Help! Radio5Live want our thoughts on Tesco's "mini" school-uniform skirt

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

Radio5Live have asked us to go on their show this afternoon with our thoughts on one of Tesco's new school-uniform skirts.

See picture here

Obviously, Tesco have signed up to our Let Girls Be Girls campaign, so we're sure they'll be interested in your thoughts on the skirt, too.

So, do you think it's fine (if a bit daft!) or do you think it's not the sort of thing retailers should be selling for young girls to wear?

with this amount of publicity i think the schools will be waiting for the girls to turn up in them.....then ban them instantly....so not going to happen is it,the girls wont get a chance to wear them

There's a thread going on somewhere helen

here Helen

Vile. But there is no way most primary schools would allow girls to wear that as part of their uniform.

Would the 'spokesman for Tesco' send his own daughter to school in that I wonder?

Yes, thanks Valpolicella, we'd spotted it - and have posted to ask them to nip over here with their thoughts, too...

It's a fashion skirt, not a school skirt. I would have had no problem with my daughters wearing it aged nine, coupled with woolly tights and flat boots but NOT for school - and not with bare legs, thin tights, shoes, heels etc.

However, to be marketing it as an appropriate skirt for a nine year old to wear to school is inappropriate and certainly not in the spirit of 'Let girls be girls' as I understand it.

The comments in the article linked to are verging on hysterical, especially re: the name. 'Hitch' is just a blatant plagiarism of a style sold by All Saints, which has been part of their range for years and prior to that, Vivienne Westwood has used the style for decades. It's a funky skirt rather than a tarty skirt imho but it should not be marketed as a school skirt.

It's hard to imagine what it looks like on an actual 9yo. I can see that with heavy tights and a sensible top it probably wouldn't be at all "sexualising". And a foot-long skirt on a 9yo covers a lot more than it would cover on me. But just from a picture of the skirt on its own it's hard to tell.

It's a seriously weird thing to sell as part of a school uniform range, though -- where on earth are there schools that would consider that this met their uniform restrictions?

It's ridiculous and as other posters have said, schools will ban it at once. However, I have noticed that is getting harder to find long enough school skirts - I have three daughters aged 7, 10 and 13 - imagine my surprise when my 13 year olds new M&S school skirt which I ordered online turned out to be shorter than an age 7 skirt.
The irony is many secondary school girls would like to wear longer school skirts, but they are difficult to find because retailers are pushing these ridiculously short numbers,.

I wouldn't buy it for my daughter. Certainly not for school anyway. It's a fashion item, not a school uniform skirt. It's not so much the length that bothers me, it's the design. Far too grown up for primary school. No doubt I'll see it on a few pupils at dd's school come the autumnn though.

My dd has a couple of shortish skirts for casualwear but I am prim enough to beleive that school skirts should be fairly plain and shouldn't be more than a couple of inches above the knee (growth spurt just before the end of term notwithstanding).

I think shortish (ie not arse skimmingI skirts on little girls are fine, dd (6) wears them instead of shorts in the summer and with leggings or thick tights in the winter.

But at a "hitch and stitch" school skirt? No.

'Mini' aspect aside, the style is completely wrong for a school skirt. Its a fashion skirt not a school skirt.

There seems to be this trend for pushing the boundaries on school uniforms at the moment eg. glittery stitching and motifs on girls skirts and trousers, trendy tags hanging off belt loops etc

I don't think school uniform should be all dowdy but at the same time there's a time and place for high fashion and IMO in the primary school classroom is not the place.

Re: mini length - last year I couldn't find any decent length girls skirts anywhere for DD who was 9 at the time. The longest we found were at M&S and they were well above the knee.

sidetracking slightly, but I use these people for school skirts as they come in different lengths. I've always had next day delivery, and pretty good quality for the money as well.

I might buy this Tescos skirt as a non-school skirt, as some others have said with thick tights and flat boots it would look OK, but under no circumstances would it be allowed at school.

I don't think that that skirt would particularly sexualise my daughters who are aged 9 and under. I like them in shorter skirts and thick tights. My 9 yo deliberately wears her very small old skirt to school which is shorter and she doesnt' look like a teenager/young woman even though that is what she is trying to look like.

I would have more reservations about an 11-13 wearing it tbh as they are more likely to be mistaken for older girls.

(and in any case don't like the flouncy bits).

There are worst examples of inappropriate clothing out there imo.

Miniskirts are a way of showing off toned thighs. Why would anyone want to put their 9 year old in a skirt to show off her thighs? Why does anyone want people to look at their nine year old's thighs? Why do fashion designers think that drawing attention to a nine year old's thighs is desirable?

Do we shorten boy's shorts to show off their thighs? No. Why not? because we don't want people to look at 9 year old boys' thighs. We don't want people to be thinking about nine year old boys' thighs.

Why is ok if the child in question is female?

Girls are not dolls or decorations. Nine year old girls have a purpose in life, their own purpose in life, and this purpose does not in any way involve drawing attention to their thighs.

Lenin, at dd's school and most other (state) schools I know of, girls can choose to wear trousers. I think private schools are possibly stricter as they often have very specific uniform codes.

My dd prefers skirts, no idea why, I think they're draughty myself and live in trousers.

actually I put my ds in short shorts too - I think they look cute and traditional.

My dds look cute in short skirts and thick tights and boots, it's nothing to do with showing off toned thighs - they don't have toned thighs, they have stick legs. They look nothing like teenagers or women. my 5 and 7yo dds wear dresses that are longer than the ones I wore in the 70s (which barely covered my backside).

my dds do not wear bras, playboy bunny stuff or high heels (for example). or thongs. little denim skirts are different imo.

My 2 younger dds can choose to wear trousers and they often do. My eldest dd has to wear a horrible kilt skirt - it is not a mini skirt it is a very traditional uniform skirt.

Just another example of how retailers are signing up to the "let girls be girls" campaign but taking not a blind bit of notice of what that actually involves.

Ha ha ha. Call that a skirt?!

I saw this in the catalogue yesterday and thought it was completely inappropriate for a school skirt.

I think it's quite nice. Girls have worn short skirts since the 1920s. In the 60s and 70s all little girls dresses and skirts were much shorter than that and so were boy's shorts!

ishoos aside. It is a vile skirt.

In the words of my mother, "That's not a skirt, it's a belt!"

The problem is not just the age, from 9 years at that age most parents still buy their kids clothes, (although I think it's wrong to market it to young girls), it's teens wearing it that's the problem. The parents have little control over what their child wears and they try to look as old as possible. We (royal we)should not be encouraging it.