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ExplainWhy dress alike?
Wearing a school uniform helps kids feel equal, as though they’re part of a team. Do you think wearing the same clothes makes it easier to learn?
Some schools have rules like no sunglasses, hats, or hoodies to keep students safe and focused. Does your school have rules like that? Why do you think it has them?
Some schools make rules for what clothes to wear based on beliefs and culture, or use special gym clothes so that everyone can join in. What dress codes does your school have?
Learning how to dress for school
Getting dressed at school is more fun and easier when we help each other!
The picture here shows older kids helping younger ones. They’re helping them put on jackets and tie their shoelaces. It's great teamwork and makes getting ready much quicker and more fun for everyone!
School memories
Have you ever wondered what kids wore to school a long time ago? School photos can show us! Kids used to wear their nicest clothes, like uniforms or special outfits. They looked neat and fancy, or sometimes practical and casual.
Blue coat or blue screens?
This painting shows Constant Lambert in a “blue coat” uniform as a student at Christ's Hospital School in London. He later became famous for his new and creative ideas in British music and dance in the 1900s.
Meet Anna in the year 2100, three generations from now! Her pink suit has a blue screen, smart textiles, and tech gadgets! What do you think her school day will be like?
Boys in skirts?
These boys wore skirts to school during a heat wave in 2017 because their school didn’t allow them to wear shorts.
Lewis, a five-year-old boy, was sent home for having blue hair. Can you style your hair as you like at your school?
Every November, kids in the UK wear odd socks on Odd Socks Day to say no to bullies and support diversity. Have you tried it?
I have always loved fashion since I was a kid and customized my school uniforms.
Victoria Beckham, British fashion designer and former pop-singer (Spice girl), born 1974
Uniforms inspire!
In 1926, fashion designer Coco Chanel based the design of her famous “little black dress” on the school uniform she wore to boarding school in France.
Modern designers from Ralph Lauren to Miuccia Prada to Thom Brown also find inspiration in school uniforms for their stylish fashion designs.
Tell Me: Kids Talk About Clothes
"Tell me" (1 and 2) is a project that lets kids ages 6 and 8 from Scotland, France, and China share their thoughts about clothes. They use pictures and stories to show how they feel about what they and their friends wear to school. The project is run by kids and helps us understand how they interact with clothes.
Talking about school clothes
In the "Tell Me" project, kids from France, the UK and China shared stories and did drawings of their favorite school clothes. Even though they spoke different languages and came from different cultures, it helped them understand and talk to each other.
In partnership with
EngageDifficulty
Easy
Want to know more?
Bibliography
HISTORY OF (SCHOOL) UNIFORMS
Coutant, N., & Le Guennec, A. (Eds.). (2023). S’habiller pour l’ecole. Reseau Canope.
Davidson, A. (1990). Blazers, badges and boaters: A pictorial history of school uniform. Horndean, U.K: Scope.
Hong-Kong Museum of Education (2018): Hong Kong School Uniforms Past and Present. Exhibition booklet. schooluniforms_booklet.pdf (eduhk.hk)
Kobayashi, A. (2019). From state uniform to fashion: Japanese adoption of western clothing since the late nineteenth century. International Journal of Fashion Studies, 6(2), 201+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A604697535/AONE?u=anon~a6450b5&sid=googleScholar&xid=7a608570
Namba, T. (2018). School uniform reforms in modern Japan. In Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia (pp. 91-113). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97199-5_5
Stephenson, K. (2021). A Cultural History of School Uniforms. University of Exeter Press.
Stephenson, K. (2016). "It's not for the sake of a ribboned coat": A history of British school uniform. 10177230) [Doctoral dissertation, University of York. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
SCHOOL UNIFORM COSTS AND AFFORDABILITY
Bennett, T., Savage, M., Silva, E. B., Warde, A., Gayo-Cal, M., & Wright, D. (2008). Culture, Class, Distinction (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203930571
University of Aberdeen. (n.d.). School uniforms, dress codes and appearance policies. Retrieved from https://www.abdn.ac.uk/education/research/school-uniform-dress-code-and-appearance-policies-1957.phpShanks, R., &
McKinney, S. J. (2022). School uniform and child poverty. Scottish Educational Review, 54, 26–48. doi:10.1163/27730840-54010003
Shanks, R., Ovington, J., Cross, B., & Carnarvon, A. (Eds.). (2023). School uniforms: New Materialist Perspectives [E-book]. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32939-5
EDUCATING BOYS AND GIRLS (CO-EDUCATION)
Comfort, L. K. (1992). Learning Together: The History of Coeducation in American Public Schools. By David Tyack and Elisabeth Hansot. New Haven: Yale University Press and Russell Sage Foundation, 1990. 369p. $28.50. The American Political Science Review, 86(2), 548–549. https://doi.org/10.2307/1964291
Hammaker, J. M. (1995). Learning together: A history of coeducation in american schools. Economics of Education Review, 14(1), 98–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7757(95)90114-0
Hans-Ulrich Grunder (2012) Primarschule, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS), Version vom 14.06.2012. Online: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/010402/2012-06-14/, konsultiert am 23.07.2024.
DRESS CODES
Balet, C. (2006). Identity : [dress codes in European schools, London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Milan, January 2004 - April 2006]. Steidl.
Brut Media. (2023). Tour du monde des tenues autorisées à l’école [Video]. https://brut.media/fr/news/tour-du-monde-des-tenues-autorisees-a-l-ecole-2c2f827a-ac14-457f-85da-1ed1073debb0
Craik, J. (2005). Uniforms exposed: from conformity to transgression / Jennifer Craik. (English ed.). Oxford ; Berg.
Exactitudes. (n.d.). Uniforms and dress codes: The photographers of Exactitudes explore the dress codes in European cities [Photographs]. Retrieved from https://exactitudes.com/
Ford, R. T. (2021). Dress codes : how the laws of fashion made history (First Simon&Schuster hardcover edition). Simon & Schuster.
Friedrich, J., & Shanks, R. (2023). “The prison of the body”: school uniforms between discipline and governmentality. Discourse (Abingdon, England), 44(1), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2021.1931813
Godson, L., & Tynan, J. (Eds.). (2019). Uniform : clothing and discipline in the modern world / edited by Jane Tynan and Lisa Godson. (First edition.). London ; Bloomsbury Visual Arts. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350045583
Quay, J. (2015). Understanding life in school : from academic classroom to outdoor education. Palgrave Macmillan.
CHILDREN’S FASHION ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY
Le Guennec, A. “Children Fashion - socialization and education through clothing”, in Manlow, V. et al. (eds.) (2021). The Companion to Fashion Studies, Routledge.
Richmond, V. (2013). Clothing the poor in nineteenth-century England / Vivienne Richmond. [electronic resource]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rose, C. (2011). “Continuity and change in children’s clothing, 1885-1920”, in Textile history, 2-42, p. 146
Rose, C. (2016). “Making, selling and wearing boy’s clothes in late-Victorian England, Routledge.
Richmond, V. (2013). Clothing the poor in nineteenth-century England / Vivienne Richmond. [electronic resource]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CHILDREN’S VOICES AND CREATIVITY
Designing for Children’s Rights Scotland (2020): Tell Me – What is it. Tell Me_Whatisit.pptx (wordpress.com)
Designing for Children's Rights (wordpress.com)
Designing for Children’s Rights Scotland (2023/24): Tell Me 2 – France-China. Virtual exhibition: Designing for Children's Rights (wordpress.com)
Le Guennec, A., Hartmann-Bragard, A.-C., & Barbu, L. (2024). Children and fashion: Learning through clothes [Audio podcast episode]. In Designing for Children’s Best, by Designing for Children’s Rights. Retrieved from https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/children-and-fashion-learning-through-clothes/id1682238365?i=1000641416456
Le Guennec, A. (2022). Playing through clothes: Clothes as a creative tool in the school environment. BUKS, 66.
Le Guennec, A. (2020). Children at play: Acting, embedding, aspiring. British Academy. Retrieved from https://medium.com/reframing-childhood-past-and-present/playing-dress-up-or-being-dressed-up-2126616ec13
Le Guennec, A. (2020). Children, school and dress code: Towards post-pandemic reflections on children’s clothing behavior. Young Academy of Scotland. Retrieved from https://www.youngacademyofscotland.org.uk/blog/children-school-and-dress-code-towards-post-pandemic-reflections-on-childrens-clothing-behaviour/
GENDERED CLOTHING
Lifshitz, S. (2020), Little girl, documentary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWRbzD_gXD0
Spencer, S. (2007). A Uniform Identity: Schoolgirl Snapshots and the Spoken Visual. History of Education, 36(2), 227–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/00467600601171468
Learning objectives
Based on Curriculum 21, German-speaking Switzerland, 2024.
The students …
NMG.9.2 for 9+
2 e) Compare past and the present. What’s stayed the same? What’s changed? (e.g. children's living environments, housing, gender relations, history of and changes in schooling)
NMG 11.3 for 9+
e) Compare the values and norms of different generations and cultures (e.g., priority of obedience, importance of material things, leisure preferences, social differences).
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