Did you ever wish you could wear trousers to school instead of skirts?

silverlining48

Slightly off subject but from today schools cannot force parents to buy uniform from a particular shop. All to do with high cost of uniforms. Interesting to see how that works out.

Is that being introduced from next September, silverlining? DH told me it was on this morning's news.

However, that will probably only apply to England as education is devolved. DGD's uniform is quite strict and mostly purchased from one outlet.

Germanshepherdsmum

When Kali? Certainly not the norm in England when I went to school - 50s and 60s. I think you may be somewhat younger than most of us.

Not in the UK- wearing of uniform is a very Anglo-Saxon thing based on the old Public School system.

glammanana

I never wore trousers to school in fact the shorter my skirt the better much to my mothers horror we used to turn the waistband over at the top during the winter we had really cold knee's & thighs but put up with it all in the cause of the fashion of the 60's.

Exactly the same for me glammanana. When tights came along, I wore black ones and on the first day of wearing them, was called to Deputy Head's office and was told they were not allowed. Ordinary fine tights were OK though!

Like most others never really thought about it at school in the sixties. I do remember at home wearing trousers for women called slacks which had the zip at the side.

Late 60’s the fashion was for Levi’s which were made for men, not women, and consequently had the zip down the front, and also to get the hips fitting right were too big on the waist. I had to go in a men’s outfitters to buy my first and loved pair of Levi cords.

Also early 70’s working as a buyer for the NHS we were not allowed to wear trousers to work. Mid 70’s we were allowed to wear smart trouser suits. Men could wear jeans.

When Kali? Certainly not the norm in England when I went to school - 50s and 60s. I think you may be somewhat younger than most of us.

I did- quite normal in most parts of the world.

I never thought of wearing make up for school either, different days.

No, at the time I never thought about it.
Only teenagers ( girls am talking about) wore jeans at home and that wasn’t until the mid sixties.I didn’t know anyone female of any age that wore trousers.
It certainly would have been warmer though.

Visgir1

And me too... never occurred to me. All girls school late 60's - early 70's I spent more time thinking could I get away with Make up.

And rolling the waistband of your skirt over to make your skirt shorter

And me too... never occurred to me. All girls school late 60's - early 70's I spent more time thinking could I get away with Make up.

Trousers weren't an option in the 50's. My uniform consisted of a vest, liberty bodice, fleecy knickers, long socks, gymslip and a hand knitted cardigan.

It didn't occur to me, although I would have wanted them to be bell bottomed. Fat chance of that my convent school was very hoity toity about school uniform and the implications for the school if pupils were seen out and about without white gloves and straw boaters in the summer so trousers as part of the school uniform would I imagine have them reaching for the smelling salts!

I think it's a very sensible option for girls today, especially when I read about what young women have to put up with, I'm thinking of up skirting

Septimia

Growing up in the 50s and 60s I never even contemplated wearing trousers for school. Women and girls tended to wear them only for outdoorsy activities so, even though I was a tomboy, I mostly wore dresses and skirts except when on camping holidays with family or Guides.

Now I hardly ever wear a skirt or dress, it's generally trousers for me!

I too grew up in the 50/s 60's and wore trousers whenever I could. They weren't permitted at school and for "smart" occasions, skirts were still seen as the right thing. I am cis female but have never worn makeup or wanted to dress "girly"

I don’t remember even contemplating wearing trousers to school - I had Gun Metal tights with knee high white socks over the top to show off ?

Slightly off subject but from today schools cannot force parents to buy uniform from a particular shop. All to do with high cost of uniforms. Interesting to see how that works out.

Trousers started being allowed in my secondary school soon after I started there (early '70s)

I seem to remember that they had to be ordered through the school. That was probably because such girls' trousers (smart black) were not available in shops at that time, whereas the rest of our fairly casual uniform could be bought anywhere and didn't have to be one particular style. Colour was more important, with each school year having a different colour combination that started in the first year with all grey, progressing through red to all black in the last year.

I wouldn't have dreamed of wearing trousers at school because I had heavy periods and was too afraid of a visible leak happening between lessons. Easier to avoid or hide in a skirt!

I did wear trousers to school when I was in 6th form, we had to wear uniform but trousers were one of the options. This was in 1970s, so with hindsight I guess my school was liberal.

There wasn’t a choice in my days. All girls school all wore skirts.

Interesting how times change - when I was going to school in 60s, strict uniform, no trousers. When mine were in secondary school, they had a choice of skirt or trousers, and but all wore trousers, except for occasions like school concert. Now I see the girls from that school wearing skirts mostly - quite short though!

Given the choice when I was in school, I would have worn trousers.

BlueBelle

Never thought about it because no one did
Trousers for girls was never part of the school uniform in 50 s 60 s etc so it never entered my head
In fact I don’t think I wore trousers much in my teens either mini skirts and mini dresses I do remember having some pedal pushers when I was about 16 otherwise trousers were ‘in’ that much

Exactly this!(but unfortunately not the pedal pushers)…

Just noticed that I said, 'in my day'. I thought you had to be very very elderly to say that! Oh dear!

I had no need to wear trousers even when freezing cold. Even in 1970, my school was so old fashioned that we had to wear tunics which were several inches below our knees. There was no way of making them any shorter by rolling over the waistband! Tights were not permitted either, just pristine white socks. My gaberdine coat was equally as long!

In my day, girls very rarely wore trousers, and certainly not to school. Both DGDs had the option to wear either. The elder girl wore trousers and the younger a skirt, although she used to cycle to school. It was sensible to have the option. In the local high school, the uniform for girls is skirts which, once outside the school gate, become little more than pelmets. I wonder what they would choose if given the option.

One of my DD campaigned for girls to be allowed to wear trousers to school, at least in the Sixth form. She and her friends probably made themselves unpopular with the headmaster, but they won.
Their argument was that their education wasn't compulsory after 16, they could have gone to Sixth form college and worn what they wanted. He couldn't argue with that.

I really dislike wearing skirts or dresses.
When I was at school we still had to wear Norah Batty stockings, tights hadn't been invented.

I wore trousers and my brother’s outgrown jeans outside of school all the time, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to wear them to school. School uniform wasn’t ‘my’ clothing. I was a proper tomboy as I wanted to be in on whatever my brothers did, but I didn’t want to be a boy.