Fashions when you were at school

What this thread proves, is that the idea that uniform makes children look neat and tidy and proud of their school is absolute bunkum.

I have always thought it was. A uniform is an exercise in subversion and manipulating the rules for almost every school child, and most children in uniform you see on the street look like scruffy rapscallions - and I salute them all.

Girl's Grammar School mid-1950s to early 1960s. Berets worn pinned to the back of the head like a pancake/flying saucer. Secondary modern school boys used to snatch our berets off and throw them in the road chanting "Grammar bugs, pull your lugs". Worst thing for me was having to get changed for showers after PE. My mother insisted on me wearing a liberty bodice long after they had been abandoned by everyone else. I hated being seen wearing this ridiculous garment and longed to have a vest like everyone else. I would have been happy if a vest had been a compulsory item of uniform!

We had to wear navy gymslips at least two inches below the knee, no shortening allowed. Also the stockings were called Lisle, hideous things.
At home though I loved my denim skirt teamed with either knee high boots or lacy stockings or tights and kitten heels.
Dresses were either Peter Pan collars and shift type or paisley with a mandarin collar and sleeveless.I had a camel coloured boucle coat with a fake fur collar which I loved.

One thing I do remember when starting senior school) was being the only one in my form (and probably in the whole of the 3-form first year) who didn’t have absolutely everything - including the ‘Mary Jane’ type of indoor shoes - new.
Everything of mine was a hand me down from my sister.

When my dds started senior school, I bought them everything new, even though there was a thriving 2nd hand shop. I didn’t want them being a 2nd hand Rose like me.

2nd hand was fine later, but not at the beginning of the first term.

I did the same with skirt, wore 3 pairs of socks to make them look chunky and then you pushed them down mid shin and took school tie in, so it was really narrow. My friends and I were constantly in trouble with our outfits.

I remember sewing a cravat in about 1968. Who wore them? I've still got it!

We wore dark green tunics, cream shirt and striped gold and green tie. We also wore a green blazer edged with gold and green cord and the school crest on the top pocket. We wore green socks and brown shoes. Green PE shorts had to be 4 inches exactly above the knee when inspected kneeling down!

A few daring rebels in my school used to turn their v neck jumpers back to front under their blazers to hide their ties on the way home from school. It looked like a crew neck jumper and concealed the school tie. Looking back now I wonder why they just didn’t remove the tie ?

A rule I’ve just remembered - we were strictly forbidden to wear our black blazers over non-uniform clothes when out of school.

We had a head mistress who stood at the school gates with a ruler if she thought your skirt was too short,measured it and a detention after school picking up litter in the school grounds.
Making your tie short and stubby and trying to get away with lippy and makeup.

American tan tights and knee length white socks ??

Hush puppies with white laces - I longed for a pair but had to make do with Clarke’s

Once we were out of first year pinafore dresses we could wear the newly designed school uniform. Box pleated skirt ( rolled over ), cream blouse and brown tie, a brown webbing belt with a purse in it and a metal clasp. Many of us tried to get away with wide elasticated brown belt but were soon pulled up.
We had brown blazers and brown gaberdine macs, berets that were replaced by felt boaters- straw boaters in Summer.
Because of the brown uniform and girls school we were known as pupils of The Cow Shed.
Our headmistress ordered a redesign of the Summer uniform and we could choose from a salmon pink dress, a tomato red one, or a yellow one. All had cream lapels and were cinched in with the brown belts. Being rotund I looked awful in the whole shebang. Suitable shoes were another battleground. Hated the lace ups and longed for what we called " casuals" or slip ons.
After beehives and backcombed hair styles the Mary Quant bob came in - and I wore a similar styled for years. I was so proud of the angled points of my hair that just met under my chin. I spent ages trying to achieve " swishy" hair that shone. For once, nature was on my side, and having a lot of fine hair, I managed it.

When I left I had very little money to spare, so replaced the brown buttons on my school gaberdine with gold ones, removed the belt and belt loops and added a colourful scarf, and persuaded myself that no-one would ever know.

White pop socks as they were at least allowed. Roll up a skirt to shorten- no way! Had to be just below knee. Tie tied as per formal method. Shoes definitely black and well polished. The one item allowed to be individual was the bag, duffel bags all the rage then. Have to say all the rules did no harm. We all knew the rules and abided by them knowing there would be consequences if we didn't.

Grammar School 1964 till 1968 here. We wore our straight black mini skirts very short , with school tie , black blazer and school beret which was balanced on the back of our heads so that you couldn’t see it from the front . Felt sorry for the girls at the Catholic girls grammar school round the corner who had to wear pleated skirts that had to touch the floor when kneeling
Poor things !

Sorry couldn’t get the picture to show

This is the school uniform at a convent school near where my grandchildren live in Herts. I cannot believe they are able to get teenage girls to wear it!

We used to wear those frilled starched petticoats under our summer dresses. I remember my Mum used to dip them in starch to make them stiff. Had to wear a normal petticoat underneath because they prickled so much .
Also used to jump on our berets to make them look old and not stand up all round!

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nadateturbe Sounds just like my experiences..except, no beret or scarf Any grey skirt/jumper and white shirt.. which suited my family well, The day I started I did not have the tie or badge, waiting for finances (!!), and lo and behold on the very day, on the way to school I found a Ten Bob Note, I was with my friend who kindly said, No Sharing, get your tie and badge, which I did I had a maroon patent pair of shoes in the 6 week holiday I was in heaven, and had to wear them to school (only pair) but as I wore them all the time, they didn't last long, And Bags could be any style, mine again was hand me downs,this was the item that changed all the time, I was happy with 'last seasons' style
I also had a hand me down gondola/banana basket for cookery, but it was misshapen, I struggled to get casserole dishes in. All the fads of the time, and memories of my longing for them, still remain.

Miniskirts were very fashionable. Our Uniform Summer Dress was a 'shirt-waister' with pressed pleats. Very smart, unless you wear a bit on the 'large side' in the hip area .

From 4th Year Seniors onwards, we were allowed to wear a Box-pleated skirt - no knife pleats - so those were turned over and over at the waistband.

1st, 2nd and 3rd years had to wear 'Gymslips' which couldn't be turned over, some girls could get their mothers to hem them a bit shorter, but most mothers weren't too keen on that idea, so we were stuck with the 'regulation length'.

Black stockings were 'allowed' as long as you couldn't see any 'flesh colour' through them - in other words, they had to be 'jet black' NOT 'sexy black'. IF we wore black stockings, we HAD to wear black school shoes - either 'lace-up', 'slip-on' or 'buckle' - no brown shoes with black stockings! Flesh-coloured stockings (ie American Tan) or ankle socks were allowed with brown shoes.

We also had to wear a Bottle Green Velour Hat with a hatband that showed our 'school badge' and a Bottle Green Gaberdine Mac. Summer Uniform had a Woollen Blazer with the school badge on the breast pocket, so no need for the Velour Hat - but there was a Bottle Green 'Mod-style' Beret for wearing in the summer months.

After reading some of the comments on here, I'm tempted to ask if any of the contributors are from St.Helens ........................ because the memories sound so much like my old school .

I went to Norte Dame Grammar school
In London and we had terracotta dresses in winter and green and white striped dresses in summer and until we reached the sixth form we had to wear white ankle socks. We had to wear hats which had a turn up brim and a large bow on either side. ?

There was a lot of Bowie mania at the secondary school that I went to in the early 70's, and many girls and boys had 'bowie cut' hairstyles.

Reading all these stories the memories have come flooding back!
I vividly remember my first day at the local all girls grammar as I was the only girl out of 120 who was wearing homemade summer uniform which my mother had decided would be perfectly okay for the start of the autumn term!
All the other new girls were wearing the regulation navy blue gymslip with white longsleeved blouses and a maroon and silver diagonally striped tie. We had navy blazers which had to be worn all year round and navy felt hats with a maroon ribbon and a school badge.

When you reached the heady heights of being a fourth year, you were allowed to ditch the gymslip in favour of a plain navy skirt no more than 2inches above the knee. Although I do remember one girl trying to get away with wearing a maxi skirt - she was told, as there were many stairs in our school as it was four stories high, that maxi-skirts were dangerous as we used to trek up and down stairs several times a day changing classrooms.

We had special indoor shoes with crêpe soles which had to be worn and our gym attire was a maroon wraparound skirt with pleats at the back (very nice) which had to be worn over a pair of black sateen cotton gym bloomers (not so nice) and white airtex blouse. The gym uniform had an upgrade a year or so before I started and the older girls, some of whom still had the old gym outfits of grey woolly divided skirt, etc kept telling us how lucky we were to have the new uniform. We thought we were too!

Yes, we had the skirt measuring exercises and would dutifully roll down our skirts in order for them to be measured and then roll them back up again afterwards.

You could be awarded a deportment girdle which was a length of fringed webbing in maroon which tied around the waist of your skirt, also a sports girdle which was grey webbing with a coloured ribbon denoting the sport you had been awarded the girdle for. Any school badges: house, prefect, colours, etc were pinned onto these. Colours were awarded by being promoted into one of the school’s 1st teams. It was seen as a great honour to have been awarded both girdles!

Haven’t RTFT so apologies if this has been covered, but did any of you ladies have to wear those heavy gym knickers for PE lessons ?!! Ours could either be grey or navy blue. I went to a mixed sex school and I remember having to wear them on the school field when playing tennis or netball etc., and being really embarrassed if the boys were about. We weren’t allowed to wear gym skirts until third year - age 13/14 (the skirts were also a needlework lesson project I seem to recall). That would cause outrage now I suppose, but back then nobody batted an eyelid.