40 Fun Facts About School Uniforms

Which English school, founded in 1552, still dresses pupils in a Tudor uniform of blue coats and yellow socks?

Christ's Hospital is believed to have been the first school with a uniform. When a redesign was discussed around 2011, over 95% of its pupils voted to keep the original.

Which US president kick-started a public school uniform movement by backing the idea in a State of the Union address?

Bill Clinton made the pitch in 1996, then had the Education Department send a manual on school uniforms to every school district in the country.

Which outfit, first cut down for a four-year-old British prince in 1846, became a girls' school uniform across Japan?

Sailor suit fashion began when Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, was given a copy of the uniform worn on the Royal Yacht. Japanese girls' schools took up the look around 1920.

Which member of AC/DC performs in a schoolboy uniform, a look suggested by a sister after Zorro and gorilla costumes?

Angus Young also tried Spider-Man and a Superman parody before the schoolboy look stuck. When the first outfit fell apart, he wore his real uniform from Ashfield Boys High School in Sydney.

Which pop star swapped the planned jeans for a schoolgirl outfit in a debut video filmed at the Grease high school?

Britney Spears asked for the look at her wardrobe fitting for '...Baby One More Time'. The video was shot in August 1998 at Venice High School, where the 1978 musical was filmed.

The blazer takes its name from the bright red jackets of a rowing club at which British university?

Cambridge's Lady Margaret Boat Club, founded in 1825 at St John's College, wore the red flannel originals. By 1889 the name had spread to coloured jackets for cricket and other sports.

In which country do many schools allow pupils to attend barefoot, an option a large number of them take up?

New Zealand schools have also been adding sandals as standard summer footwear since 1990. Many of its primary schools insist on a broad-brimmed hat to help prevent sunburn.

In Tinker v. Des Moines, the US Supreme Court backed students suspended for wearing what in a 1965 anti-war protest?

Black armbands were protected symbolic speech, the Court ruled 7–2, because they caused no disruption. The suspended students had stayed out of school until after New Year's Day, the planned end of the protest.

Why do many elementary schoolchildren in Japan wear brightly coloured caps as part of their school uniform?

Road safety is the reason: the bright caps are meant to prevent traffic accidents. Many pupils also drape a yellow plastic cover over their backpack to make it more visible.

Which English school gave its name to a short 'bum-freezer' jacket and a wide starched collar worn by schoolboys?

Eton College boys shorter than 5 ft 4 in wore the cropped jacket instead of a tailcoat until 1967. Japan still uses the name for collarless school jackets.

Primary pupils in which Latin American country wear white smocks first designed by teacher Matilde Filgueiras in 1915?

Argentina made the white smock compulsory nationwide in 1942, 27 years after Filgueiras came up with it.

Schoolgirls with short hair in Turkmenistan must attach what to their takhya caps to meet the dress code?

Fake plaits stand in for the two braids the rules demand. Girls' uniforms there follow national costume: bright green, ankle-length dresses decorated with embroidery.

In which Southeast Asian country do public school teachers wear the same white-and-green dress as their pupils?

Myanmar has required its 'White-Green' uniform since 1966. From the fifth standard, pupils switch to a green sarong, called a pahso for boys and a htamein for girls.

In which country do high school girls wear a white áo dài, a tunic said to represent the purity of youth?

Vietnam now mostly saves the white áo dài for ceremonies, because it is uncomfortable for daily wear. A girl in one on a bicycle, wearing a nón lá hat, is a symbolic national image.

In which country do pupils wear red and white in elementary school, navy blue in junior high and blue-grey after that?

Indonesia sets one national uniform for each stage of schooling, worn Monday to Thursday. Many schools then switch to a batik shirt or a scout uniform for the rest of the week.

In which Latin American country does shirt colour show a pupil's grade, from kindergarten red to beige for the oldest?

Venezuela puts nursery pupils in yellow shirts and kindergarten in red. Grades one to six wear white, the next three light blue, and the final two years beige.

Ghana's brown-and-yellow public school uniform is nicknamed after konkonte and a soup made from what?

Groundnuts go into nkate nkwan, the soup that shares the nickname with konkonte. In 2019 junior high pupils were given a different outfit to set them apart from primary classes.

Which regime banned the Schülermützen, the student caps of German schools, as a mark of class society?

Nazi Germany scrapped the caps, the last shared item of student dress, while pressing young Germans into the uniformed Hitler Youth instead.

Which Russian tsar introduced a mandatory uniform for gymnasium students across the empire in 1834?

Nicholas I's rule lapsed after the 1917 revolution. Uniforms only came back after the Second World War, when one standard design was issued for every Soviet school.

In which Pacific island nation are school uniform colours set by church, such as light blue for Catholic schools?

Tonga's government schools wear red, Wesleyan schools royal blue and Anglican schools navy. Boys add a ta'ovala bordered in the school colours.

The gakuran, the high-collared uniform of Japanese schoolboys, derives from the army tunic of which European state?

Prussia's Waffenrock tunic was the model. The name joins gaku, meaning study, with ran, an old Japanese term for the West, so a gakuran is literally Western clothing for students.

The randoseru, the stiff leather bag given to Japanese first-graders, copies the shape of a pack once carried by whom?

Foot soldiers carried the pack after Japan's army adopted Western kit. In 1887 the crown prince was given one in that shape for elementary school, though most families could not afford one until after World War II.

During World War II, Japanese students wore large name tags listing their name, address and which medical detail?

Blood type was listed for emergency identification. Pupils were also handed padded head cushions for air raids, and girls drafted into factories swapped skirts for monpe work slacks.

How did Japan's sukeban girl gangs of the 1970s and 1980s modify the skirts of their school uniforms?

Made them longer, and shortened the tops to match. Schools tried to combat the style by switching to blazer or sweater-vest uniforms.

Which traditional garment did educator Utako Shimoda adapt from court dress as a uniform for Japanese schoolgirls?

Hakama let girls move and exercise, which Shimoda felt the kimono prevented. Many Japanese women still wear them to their university graduation.

Why were the petticoats of England's first school uniform, issued to Tudor charity pupils, dyed yellow?

To deter vermin: yellow was supposed to stop pests from breeding. The coat worn over the top started out russet and was changed to blue after a single year.

Which California city's school district became the first large urban district in the US to require uniforms, in 1994?

Long Beach put its elementary and middle school pupils in uniform that September. California law let parents opt out, and roughly 2% of students did.

The round cap of the traditional British schoolboy uniform was copied from the players of which sport?

Cricket caps topped the sober outfit that town grammar schools adopted in the 19th century: a short jacket and trousers, a white collar, and a bow tie or knotted tie.

Which pleated, sleeveless tunic became a staple of British schoolgirl uniform by the 1920s, worn over a blouse and tie?

Gymslip tunics were first worn for gymnastics and sports. At some schools they lasted into the 1960s, often finished with a felt or straw hat banded in the school colours.

Which stiff straw hat with a flat crown and ribbon band is still uniform at some British boys' schools?

Boater hats took their name from boating; one account traces them to Venice's gondoliers, another to Royal Navy sailors. Some boys' schools in Australia and South Africa wear them too.

Plimsolls, the canvas shoes of British school PE lessons, are said to be named after a line painted on what?

Ship hulls carry the Plimsoll line, which the shoe's coloured band was said to resemble. In another telling, water rising above the band meant trouble, just as it does at sea: wet feet.

The rounded collar on many schoolgirl blouses is named after which character Maude Adams played on stage in 1905?

Peter Pan's New York stage costume gave the flat, round-cornered collar its name, though similar styles were worn earlier. A French cousin, the Claudine collar, honours a schoolgirl in a Colette novel.

The modern polo shirt, a common school uniform top, was designed by which French tennis star nicknamed The Crocodile?

René Lacoste found the tennis whites of the 1920s stiff and cumbersome, so he designed a short-sleeved shirt in knitted cotton. From 1927 he wore a crocodile emblem on the chest.

Which word, used by the British Army since 1816 for plain clothes, names a no-uniform day in many Commonwealth schools?

Mufti is thought to come from the dressing gowns and tasselled caps of off-duty officers, which looked vaguely Eastern; the Arabic word means an Islamic scholar. On a mufti day, pupils wear their own clothes.

Which Chinese dress has served as the uniform at Hong Kong girls' schools such as St. Stephen's Girls' College?

Cheongsam uniforms arrived in 1918 at what is now St Paul's Co-educational College, making them the first school uniform in Hong Kong. Several older Christian girls' schools still keep the tradition.

Mary Jane shoes, a fixture of girls' school uniforms, are named after a character in which comic strip launched in 1902?

Buster Brown's sweetheart was drawn from life: creator Richard Outcault had a daughter called Mary Jane. Both characters wore the strapped shoe, and a shoe company licensed them to sell it.

What is the Korean name for the blazer-and-tie school uniform worn by almost all South Korean secondary students?

Gyobok has become a fashion statement in its own right: celebrities aiming at teenage audiences often wear it, and schools are a favourite setting for screen romance.

In 2021, women in which African country's parliament wore primary school uniforms to promote girls' education?

Malawi's own education minister, Agnes Nyalonje, was sent out of the chamber that day for not complying with the dress code.

The necktie, a staple of many school uniforms, traces back to mercenaries from which country serving in France?

Croatia gave the garment its name: the French called the troops Croates, which became cravat. International Necktie Day is celebrated there every October 18.

Which Latin American capital ruled in 2019 that pupils could pick the trouser or skirt uniform regardless of gender?

Mexico City's rule covers the regular school-day uniform. Uniforms had spread across the country in the 1930s as a way to cut clothing costs and avoid classism.