Fashions when you were at school

We did the skirt thing and had a 'girdle' which was a woven waist sash (tied like a tie) which helped cover it!

CalendarGirl we also had to kneel to have our skirts checked if they looked too short and there was a piece in the paper the other day about girls up in arms about their school doing it! Mine was a convent school and the nuns were particularly vigilant!

We also wore tan tights with white socks, luckily the school winter hat was dropped the year I started but the summer boater lasted a few more years, horrible itchy things and mine was too small!

Yes no eating in the street, beret with tassel at all times, beetle crusher shoes in winter sandals in summer, white stockings with suspender belts, regulation length uniforms all from one authorized school outfitter, but we were allowed to knit our own navy gloves in 3 ply wool.

In winter we used to wear long underwear beneath our skirt, the fancier the better. It was a hidden statement ? We called them bloomers.

When I was at school Polyveldt’s and Cornish Pasties were the shoes to be seen in with white ankle socks and a blanket coat ?

My senior school (girls’ grammar) was very hot on uniform, no breaches allowed. Even in the 6th form we had to wear hats and the dreaded summer boaters in the street.

A new headmistress when I was 12 or 13 had ‘modernised’ the uniform, but to us it was still ghastly brown, though perhaps a slightly less horrible shade than formerly - more chocolate than a cross between tan and dog poo.

We were almost speechless on being told that the new summer dresses - so very obviously ‘school’ - were nice enough to be worn out of school!
In her dreams!

BigBertha1

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

Baskets were for cookery. But a certain style of tote bag was the thing once we got to sixth form and ditched the satchels. Scholl sandals were allowed which rather meant no one wanted to wear them!!

Had just moved into the sixth form with its own uniform when the new headteacher said we no longer had to wear uniform. Mum was not amused! We were not allowed to wear jeans, although I think cords were allowed and it wasn't denim per se as one of the "trendy" girls had a denim skirt. But there were lots of sessions debating what "jeans" were as coloured dennim was in fashion, so some people wore those (eg pink, plum, browns) and seemed to get away with it.

My dad was devastated when I failed my eleven plus. Reading some of your reminiscences, I think it was just as well, I think I would have really struggled with some of the rules and regulations.
The secondary modern I attended was reasonably easy going, we had good relationships with our teachers on the whole, yes, I had the slipper a few times, but it wasn’t undeserved.
Academically it wasn’t great, which I’m sure all of your grammar schools were, so it was probably worth it, my children all went to schools where uniform was very strict, but it didn’t include gloves or baggy knickers.

Riggie
One of my daughters attended a school where there was no uniform in the sixth form. They weren’t allowed to wear jeans, but they could wear cords, which always seemed to be too long, and dragging on the ground, a pair of jeans would have looked much tidier.
My friends son in sixth form, could wear anything he liked, but it had to include a tie!

Nanna8 we must be a similar age, your memories are just like mine. Tee hee.

The only difference is that we had to wear berets, which were detested - we used to back-comb our hair, lacquer it to death and then pancake the beret flat and use hairgrips to fasten it right at the back - invisible from the front!
If a prefect saw you it meant a detention— so much agonising tearing off and ungripping —— such innocent times!

Any deviation from our uniform was strictly punished by detentions at break and a letter to our parents.

Even socks had to be regulation and stockings somewhere around 20 denier.

Yes, we could roll down our skirt tops and bash our hats about, but my mother was fanatical about making our expensive uniforms last as long as possible.

My parents forbade mini-skirts, bell-bottom jeans or any jeans that had a fly front- decent women, we were told, wore slacks with a zip in the side seam or skirts - knee length.

Later they were to complain bitterly if they caught their daughters bra-less.

When I left home to study, I bought a pair of Levis 501 - I have never loved any article of clothing as much, and I certainly did not take them home for the summer holidays, or the mini-dress I wore with cream coloured tights with a floral pattern up the outer leg. Remember those?

Every item of uniform was specified in the regulations, as were all the rules defining how to wear said items. The only exception was brassieres. Therefore, the variety and splendour of bras on display in the PE changing room was a sight to behold!

Same message with kneeling on a bench to check your skirt wasn’t too short. The deputy head used to watch us going down the corridor and woe betide you if you rolled your skirt up again. Of course we just waited till we were round the corner.
Summer dresses were gathered waists with close fitting tops. They looked dreadful unless you were a size 10 and they were impossible to get in or out of for PE when you were really hot and sweaty in the summer. Blazers, regulation macs -fashionable to fasten the belt at the back.
Oh and the worst part of school? Anyone else have to use communal showers after PE?

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.

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!

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.

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. ?

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 .

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.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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!

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!

Sorry couldn’t get the picture to show

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 !

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.

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.