"smart business suit" for sixth form - bit tacky or a good idea? Mixed 6th

[Sparrows12]

I'm in the "bit tacky" camp myself. Don't want daughter going to school everyday dressed like a candidate from the Apprentice. There are plenty of years to get used to dressing for the world of work, so why start at 16, especially as these children will be back in jeans etc for university. A sixth form uniform would be my strong preference. And i can foresee all sorts of disagreements in Next, Top Shop etc over what is "smart". I already find myself fighting to keep quiet about unsuitable (frankly "large handbag-style") bags being taken to school - aargh, and school shoes from unsuitable places like top shop that last one term before falling apart.

[BrianButterfield]

I have granny shoes like that! I wore them to work the other day and my year 8 girls swooned over them.

[Jins]

The hair for us was all about the Pam Ewing

After purdey bobs and just before the backcombed mullet

[bruffin]

I had the Pam Ewing but that was when I was older.
The shoes were platforms and then hessian wedges.

[Jins]

I've got the Pam Ewing now :( Whatever I do it ends up as a Pam Ewing

[bruffin]

My works clothes involved Tea Dresses then went onto Lady Diana collars

[Jins]

I never did the Princess Di look.

I was NOT a fan

[orangeandlemons]

I went to sixthform in Knickerbockers and a pirate shirt a la Adam Ant. Pink hair backcombed into a nest.

I got sent home. A bad example to the lower school, and not to return until my hair was a normal colour. So I bleached it white and went back..........still in knickerbockers and said shirt

[webwiz]

I looked like this

girlsofthe80s.tumblr.com/post/14605052935/clare-grogan-in-gregorys-girl-1981

boys used to snatch the beret as some sort of chat up technique.

[EldritchCleavage]

My nephews' school had a dress code but no specific uniform. It went: blazer/jacket, collared shirt, tie, slacks. But you could choose any kind, so the boys would wear daft combos like blue blazer, Hawaian shirt, clashing striped tie. In summer they were allowed Bermuda shorts instead of trousers.

It worked. They looked smart-ish, but still got to be individual or even a bit rebellious. That's also more what the world of work is like these days, so it is a better preparation for life than an old-fashioned suits only rule. Suit-y jobs are on the decline these days as more and more sectors ditch the requirement to wear them, and what kids need to know is not 'how to wear a suit' but 'how to navigate a looser dress code without getting it horribly wrong'.

[Jins]

The irony of beret's!

They'd been compulsory uniform in living memory in my school

[Jins]

why has my phone put an apostrophe there? Must think beret is a name:)

[mummytime]

Charterhouse has a sixth form Uniform in case anyone wants to know The grey jackets are the younger boys, the black is sixth form.

[NamingOfParts]

I can see that might appeal to some people but doesnt it all date back to the days when boys aged 14 and over dressed exactly like their dad?

[pointythings]

I was in the Dutch equivalent of 6th form in the mid 80s... Mullets, oh yes! And I had a Phil Oakey style too (when he was all asymmetrical). Big shoulders and satin shirts, enormously oversized shirts hitched up with even bigger belts, well dodgy makeup. And I had a girl in my class who was full on punk with the ripped black clothes, corpse-white makeup, insane spiked hair - the lot.

We all did well, went to university and turned into normal, well-adapted, hardworking people. Strange, that.

[Milliways]

DS has worn a school suit since Yr7, but in 6th form they can wear "any dark suit" so 95% wear black. Costs £59 from M&S or £79 Next for a machine washable suit - so cheaper than his Yr 7-11 gear.

He is very comfortable in a suit now, and for job & Uni interviews he just wears a different shirt. No worries about "what shall I wear today", and they all look smart.

I like it. When DD was in 6th form some of them looked like they were going for a day on the beach! (Tiny shorts, croip tops etc.) I was amazed they were never told to smarten up.

[LynetteScavo]

I don't see why 6th form can't just wear school uniform like the rest of the school.

A school in my town has a suit/man bag "uniform" in the 6th form, and you can spot the boys a mile off. Skinny youths in cheap suits....

[Mintyy]

I don't thin sixth formers should be compelled to wear any kind of uniform at all because they have opted to be there. They are beyond the age of compulsory education.

[Brycie]

They aren't compelled, because they have opted to be there. Choose the course, choose the school, choose its way of working.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

But doesn't that change quite soon?

[NamingOfParts]

I'm not anti uniform. DS is in Army Cadets and hopes to join the Army. They have a real uniform (uniform isnt uniform unless it's uniform). It is workwear, it is standard.

I can see the point in military uniforms. The whole point is standardisation, thinking as a unit, acting as a unit. If even a button is lost by one person it can be replaced from another.

School uniforms and dress codes arent this. They are about conformity but only for the purpose of conformity - who fits in and who doesnt. They are about finding a quick and easy way of identifying (and then excluding one way or another) students and parents who dont fit in.

[BeehavingBaby]

We had this at my school around the time clueless was released so we loved it, all the girls were herded into the common room in the spring of year 12 though and told "we were there to learn, not to seduce"! Boys did look like estate agents admittedly and I don't really see the point, just 'smart' or 'business dress' would be better than specifying a suit surely?

[Firelighters]

Yes it does (big mistake!) so then they can be compelled anyway!

[LaCiccolina]

Schools know feck all about actually what it's like to work in business or offices. This kind of thing is play acting by people who have very little concept of it. It's the same (daft) reasoning as why stereotypes exist of teachers.

A plain black skirt and jacket doesn't equal business attire but does look smart. If smart is what she wants fine, but please do not pretend this is business wears and therefore explains the world of work. It would equally suit u for working as a receptionist or funeral director. It wouldn't give u understanding of either of those either.

[LaVolcan]

You make a good point about army uniform, NoP. They don't just have one outfit - they have clothing appropriate to the task in hand, so don't wear the same outfit when out in the field on active service as at a regimental dinner.

In my opinion, insisting on 'smart business clothes' is just schools being a bit stupid unthinking, after all they don't insist that pupils wear 'smart business clothes' when taking part in sport. They accept that this isn't the correct attire for that.

Isn't part of growing up learning how to dress appropriately for the job?

[NamingOfParts]

Isn't part of growing up learning how to dress appropriately for the job?

I think this is precisely the point.