Comments on: Dress Codes and Etiquette, Part 1: What Not to Wear to High School in the 1960s

By: Judith

Judith — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:33:44 +0000

Catholic High School- 1956-1960. Horrid knee length maroon uniform with white nylon blouse,worn with a full slip to preserve our modesty. We had to wear stockings- panty hose not yet invented. As one of eight children with not much money, I would run out of ‘nylons’ and draw a fake seam line up the back of my leg. Sister always checked and I was busted. There was also the ‘no patent leather shoes’ rule, because the boys could look up your skirt. I think I spent more time trying to get around the rules than I did studying.

By: Kerene

Kerene — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:55:01 +0000

I remember it wasn’t until the last part of my freshman year in High School (1968) that girls could wear pants that zipped in the front (boys pants!!) Up to then, your pants had to zip on the side ot back. I remeber too, having to kneel and if your skirt hem didn’t touch the ground, you were sent home. But then by my junior year, we could wear “hot pants”, though ours were far longer than the shorts a lot of teens wear now.

By: RT

RT — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:39:05 +0000

I’m American, but my family lived in the West Indies (on the island of St Vincent) in the late 1970′s. My sisters and I attended a girls’ Catholic school where we had to dress in uniforms: pleated dark-bluish-gray skirt about halfway between ankles and knees, short-sleeved white blouse (tucked in), white socks, and white or black shoes. We had to wear our hair pulled back or put up in some way, and were strictly limited on the color of hair trims that we could wear; I got in trouble once for wearing blue hair clips instead of ones in white or black. I also got in trouble for not wearing my patent-leather belt sometimes, and for not keeping my blouse tucked in as neatly as I was supposed to.

By: S

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:54:16 +0000

Four additions for those who attended Catholic all-girl HS in the late 60′s, early 70′s

1) The jewerly restriction of women’s jewerly only was lifted the year before I began – before that, you could not wear your BF’s class ring (resized through the heavy use of bright yarn).

2) My HS included girls from working class neighborhoods (like mine) up to the high income neighborhoods. The blouse and shoes were limited by color and style but these items could be purchased anywhere. Even though we wore the same uniforms (wool blazers and pleated skirts), you can see very subtle difference in the quality of blouses and shoes. My stuff was from Sears, the rich girls, Marshall Fields.

3) Because we wore blazers, my skill in ironing only the front the blouse came in very handy once I entered the work force.

4) To avoid having your hemmed undoned because you failed skirt inspection, once we left the campus, we would raise our skirts above our knees by rolling up the fabric around our waistbands.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:48:51 +0000

My middle school (late 90s) decided one summer to institute a rule for the following school year that all shoes must be 95% black, brown, or blue (the extra 5% was leeway for a logo). So I went out and got a lovely pair of baby blue and silver Skechers, the kind with elastic laces. When I got to school, I got in trouble because they were not “the right blue”. As a sassy 7th grader, I told them that they’d just said blue, not specified any particular blue. They threatened to call my mom (I said go ahead!) and they did. They told her that Your Daughter is wearing the wrong color shoes, and she said, “But they’re blue, right? What’s the problem? I just spent $40 on those, I’m not buying any others. You said blue was ok.”
Problem solved.

By: MPH

MPH — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:16:24 +0000

Only time I (intentionally) violated the dress code was at a catholic high school I was trying to get kicked out of. I wore a bootleg t-shirt depicting jesus on the cross recieving oral sex from a nude, kneeling woman. There was no nudity, as the image was angled just so, but the message was clear. I also didn’t tuck it in. This was in 1993.

By: Nicole G.

Nicole G. — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:35:23 +0000

My elementary school uniform code was rather stricter. What I remember:
Girls: White shirt with a peter pan collar; green plaid pinafore dress over the the blouse (knee-length) or green plaid skirt (knee-length), only from the school outfitter (I discovered the second bit when we had ‘tag inspection’ and they discovered mine was an identical one from a less expensive school uniform supply shop); black or brown dress shoes without laces, no saddle shoes allowed; white or hunter green knee socks or white or hunter green tights; white or hunter green cardigan with school insignia allowed November to February; Khaki skorts with school insignia allowed after May 1st; hair tie but be green plaid, hunter green, white, or match hair colour; no wide headbands or bandanas; knee-length black skirt for concerts
Boys: Khaki pants with school insignia; white oxford shirt (long-sleeved until May); khaki shorts with school insignia allowed after May 1st (one boy wore his sister’s skirt to school and got away with it); white dress socks; black or brown dress shoes with matching laces; blue blazer and a tie fifth grade and up; hunter green knitted vest with school insignia allowed November to February; black dress pants for concerts
All students: must have current PE uniform; no open toed shoes without a doctor’s note; all white tennis shoes (separate for PE and regular wear); religious headgear had to be white or hunter green; no sweatshirts except school ones for outdoor PE; no jackets or sweaters tied around waist

At one point navy skirts and pants and socks were allowed, as were light blue shirts

By: Nicole G.

Nicole G. — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:08:10 +0000

I’m currently in high school, and here is our dress code:
No clothing which:
-Unduly exposes or reveals skin or undergarments. This may include tank tops, halter tops, tops which are strapless, low cut, or expose midriff, pants worn low or loose which expose skin or undergarments. (Pants bit was added for this year. Belts and gym shirts are kept on hand for violations of this rule. Skirts also must each fingertip length)
-Causes or is likely to cause a substantial or material disruption to school activities or the orderly operation of school. This may include buttons, display bands, armbands, flags, decals or other badges of symbolic expression. (this includes things on backpacks; one of my friends was made to remove her collection of anime buttons from her bag)
-Involves any form of headgear inside the school building during the school day. Specific examples of head gear include hats, visors, scarves, bandanas, sweatbands and forehead bands. Hats and head-gear will be confiscated according to school policy. (Religious headgear has to be approved before the start of the school year and have a note from clergy. Sometimes extra wide headbands are confiscated; hoods on jackets or sweatshirts are also not allowed up, you can’t even just be stepping in the front door from the rain and not be yelled at)
-Causes a health and safety risk for students. This includes the requirement that shoes or sandals be worn at all times in the school building. Sunglasses may not be worn in the school building during the school day. (I had a friend who went without shoes for the better part of three years, so this isn’t too well enforced. Flip-flops were just allowed when I was in seventh grade, it was a huge thing)
-Depicts profanity, obscenity, the use of weapons or violence.
-Promotes use of tobacco, drugs, alcohol, or other illegal or harmful products.
-Promotes the use of tobacco, drugs, alcohol, or other illegal or harmful products. (This includes the Threadless “Communist Party” shirt)
-Contains sexually suggestive messages (including the Nike “Just do it” products)
-Depicts gang affiliation (this includes colour bans at some schools. my school bans gold, which is actually one of our school colours)
-Contains language or symbols that demean an identifiable person or group or otherwise infringe on the rights of others (no political party apparel)
-Contains rude, disrespectful, or discourteous expressions inconsistent with civil discourse and behaviour. (this has go so far as to ban wearing apparel for another school if we have a sports match against them that week)

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:23:33 +0000

I went to a public high school during my freshman and sophomore years. As far as dress codes went, there basically wasn’t one so it was anything goes. I wore jeans and hoodies in the colder months and shorts and t-shirts when it was warmer. For my junior and senior years however, my parents sent me to a private Christian school that enforced an old fashioned dress code similar to the 1960s dress codes in the article. Girls were required to wear modest dresses or skirts and blouses everyday, not only to class, but to any and all school events, even sporting events. I even had to wear a dress to football games! I didn’t like it at first, but quickly grew to accept the dress code rules and even to agree with them. I think a dress code helps to set a more formal environment that helps to mitigate the disciplinary problems that unfortunately are rampant at many public schools. It maybe old fashioned, but I do think encouraging students to dress and act like young ladies and gentlemen is a good thing.

By: Saralinda

Saralinda — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:11:58 +0000

Since I went to Catholic girls’ school, we wore uniforms. In HS, that meant plaid pleated skirt, navy collarless blazer over a short sleeved peter pan collared white shirt, white ankle socks, and soap and water saddle shoes. After a 4 hour falculty meeting (no student input)it was decided that knee high socks might also be acceptable, but only in cold weather. Skirts had to be no shorter than 1″ above the knee when kneeling. Even within these restrictions, we managed to insert some individuality. One girl replaced the buttons on her blazer with soda pop bottle lids. Each club to which we belonged had a discrete small button or pin that we were allowed to wear. Also, we could wear our boy friends’ class pins,as well as our own. I graduated in 1969. It wasn’t until about 15 years later, that uniforms were abandoned all together. I don’t know what the dress code is today, as I live in another city and don’t see the girls on a daily basis.

By: Fran

Fran — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 02:45:12 +0000

I graduated from high school in 1964. Dress code rules were decided on the spur of the moment by whichever administrator was feeling offended by a garment, but rules were not published until after I graduated. Thus several girls were sent home to change out of muu-muus and came back in sundresses with spaghetti straps, which of COURSE knew were forbidden (along with culottes & any kind of trousers on girls). The officials didn’t have the nerve to send the same girls home twice in one day. Boys, on the other hand, got away with an “Ed Norton” Day once a year – wearing high-water pants, undershirts with vests over them, & tacky hats – because they did it en masse. My senior year they organized themselves & wore Bermuda shorts with white dress shirts, neckties, sport jackets, and dress shoes and socks. They were VERY clean and neat. When that worked a few times, they were safe as far as future wearing of Bermuda shorts was concerned – they;d been given tacit permission. I heard that the following year a dress code was published, saying that boys could wear shorts if they were “at least 4 inches above the knees.” In other words, 4″ above the knees OR SHORTER. It was like the rule about girls wearing “skirts, blouses, or dresses” – any one out of three!

By: Dale

Dale — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:31:09 +0000

In response to Keri’s link concerning Beatle Boots…

My wife was born and raised in Liverpool England before coming to the US in ’64. She has often times referred to the boots of that time as “winklepickers”. They were great, apparently, for climbing fences if someone was chasing after you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winklepicker

By: Kevin Bray

Kevin Bray — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 23:51:37 +0000

Your first pic was of my high school. We looked like a bunch of golfers. This was eight blocks north of the corner of Haight and Ashbury, which had a slightly different dress code in the 60′s!

By: Joel Tomaneng

Joel Tomaneng — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:44:06 +0000

My high-school wardrobe looked very much like the left hand side of your first exhibit. Perhaps, it’s because that was the dress code I had to abide by. St. Ignatius College Prep (SI) was an all-boys school (It went co-ed after I graduated). Many of us didn’t “dress to impress” during school hours and kept alternative clothing in our locker or our car if we had one. If anything, “grooming” was the challenge. “Shave Inspection” was one of the more dreaded phrases during that time.

By: Becky

Becky — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:29:49 +0000

I think this is a great blog.I believe dress codes should go a little back to the older days but not a strict.