Fashions when you were at school

They make school skirts now that discourage that practice.
They are made with something about the waistband that makes it very uncomfortable it it's folded over - little spikes or something
We used to wear our ties 'backwards' so that the skinny bit was forefront.
I used to wear band t-shirts under my shirt backwards so that you could see the picture.
My 'uniform' was a disgrace - I took all manner of liberties. I was a wild child in my youth!

Me too, Fanny. They used to give you a detention if you didn’t wear your gloves. White in Summer, navy in winter. Imagine that these days.

For some reason we went through a phase of wearing multi coloured pop socks, I had some orange ones, and some violet ones, I’m not sure how we got away with it!

Black stockings were very ‘in’, to be superseded by black tights.

Our senior mistress made us kneel down to measure how short our skirts were, only so much hemline off the floor was allowed.

She is still alive, well into her 90’s. Don’t know what she makes of the uniforms nowadays.

Same skirt thing for us. We had a thing for baskets instead if school bags and Dr Scholls sandals in summer

Sara1954! Those popsocks...I’d forgotten them! How about the plastic pull-ups that you could wear with shoes to mimic gogo boots.

BigBertha1
Oh yes, the Dr Scholls, they were absolute must haves!
The baskets were those banana shaped ones.
Did we go to the same school?

I remember those gondola baskets! And we all begged to make dirndl skirts in needlework because they were very much the fashion then. Mine was shocking - like everything else I sewed. I was glad to leave and go to college - no uniform and complete sartorial freedom! The only thing that tied us all together was a college scarf.

Our senior mistress used to sit in the front row of seats in the hall and make us parade across the stage which was about 5’ higher. If she could see our knickers we had to lower our skirts. Always thought what a strange thing to do looking up girls skirts??? Wouldn’t happen these days!!

Everything I made in needlework was hideous!
But the sewing teacher was quite cool, and we were allowed to make miniskirts in physcodelic (can’t spell that, sorry!) fabrics.

Shiny patent lace up black shoes. Colourful Indian type rope bags. Long heavy cardigans, I mean almost as long as the skirt underneath.

* which wasn't very long really.

Skirts were only just beginning to get shorter when I was in the sixth form in 1958, so that wasn’t an issue.

I quite liked my school uniform, which was black and white so smarter than some. Didn’t
like the velour hats or summer panamas. Berets were absolutely forbidden.

One of my schools was boarding so you couldn’t get away with any alterations! In any case try rolling up divided skirts .......teamed with short sleeve aertex blouses! Hideous felt hat with a “costume “. For Sunday and speech day etc.

We didn’t have a uniform when I was at school and I hated it. We weren’t well off so couldn’t afford the latest fashions and I stood out. I wouldn’t have been allowed a lot of the fashions of the 70s anyway so a strict uniform would have suited me fine.

We had indoor and outdoor shoes. A velour hat in the winter and a straw hat in the summer, detention if you didn't have it on. No eating in school uniform outside school. Very strict, nothing like these days. A good grammar school though and I was very proud to go there.

Ellianne
Shiny patent lace up black shoes

Tut tut! How could you? ?
I went to a convent school in the 60’s. We were told that it was immoral for a female to wear black patent shoes because they showed the reflection of of our underwear. We were also told that if we were standing on the bus and a man was seated and looking at the reflection it was our fault for causing him to have indecent thoughts.

That was from our form teacher and she wasn’t even one of the nuns.

Much of the above chimes with me, especially the skirt length rule and the summer and winter hats. We also had to have indoor and outdoor shoes and all uniform items could only be bought from one (expensive!) local drapers. The Deputy Head would announce when summer uniform was allowed to be worn!!

In the mid Sixties, we went through a phase of wearing, under our uniforms, sleeveless vests with matching long johns (ended well above the knee) to cover the gap twixt knickers and stocking tops. These were sold in Dorothy Perkins and came in bright designs eg tartan. Despite looking online, I can’t find a picture to illustrate what I mean.

Grannynannywanny

We were in the final years of the secondary modern, most of the best teachers had jumped ship, and I think they just couldn’t be bothered to try and keep us looking smart. I think by the fifth year, my grey pleated skirt had been changed to a black mini skirt, and my white shirt for a white polo neck.

Ashcombe
I know what you mean, I had some red ones and blue ones trimmed with white lace!
What a peculiar fashion!

The school uniform was modernised the year I started secondary school in 1968.

A short, sleeveless black tunic dress with a mustard/gold coloured 'roll neck' to wear underneath!

In the New Year's Honours for 1966, I think Mary Quant got a gong, for services to fashion, presumably. The mini-skirt was about, but not in our school as DW ashcombe has identified. A few years earlier a major step forward in the girls' fashions allowed them to wear pleated skirts - but only in the 6th form, which wasn't very numerous in those days. 6th form boys were allowed to wear a trilby - cool, eh? Both ideas had died out by the time I was in the 6th form in 1964. I still had to wear a cap.

As one who was particularly aware of being at a co-ed school, I suspect that miniskirts could have been a substantial extra distraction. As it was, even when skirts were definitely knee-length, one occasionally saw stocking-tops - and drew breath sharply!

Sar53 could be describing my school uniform at my all girls’ grammar school. We wore a very distinctive brown and gold - easily recognizable around the City. We had to walk through the narrow streets in single file and needed a letter from a parent to get ‘shopping permission and only in a named shop’ from the Headmistress! Most mornings after assembly, she’d read out a short list of names of girls to ‘wait in her study’.
A sign of wrongdoing - as people would let the school know of any incidents which might bring the school into disrepute.
All changed now - sign of the times.