School Uniform 'Improvements'

What customisation did you do on your school uniform?

Wearing the tie back to front (ie thin bit showing, pointy bit hidden inside shirt) was de rigeur. You NEVER did your top button up. Everyone, except for the boffins, had Sta-Press trousers, but Fred Perry jumpers usually got you a detention. 8 hole DM's were a definite no-no.

Can't really remember what the girls got away with. Ra-ra skirts and fishnet tights probably.

shirt out, socks down and the girls had really short skirts.

You were no-one if you didn`t wear some of the following around the mid eighties as uniform,

Lyle & Scott jumpers (making a comeback now!)

Farah trousers

Ben Sherman shirts

Pod,Kickers or if you were really cool Adidas shoes.

Kappa,or Nike windbreakers.

Adidas Wimbeldon,Forest Hills or Kick (for the girls) trainers

and those sand coloured ruck sacks from Army & Navy that you could cover in graffiti.

slaz or pring maroon v neck jumper.

grey pegs.

adidas jacket or bubble coat

navy blue pod (originals, not todays moon boots).

A lot of this is bringing back joyous/nightmarish 80s flashbacks. Do seem to recall a brief stage aged 11/12 where it was obligatory to wear your tie around your head playing football at break in homage to everyone's favourite Vietnam veteran, Mr John Rambo.

It made sense at the time. Honest.

steveone wrote: You were no-one if you didn`t wear some of the following around the mid eighties as uniform,

Lyle & Scott jumpers (making a comeback now!)

Farah trousers

Ben Sherman shirts

Pod,Kickers or if you were really cool Adidas shoes.

Kappa,or Nike windbreakers.

Adidas Wimbeldon,Forest Hills or Kick (for the girls) trainers

and those sand coloured ruck sacks from Army & Navy that you could cover in graffiti.

My school was really strict on 'logos' - we were even supposed to wear plain trainers / football boots for PE. You could only get away with a Fred Perry or Fila polo shirt as uniform so long as you never took your jumper off.

Regarding ties, there was a brief fad of seeing who could get the biggest kipper. An ENORMOUS knot with the bottom two inches of the tie sticking out was about the limit.

Kept my army surplus bag for ages after I left, complete with New Order button badges - I also had one of those tight fitting military jackets with the short body.

Old Bluieighties as uniform,e wrote:

Regarding ties, there was a brief fad of seeing who could get the biggest kipper. An ENORMOUS knot with the bottom two inches of the tie sticking out was about the limit.

I remember a similar fad... Caused by the fact that if you 'forgot' your tie you were given a huge garish tie by the teachers, with the aim of shaming you into wearing your proper one only it backfired spectacularly with kids raiding their dad's wardrobe to compete.....

Old Blue wrote: Everyone, except for the boffins, had Sta-Press trousers

Confused.

Being a rocket scientist, does this mean you did or did not sport the Sta-Press?

All I can add is I was once thrown out of school for having my trousers tapered too far in at the lower leg. New Wave/Futurism was the go at the time and the chicks dug the trou.

:\pimp3:

Did a year of international school in Singapore and managed to blag some classic Nike Daybreaks as my compulsory 'brown school shoes'.

:\pimp3:

depthcharge wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Everyone, except for the boffins, had Sta-Press trousers

Confused.

Being a rocket scientist, does this mean you did or did not sport the Sta-Press?

All I can add is I was once thrown out of school for having my trousers tapered too far in at the lower leg. New Wave/Futurism was the go at the time and the chicks dug the trou.

:\pimp3:

trousers smousers. you must have went to a posh school near Claremont.

hard yakka grey shorts and trainees(or desert boots) for the north of the river rest.

J.A.K wrote: trousers smousers. you must have went to a posh school near Claremont.

hard yakka grey shorts and trainees(or desert boots) for the north of the river rest.

Heh! Too true. And Adidas Rome were the favoured sneak out in the 'burbs. Later the Dunlop KT-26.

I did secondary school in three countries and two states so didn't know what was going on most of the time.

:\pimp3:

depthcharge wrote:

J.A.K wrote: trousers smousers. you must have went to a posh school near Claremont.

hard yakka grey shorts and trainees(or desert boots) for the north of the river rest.

Heh! Too true. And Adidas Rome were the favoured sneak out in the 'burbs. Later the Dunlop KT-26.

I did secondary school in three countries and two states so didn't know what was going on most of the time.

:\pimp3:

the KT-26. hard wearing. lasted for ever.

you a bogan then?? thought only bogans wore Rome. probably the worst trainees i have ever seen. you couldn't get them in Europe. thank god!

depthcharge wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Everyone, except for the boffins, had Sta-Press trousers

Confused.

Being a rocket scientist, does this mean you did or did not sport the Sta-Press?

All I can add is I was once thrown out of school for having my trousers tapered too far in at the lower leg. New Wave/Futurism was the go at the time and the chicks dug the trou.

:\pimp3:

Developed late as it happened. Up until mid fourth year it was regular troos that had been taken in, sometimes very unprofessionally. When I did finally get a pair, I fell off my bike on the first day I wore them and put a huge rip in the left knee. Had to raid my Post Office account and secretly replace them for fear of being grounded.

J.A.K wrote: you a bogan then?? thought only bogans wore Rome. probably the worst trainees i have ever seen. you couldn't get them in Europe. thank god!

Bogan shmogan! Couldn't stand the Romes either. Used to stick with Puma until my first pair of Nike Waffle Racers.

Sounds like you were here way back when?

:\pimp3:

early 90's.

lived by Joondalup golf course, Pomsville, W.A.

Little Britain up there. Didn't play for the bloody Kingsley Lions as well did you? ;)

:\pimp3:

One boy at school cut the fingers off loads of pairs of orange rubber gloves and stuck them all over a waiscoat. He looked like a chicken.

Actually, that might not have been school. Might have been Flesh at the Hacienda. Looked good anyway

I wore pod shoes or kickers. We weren't allowed to wear trousers, so I wore two pairs of socks, the bottom pulled up to either knee or thigh and the top pair pushed down! I also used to roll my skirt up!! I cringe just thinking about it.

Our school tie had thin red, yellow and green diagonal stripes on it and we used to spend hours picking out the middle stripe with a compass!

Also, some of my mates used to have their jackets hanging half down their backs, I drew the line at that.

(Why did everybody cover their books in wallpaper?)

Missy Jem wrote:

Our school tie had thin red, yellow and green diagonal stripes on it and we used to spend hours picking out the middle stripe with a compass!

That's what we did, but I couldn't be arsed typing it all in

thankfully I never had such problems as we don't have uniforms here :)

I made some improvements to Bonz's Ceremony T-shirt on Friday, it looked cool!

Were you sick on it?

How could I forget about Addidas Romes and KT26s.

Black, white and blue Fred Perry polo's and black and grey FP jumpers, Slazenger jumpers, Adidas 'Scully' windbreaker, army camouflauge jacket and managed to get away with wearing white Nike Tennis Classic trainers and my older brother's faded Wrangler denim jacket for a while. (complete with PC+L badge)

So it's true then that every English person goes to a private school where they make you wear a goofy uniform? And here I thought that was all just in the movies.

yours sincerely,

a product of the American public school system :barf:

J.A.K wrote: slaz or pring maroon v neck jumper.

grey pegs.

adidas jacket or bubble coat

navy blue pod (originals, not todays moon boots).

you're from the later part of he eighties.

It was Adidas samba, split sided farah kecks, slazenger jumper fred perry polo with tie and stanley knife in the bag.

By the way I know where Fred Perry's old house is if you're short of an hour to kill.

Cheers

In 1990/1991, Troop, SPX and BK were a sign of the upper echelons of the playground hierarchy, you had to be well `ard to wear any of the (in retrospect) fucking grim taste shit! And so lads of such status had discovered a cool new (highly flammable and blim burnable) alternative to the blazer.

About 2 years ago i came across a shoe shop in Nottingham that had quite a lot of said labels` shoes for sale, mind that was around the time that GLC took off and many went to the gigs blinged up, so perhaps it was just a temporary niche.

Let me tell you the tale of a poor boy Who was sent far away from his home To fight for his king and his country And also the old folks at home

So They put him in a higher divsion Sent him off to a far foreign land Where the flies fly around in their thousands and there's nothing to see but the sand

Post your school pictures in uniform!

His Holiness, The Pope wrote: So it's true then that every English person goes to a private school where they make you wear a goofy uniform? And here I thought that was all just in the movies.

yours sincerely,

a product of the American public school system :barf:

Heh. Same here, dunno if you could call the "Dazed And Confused" look a style though.

When I was in middle school, I attended a magnet school that required uniforms. The uniforms aren't prescribed. However, I remember some students having a "class/materialism war" over who had the best brands of clothes and shoes. Go figure. My middle school education was the best out of the rest of my public school years. Heck, forget about the uniforms, I wish I could relive the memories...

In Japan, tons of school kids do things to their uniform. I go to a university right now, with no uniforms, but I used to shorten my skirts, tie the ribbon on my uniform much shorter than what the school tells you to, and so forth. There were a certain type of leg-warmer esque socks that were popular at the time, but our school forbade those socks, so us girls would wear those socks straight, instead of slouched. Then, after school, we would scrunch them down like leg warmers.

Other things I did against the school rules were: I got my ears pierced (Universities allow piercings, not other schools). I had long nails (long nails were prohibited). I painted my toenails (technically, you weren't supposed to do that either, even though teachers couldn't see your toenails). I occasionally wore clear nail varnish on my nails, and a little bit of makeup. (Japanese high schools and under forbid any kind of makeup.)

This was not a independent school; just an average school.

leather_girl wrote: In Japan, tons of school kids do things to their uniform. I go to a university right now, with no uniforms, but I used to shorten my skirts, tie the ribbon on my uniform much shorter than what the school tells you to, and so forth. There were a certain type of leg-warmer esque socks that were popular at the time, but our school forbade those socks, so us girls would wear those socks straight, instead of slouched. Then, after school, we would scrunch them down like leg warmers.

Other things I did against the school rules were: I got my ears pierced (Universities allow piercings, not other schools). I had long nails (long nails were prohibited). I painted my toenails (technically, you weren't supposed to do that either, even though teachers couldn't see your toenails). I occasionally wore clear nail varnish on my nails, and a little bit of makeup. (Japanese high schools and under forbid any kind of makeup.)

This was not a independent school; just an average school.

Ever tailor your jacket?

My wife always talks about what big deal it was to shorten it and make it tighter.

EdelBrock wrote:

leather_girl wrote: In Japan, tons of school kids do things to their uniform. I go to a university right now, with no uniforms, but I used to shorten my skirts, tie the ribbon on my uniform much shorter than what the school tells you to, and so forth. There were a certain type of leg-warmer esque socks that were popular at the time, but our school forbade those socks, so us girls would wear those socks straight, instead of slouched. Then, after school, we would scrunch them down like leg warmers.

Other things I did against the school rules were: I got my ears pierced (Universities allow piercings, not other schools). I had long nails (long nails were prohibited). I painted my toenails (technically, you weren't supposed to do that either, even though teachers couldn't see your toenails). I occasionally wore clear nail varnish on my nails, and a little bit of makeup. (Japanese high schools and under forbid any kind of makeup.)

This was not a independent school; just an average school.

Ever tailor your jacket?

My wife always talks about what big deal it was to shorten it and make it tighter.

We couldn't exactly tailor our jacket...it was practically impossible to re-tailor it, and I presume it would be ruined if we tried to re-sew it or something. But on the other hand, back in the 1980s in Japan, it was popular for schoolgirls to have longer skirts for their uniform. People back then would wear skirts that wear significantly longer than the skirts the school told them to wear. Since the 1990s, shorter skirts on school uniforms has been popular in Japan, even though many schools dislike it. (Actually, I don't understand the fuss the schools make over these things.)

SiLeakHunt wrote: Let me tell you the tale of a poor boy Who was sent far away from his home To fight for his king and his country And also the old folks at home

So They put him in a higher divsion Sent him off to a far foreign land Where the flies fly around in their thousands and there's nothing to see but the sand

now the battle it started next morning... blah blah what's Poor Scouser Tommy got to do with School Uniforms?

Missy Jem wrote: I wore pod shoes or kickers. We weren't allowed to wear trousers, so I wore two pairs of socks, the bottom pulled up to either knee or thigh and the top pair pushed down! I also used to roll my skirt up!! I cringe just thinking about it.

We used to roll our skirts up an'all but usually went for the bare legged look rather than socks. Also used to tuck my tie in to the very top button hole of my blouse so that you could only see the knot.

Looked a right state but thought I looked great at the time