HOME    SEARCH   ALL TOPICS

Changes in girls' school uniforms, post WW2 onwards

This page is based on experiences of and changes in school uniform at one school in the second half of the 21st Century. Other schools necessarily had different uniforms but the types, fashions and rigidity of enforcement would have been similar. Of interest is how much has changed.

____

By the webmaster, based on personal recollections from Copthall School and contributions from former students from later years of the late 20th Century

The attention paid to school uniform by Copthall County Grammar School when I and later pupils were there was probably typical of the attention paid to it in most British grammar schools. After the more make-shift uniforms of the war years, school uniform was deemed particularly important for outdoor wear because the public saw it and judged the school by it. So we girls were expected to give a good impression. In fact, failure to wear the school beret on a journey to and from school was a common way to get a detention - if of course a teacher happened to spot it.

Where to buy the school unifom

The school outfitter came to the school regularly to take orders for new items. I have no idea where he was based. I seem to recall that our mothers brought cash along. There was if course no such thing as bank transfers and my mother never wrote a cheque until years later after my father died. I understand that in later years, the uniforms could be bought in a specified shop - see below.

Winter uniform

Left: Gabardine mackintosh, known as a mac, worn with typical long socks, Photo courtesy of Marilyn Ormson. Note the long plaits, often known as pigtails, tied up with ribbons which were also typical of the time.

Right: This photo was taken on a school outing of probably unusual weather, as it shows the blouse and tie of the winter uniform worn with a school blazer and school beret.

Coats had to be navy blue gabardine, a tough, tightly woven twill fabric, which was reasonably shower-proof. Such coats - or macs as they were called - were widely popular for children and I seem to remember that the school allowed them to be bought anywhere. The same went for the navy blue gloves, white socks and sensible brown shoes. Scarves and berets, though, had to be bought from the school outfitter because they were unique to the school. The scarves were close knitted navy blue wool with a band of green at each end, sandwiched between narrower bands of white, and the berets had the school badge at the front.

Not quite as much attention seemed to be paid to the uniform that we wore underneath our outdoor clothes, probably because the public didn't normally see it. Everyone wore a navy pinafore dress / tunic, a white blouse and a green tie, but only the tie had to be bought at the official outfitters. It was quite a feature. It was a shiny green, and as there were little or no man-made fabrics, I suppose that it must have been made of silk. What, in my view, rather detracted from the appearance of the indoor uniforms was that the cardigans could come from anywhere as long as they were navy blue. People were still suffering from the austerity of the war years and many of the cardigans were hand-knitted to different patterns in different wool thicknesses and in colours that illustrated the wide range of tints that could just be called navy blue.

Because man-made fibres were yet to come into common use, the pinafore dresses and cardigans were made of wool. Wool, at that time, shrunk when washed. So the pinafore dresses and cardigans had to be sent to the dry cleaners. This was expensive and time-consuming. So it was not uncommon for it to happen three times a year, in the school holidays. Between times, marks were simply sponged off. Fortunately the navy blue didn't easily look grubby, and the underwear and blouses were washed as often then as they would be today.

Girls in the sixth form were allowed to wear navy skirts instead of pinafore dresses, and I rather think that they were also allowed to leave off their berets out of doors, but I am not sure of this.

All clothes had to be marked with the owner's name. The standard way was to sew in Cash's name tapes. There were regular inspections.

Watches were forbidden, but at that time they were very expensive, being clockwork rather than digital. So perhaps the rule was understandable.

Summer uniform

Another thing that rather detracted from the uniformity of the uniform was that the school dresses for summer could be red, blue or green stripe on a white background. They did, though, all have to be the same material and style, which meant that either the dresses themselves or the material for making them had to come from the school outfitter.

My mother, like many mothers in those years of austerity, always made my summer dresses, but it was a difficult task because the required material was moygashel which frayed very badly indeed. Numerous mothers must have complained, as in later years the fabric was changed to a lighter weight cotton. The three colours, though, were still allowed, which did strike me as strange.

On the journeys to and from school, we were encouraged to wear our navy blue school blazers. These showed the school badge on the front pockets. The blazers really did look smart and they were the same on all the girls because they also had to come from the school outfitter. When it was too hot for blazers, though, those non-identical cardigans came out for all to see.

Uniform for games and gym

PE school uniform: a green aertex blouse and navy shorts. Photo courtesy of Sally Lawson (formerly Sally Porte)

For games, we had shirts of the same green as the ties, and - I think - navy blue shorts, which were really more like divided shirts. It is interesting, though, that I don't remember this well, as games was far from being a favourite subject of mine!

For PE/gym we had the same green shirts and navy blue knickers.

School uniform and purses

The school had a strange requirement for where we were to keep our money. It is understandable that money should be kept on our persons, but the means of so doing was rather bizarre. We were supposed to have an elastic belt inside our dresses or tunics and from it suspend our purses on a tape.

When the new first year girls arrived at the school, they were duly kitted out with such purses, as required. However, it didn't last long. Can you imagine having to lift your skirt to get out your money or season ticket on a bus to and from school! So I suppose we just kept our purses in our satchels and hoped for the best. I never knew of any money going missing.

Heavy leather school satchel, worn like a rucksack

I never knew of the purses rule being reinforced. I suppose it was just to cover the school's back if money ever did go missing.

Larger objects than money were carried between home and school in a school satchel. This was rather like a small, but extra wide rucksack, and was worn in the same way. In the early years of my time at Copthall, satchels were made of leather and were very heavy. Later, though, there were lighter ones made of canvas, still of the same shape.

Changes in the school uniform in the 1960s

I am grateful for additional information from Christine Tolton (formerly Christine Culley)

If any of my contemporaries can add further information or correct anything I have misremembered, please get in touch.

sources: early 20th century material      sources: ww2 home front and other material     contact
the webmaster/author/researcher/editor     privacy policy