Fashions when you were at school

I rolled my skirt over to make it shorter too, but one mistress stopped me in a corridor and told me I didn't have the legs for it!
School uniform in the Summer was particularly unflattering. Seersucker gingham shirt waister dresses with full skirt and puffed sleeves- Straw hat and ugly regulation sandals

In Summer we would wear a loose fitting navy and white Ditsy print dress, with just a Bra and pants undernieth, and we were supposed to make it ourselves in Needlework. I cheated and my Mum made mine for me, but it was all baggy and was like a Maternity dress, and really chilly on a cool spring morning!

Just had a sudden flash of memory of some low waisted bright orange corduroy flares I used to wear. I loved them. It would have been around 1966 probably. Good grief, wish I had that figure now, must have been a size 8.

Some of your schools sound very posh indeed.
I went to a secondary school with a grammar stream ( now called comprehensive ) in the sixties.
We could buy our uniform anywear except for the tie badge beret and scarf. Which meant some like me wore really cheap things which didn't wear well.
We only had to wear our beret on special occasions like a trip to the theatre and I loved wearing it.
I remember being told off for wearing shoes that had a zip and a ringpull instead of laces.
We had a phase when we wore our tie just folded over instead of knotted - a mod style.
We could wear duffle coats instead of gaberdines and granny shoes - broad higher heels and semi pointed toes. I had neither of these things - too poor.
I hated non uniform days.

The nuns that ran my alma mater designed the uniform with purity in mind.
Even the hockey shorts were a short/skirt thing that went down to your knees.

We had a girl in the 6th form that was drop dead gorgeous....until she put on the uniform.

There was nothing that could be done to make it look remotely
fashionable.
I’m sure my mother chose the school for uniform,

Fawn socks, big navy knickers a pinafore dress that made Jane Eyres look like Vivienne Westwood had designed it and a revolting shapeless camel coat.

There were strict guidelines on hairstyles too.
The only way we could rebel was by plucking our eyebrows.

nanna8

We used to roll our skirts over and over at the waist to make them shorter, shape our velour school hats so they looked a bit like what the Anzacs wore and wear wedge points in our school shoes. Era of miniskirts of course. I used to wear crop tops showing my stomach - gawd, wouldn’t do that these days unless you want to see a flabby roll!

Same here with rolling the skirts over. If we were appearing at a school function in the choir for instance, the deputy head (female) would come and line us up and inspect the length of our skirts - as soon as she had gone, skirts rolled up again! I don't recall ever getting into trouble for doing it.
We had berets that were worn on the first day in the first year and then never again.
At least my uniform was a dark blue, my sister's at the grammar school was green, with green knickers (ugh).

When I went into the sixth form we didn't need to wear the uniform but we didn't have much money in my family so I had 2 pinafore dresses and 2 blouses so I had a total of 4 outfits and had just to wear them for a whole year.

Ifind it quite funny that school skirts are tucked up to make them shorter. When I went to Grammar School back in the early1950's, it was the total opposite. Fashion decreed longer and longer skirts (after the war years), so at the beginning of each term we all had to kneel on the floor and a Mistress went along measuring that our skirts were AT LEAST 3 inches above the knee!!!! We HAD to wear them short!!!

When I say skirts - it should be in inverted commas, as until we 6th form they were those horrible, shapeless pinafore type dresses. Box pleated from just above the bust area to hang down and then tied in the middle like a sack!!!

We all rolled our skirts up, wore wedge shoes, and if we could get away with it earings. In our School it was against the rules to wear earings, so we wore studs or sleepers.

Straw boaters in the summer and felt hats in the winter. My school was very strict on the uniform and you daren’t flaunt the rules! Couldn’t leave the school premises until home time and then strictly monitored by staff. No popping into town at lunchtime to go to Greg’s (other bakers are available!!!!) and eating walking through the town as they do these days.

We didn’t have a lot of money, and my mum got her cousin to run me up a couple of blue striped shirtwaisters for my first summer term. On the first day, I tore a big jagged rip on a sharp piece of metal on my desk, I was in so much trouble!

My girls’ grammar school had the most hideous uniform whose only virtue was that nobody looked nice in it. Depending on which of the two school outfitters you went to it was either cinnamon brown or diarrhoea coloured so we did not even all look alike. Tunics for the lower school, skirts for the sixth form, felt or straw pudding basin hats and of course ties. I still can’t wear anything any shade of brown. A new head changed the uniform to brown tweed skirts and brown blazers which was an improvement but a bit late for me.

And still it goes on! 14 year old, 6'3" DGS has grown like a weed during the pandemic and cannot squeeze into his, hardly worn uniform. Unfortunately, his Academy has a new Headmaster who is a stickler for full uniform, has decreed that normal rules apply and all pupils must wear full uniform or face penalties. DD has written to him asking for a relaxation of rules for this term because a) clothes bought now will be too small come September and b) the specialist supplier has collapsed during the pandemic and c) the fact that the usual "Uniform Exchange" will not operate until September.

He replied at length, (ignoring the financial burden this would place on parents and the difficulties in trying to acquire Uniform) only stressing the need for Uniform to unite the school and to "prepare pupils for the world of work"!!! DD has replied asking which spheres of work nowadays, require staff/workers to wear a collar, tie and blazer, and, in the case of girls a skirt?

Meanwhile, DGS is hoping for good weather as he is planning to wear shirt & tie and carry his too wee blazer, claiming he is too hot.

Granny23 - many years ago, when my children were in their early teens, so around mid-to late 1980's, a parents meeting was held at their local Secondary School to discuss 'School Uniforms.'

This was held in the evening so people could go after work. I tried so hard to get rid of the silly tie (especially for the girls) This school had become well known for how low the tie knot eas in place!!!

I find the idea of tying a length of material around ones neck, stupid to say the least. At one point, when many of the parents attending were saying how smark it COULD look (if tied properly) , and that silly comment about 'preparation for world of work', I asked if all the Mums in the audiance who (many having come direct from theri places of work) who were wearing a tie would stand up. Not a single person did!!!

I still lost that and the girls were subject to wearing a tie.

It goes on. DGD1 at a mixed grammar school is still wearing a tie in the sixth form.

I wore Knee socks until I was nearly 19 when I left school. Berets were worn at all times even transport. Worst we had to kneel on the Gym floor to prove our skirt shorts were long enough then hang on the wall bars to prove we had navy knickers on. I remember the glee when someone produced a pair with a pocket. Those shorts!! pulled every high jump bar or hurdle over and we campaign for neat short summer shorts like other schools
We all tried to get rid of our vests and woe betide anyone who turned up in a liberty bodice derision from all.

nanna8 Must have been 1959/1960 I think. We used to wear pleated skirts with very full net petticoats underneath. The fullness almost obliterated the pleats!! And do you remember dipping paper nylon underskirts in sugar water to make them more stiff?

My summer dress...worn until I was 16 had curtsy flaps, we wore boaters in the summer and white gloves, grey felt bowlers in the winter and grey gloves..shiver.....

we used to have to kneel on the corridor floor and if your skirt didn't touch the floor you sent home to change!

I went to a posh girls school in South Africa. Our gymslips had to be 6 inches above the knee and prefects went around measuring them with a ruler. If they were longer we had to shorten them. I suppose we had short skirts because long ones were worn by actual women. But it was hell getting on the school bus which was shared with the boys school, as the boys stood waiting for us to go upstairs to the top floor and they could see up our skirts.

The flat shoes with the circular bobble to fasten. What were they called?

Coloured Jeans with white stripes up the side, white ruffle blouses. At school in the 80s. Flares were going out if fashion in favour of ‘straights’.

Your school bag always had to be big enough to put your boater in. This was to be worn at all times - even in the pouring rain, and often by year 5 had a hole in the front where they'd been banged onto the cloakroom peg. It was never worth buying another as we didn't have to wear uniform in the sixth form. One girl had the crown of hers completely separate and put it in a plastic bag on the top of her head when it rained.

We had to have white gloves for summer but they lived in the bottom of our satchels in case we had uniform inspection- 30 pairs of dirty gloves on parade. Our gym outfit was the worst thing ever - stiff pink knickers with a matching tunic top which were supposed to touch our calves when we knelt down. We used to split them up to the elasticated waist to get over gym equipment. No one ever got a second set, so you can imagine how they looked by the time we were 16. Eventually they were replaced with navy divided skirt and an aertex top.

Rolling our skirts over was the most popular thing to do! Summer and winter hats... Ugh, I wish I hadn't remember them!

I was lucky, in that my school allowed certain liberties with uniform, especially in the 6th form. We could wear any style of white blouse or shirt, as long as it had a a collar and sleeves of some sort. Any style or length of skirt- grey in winter and any plain colour in summer. Any colour jumper or cardigan, and any style of black or brown shoe, except thin stiletto heels which would damage flooring! Discreet makeup.