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?

Green v-neck jumped with school badge
White blouse
Green pleated skirt (knee length)
White socks/white or black tights
Black shoes

I never thought it was too bad for a school uniform, as there was no tie.

Ours was black and white. It was a "new" school when I joined in year 7 and they did start by having lots of school logo embroidered sweatshirts and stripey ties which we were all encouraged to buy. Nobody did, so by year eight my uniform was:

Black cord trousers
White polo shirt
Black jumper
Black boots

By year 11 I'd funked it up a bit and wore:

Black pleated skirt (so short but I had good legs so hey!)
Black opaques
White sweater shop roll neck
Black Fruit of the Look sweater
Clumpy heeled Kickers

This was early nineties.

We found it quite funny to think how much we all used to try and get away with bending the rules on how our uniforms were worn, yet when it comes to our own children now we're all so in favour of the school rules!

The thing about children - especially teenagers - is that some of them simply have to bend the rules about something. So, if you have strict uniform rules, they have something that can be bent a bit without causing real harm - ooh, look at that tie, ooh, my skirt is rolled up 2". If they don't have this sort of rule, they'll have to break one which matters such as smoking.

No uniform - 1970s, well no jeans till 6th form but that was it.

And yknow what- I was a dorky un fashionable swat, but was never bullied for my clothing at least.

Fucking maroon.

This is over 20 years ago now but I still shudder at the sight of fucking maroon.

Maroon polyester skirt, with maroon v-necked polyester jumper and blue or white blouse. Maroon and grey tie optional for girls. No above-the-knee socks, even when it was snowing outside (now that is a human rights abuse, in retrospect).

Christ it was disgusting.

It wasn't smart. It wasn't nice. It was an infantile attempt to treat teenagers as prepubescents by forcing them into clothes no sane adult would wear.

I went through a hippy phase in the lower sixth and got told off for having a skirt that was too long! Hell there was no pleasing those teachers!

Sometime after I left the school sensibly abandoned its maroon insanity in favour of black, with trousers optional for girls.

My DC don't have a uniform, it's unheard of in the country where we live, and the situation is so much better. Treat kids like individual human beings and they're so much more likely to act like mature people. The idea that kids should wear uniform because it gives them something harmless to rebel against is frankly pathetic. There's a school t-shirt/sweatshirt which can be worn on a voluntary basis, and is encouraged for photos and events, but surely kids are going to feel so much more positive about their school if they're comfortable in what they're wearing. By the way, the kids without uniform are much less likely to wear outrageous make-up and obscenely-high skirts, because clothes are just not an issue. Most of the time they wear jeans and a top/jumper.

Girls- Blue checked blouse, 'French' navy skirt and 'gold' cardigan in first and second year. No tie.

The boys had a white shirt, black trousers and grey jumper with a French navy and gold striped tie.

Black blazers were optional (and only worn by a select few, poor buggers.)

Third to fifth year

Girls blue or gold blouse, navy cardigan or v neck jumper, french navy skirt. No tie. (As girls don't wear ties to work, seemed sensible)

Boys, blue or white shirt, royal blue or grey jumper, black trousers and same tie.

The change was supposed to mark our progress through the school.

No uniform in the sixth form! Whoopee, except we all wore jeans and a jumper!

Grey skirt (changed to black in year 4...sorry year 10)
White blouse
Bright red jumper or cardigan. (often managed to accidentally leave red jumper in the washing machine and wear a maroon one instead).

Boys wore black or grey trousers, white shirt, tie in house colour and grey or red jumper.

Uniform changed the year after I left to black skirt/trousers, black blazer, white shirt and house tie. To think I hated my uniform, but I was glad we could purchase the items from fashion shops and didn't look like clones in the renewed uniform!

We had quite a flexible uniform (early 1980s).

We could wear either the school skirt or a real kilt in any tartan. Tights and socks could be green or fawn (all specific uniform items).

We could wear either a shirt and tie or a polo neck (September - April) or checked summer blouse (May - October). In addition, you could have a V-neck jumper or cardigan.

I usually wore the polo neck, v-neck and cardigan (because it was always freezing), then the summer blouse plus cardigan. I wore the skirt most days, but my kilt on AF days (just in case ). I really only wore my shirt and tie for more formal occasions or going out somewhere.

When I wore my tie, I just wore it normally, but there were a few girls who went to extremes. The swots wore their tie in a peanut, the cool gang super big.

Black blazers with gold stripes, matching ties. We looked like bees.

Did everybody go to schools where it was a bit of a challenge to bend the rules on how it was worn or did anybody go to one where it didn't really matter if you looked really scruffy?