6th Form Style for girls- business dress

[Sami544]

Have been told knee length skirts and shirt/tops with collars....
We have a black blazer and skirt and about to get a houndstooth jacket she has her eye on at style of beyond.co.uk
Looking for shirts that will go with black and blue, doesn't want patterns.....arrrrgggg

I would be so grateful for any help as finding smart collared tops for nearly 17yr olds is tough.

H&M?
Lots of collared tops this season.Dd1 lived in their clothes for sixth form.

My daughter wore shirts from Hawes&Curtis in the sixth form. They were one of the few places that sold shirts that complied with the very strict dress code but went small enough for her (tiny). Her suits were more of a problem - cost us a fortune in alterations!

Is she able to wear trousers to sixth form? A nice white shirt tucked into some ankle grazer cigarette trousers would look nice. You can get white shirts anywhere, from Primark, to New Look, even Topshop, Miss Selfridge etc.

thanks for this.

We have been looking at hawesandcurtis and seen some nice shirts. Is there sizing true.
No primark close :(

DD was a small size 6 (size 4 when she could get it) and the Hawes &Curtis 6 suited her fine.

The also wash and iron really nicely. She still wears some of the shirts and she left school in 2016!

If your DD has to wear suits (like mine) I would recommend getting at least two bottom halves per jacket. DD was allowed trousers so had either two skirts or one skirt and one trousers per jacket. In upper sixth it relaxed slightly so she could wear say a black & white houndstooth skirt with a black jacket so it no longer had to be a “suit” but did still have to be a tailored jacket with a tailored shirt, trousers or dress.

Somebody posted a link to this company on another thread - lots of shirts and blouses here: www.staffuniforms.co.uk/collections/ladies-long-sleeve-shirts

I love the way schools make 6th form wear business dress. No-one in business wears "business dress" these days. Most people dress quite casually.

I once told of a young teacher for taking my 6th form DD of for not being smart enough, while wearing a denim jacket herself!

This sort of dress code really annoys me! Why can't they just wear comfortable clothes? (like the vast majority of us do at work these days!)

School uniform is bad enough, I really don't see why young adults are forced to spend money on 'business dress'.

@VioletCharlotte

This sort of dress code really annoys me! Why can't they just wear comfortable clothes? (like the vast majority of us do at work these days!)

School uniform is bad enough, I really don't see why young adults are forced to spend money on 'business dress'.

Especially in the current situation. Staff and children at my school are being advised to wear freshly laundered clothes every day - you can’t do that with a dry clean only suit!

Are roll necks/polo necks allowed? I guess not collars exactly though. That's what dd is going for, look smart under a jacket.

Uniqlo do a nice range of rayon shirts with collars.

@VioletCharlotte

This sort of dress code really annoys me! Why can't they just wear comfortable clothes? (like the vast majority of us do at work these days!)

School uniform is bad enough, I really don't see why young adults are forced to spend money on 'business dress'.

I totally agree.

Also, from what I've seen at parents' evenings the majority of teachers do not dress in Business dress. Some of them it would be a stretch to describe as 'Smart-Casual' even.

DD's 6th form dress code is exactly the same. As a pp said, goodness knows why 6th forms insist on business dress. It's quite old fashioned. We went to Uniqlo last week and bought some smart trousers, jumpers and blouses from there. Same style, different colours. She is refusing to wear pumps though, and will be going in DMs instead.

Be careful not to buy too much, because the reality of what they will allow might change. Some of dd's smarter stuff never got worn more than a couple of times.
I agree that business wear is daft especially as it's not always adhered to.
The best things I bought were plain cotton shirts and tshirts from h&m, a grey pinafore and a checked dress with pockets from Joy.

Totally agree these rules are ridiculous. I have a very successful career in IT and have never needed to wear ‘business dress’.

Would recommend that one the of the shirts is white - with the black skirt, covers waitressing jobs, funerals,choirs, giving out programmes on the door type tasks for the next few years. My mum gave all my school white shirts to a colleague with younger girls who went to the same school and I did wish she had kept one back once I was at university.

Lower 6th bought DD's blouses from H&M. Second year she had a couple from bravissimo sale due to bust size

great ideas here, yes agree it is quite a strict business dress code but she wanted to move school for A levels there and it is not a school to even consider arguing over this.
She has the jackets and a couple of 'not too short or long' skirts from New Look. Found some great shirts that she loves on hawesandcurtis which also gave a 20% discount.

good idea about keeping hold of a white shirt and black skirt, will remember that one.

Can she wear a dress (collar or not) with a suit jacket? I think that will often look smarter than a mismatched 'suit'/easier ti wash than a skirt suit. Possibly more ironing though.

Agree this sort of dress code seems really dated and silly, and pointlessly expensive.
also the sixth form girls at the local private school round here had their skirts so short it didn’t look professional at all

I agree it's ridiculous - most days when in the office I wear jeans, a scoop neck top and a blazer. I'm a senior manager for a large FS organisation. Very few of us wear suits or anything resembling that.

You can buy fake collars on Amazon and wear them under jumpers/ tops. Gives a bit more flexibility in the choices.