dealt with very fast and effectively because all the kids were crapping themselves over being punished. The Nuns and Priests were particularly scary

We had a navy polyester skirt and then a spotty cotton shirt that wasn't too bad but was sadly replaced by a pale blue polyester blouse. I expect it looked OK on the 11 year olds but as soon as we all got hips you got this lovely bulge around the middle and my blouse was too short to tuck in for which I was always being told off. AS the teachers wore whatever the hell they liked this was extremely annoying. I think we had blazers too but I can't remember (obviously not so annoying!)

So in short it was worn badly. I only really rebelled with my choice of shoes, going for shoes stuck together with tape for quite a while and then when a fuss was kicked up opting for huge DMs.

My poor big sister got to wear bright pink!

I am so glad my children can wear whatever they like to school with no stupid arguments. dd wears jeans, a t-shirt and hoody mostly. Much more comfortable mainly because they actually fit.

Red, grey and black kilt supposed to be below the knee.
Red and black tie
White shirt
Grey jumper.

I used to wear my skirt rolled up but my tie was always tied properly!

Harris tweed brown skirt
Beige shirt
Brown jumper
Beige socks and Emily shoes ( until age 16, yes really !)
Brown clock on weekdays and coat and boater on Sundays

Primary school the uniform was optional (grey skirt/trousers, grey blazer with purple trim; shirt and grey/purple striped tie.)

Secondary - an A-line v-neck tunic made of some sort of polyester in a blue somewhere between navy and royal, worn over a nylon blouse - pale small blue checks. The 6th formers had a grey tunic in a slightly nicer fabric. socks or tights - which in those days (70s) were brown 'nylons'. The tunics looked dreadful at regulation length, pretty bad after you'd grown an inch or two, and then most girls tried to keep them for as long as possible so they'd get really short (no possibility of hitching up a tunic). To complete the look, this was the era of clumpy platform shoes.

follyfoot - that's almost exactly how my school uniform was too, without the purse belt or a blue shirt option - either white or cream in our case. Plus in the winter either red or green knee high woolly socks! Grim. Urgh - I never wear bottle green now either.