* girls' school uniform chronology










Girls' School Uniforms: Chronology


Figure 1.--This school portrait is undated, but looks like the 1930s to us. It is probably a Yugoslav school. We have no idea whu the girls are wearing two styles. Some of the girls are wearing smocks with Peter Pan collars. Others are wearing sailor blouses and skirts. Perhaps Yugoslav readers will understand this. One reader believes it is a girls' gymnasium (selective secondary school). We thought the sailor outfits were some sort of youth group uniform, but we have never heard of a youth group with these sailor uniforms. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the class. Notice the twin peak bdge on their berets.

We do not yet have much information girls uniforms in the 19th century. At the time girls were not commoly educated in many countries. This was especially the case in the early-19th century, but bu the end of the century this had changed substantially. This wasparticularly especially the case at the secondary level and university level. And what girls did go to school, few wore uniforms. rare exceotion was the few girls' public (elite private boarding) schools in Britain. Our 19th century archive is still too limited to follow trends. We see many girls on the continent wearing smocks to school. Boys also wore smocks, but they were even more common for girls. This changes with the 20th century. We have a much larger 20th century archive allowing us to follow school trends in some detail. Of course tends varied widely from country to country. And we see more and more girls going to school. Where smocks and uniforms were not worn, school wear is basically a relection of popular styles and school portaits are an easy way to follow popular fashions. A major tuning point was World War II. Before the War, girls often attended separate schools. This was especially case beyond villiage primaries. This was not the case in America, but it was in many countries. After the War there was a signifiacnt change toward coeducation. Only a few countries had school uniforms befiore World War II. This changed somewhat with the Soviet creation of an Eastern European empire. Eastern European Communists tended to follow the Soviet example of uniforms and coeducation. The major exception ro coeducation was the Arab countries that were just beginning to build public school system often chose to proceed with single gender schools. Another post-War development is the increasing influence of British school styles.

The 19th Century

We do not yet have much information girls uniforms in the 19th century. At the time girls were not commoly educated in many countries. This was especially the case in the early-19th century, but bu the end of the century this had changed substantially. This wasparticularly especially the case at the secondary level and university level. And what girls did go to school, few wore uniforms. rare exceotion was the few girls' public (elite private boarding) schools in Britain. Our 19th century archive is still too limited to follow trends. We see many girls on the continent wearing smocks to school. Boys also wore smocks, but they were even more common for girls. >br>

The 20th Century

Our knowledge of girl's schoolwear cahnges with the 20th century. We have a much larger 20th century archive allowing us to follow school trends in some detail. Of course tends varied widely from country to country. And we see more and more girls going to school. In America girls began going tomsecondary school while boys often had to work on the farm or find jobs. The Depression also had an impact. With no other options, more children went to secondary school. This was not the case in Germany where NAZI policy was to discourage girls from continuing their education adter primary school. There were few girls who bwore uniforms to school unless you condider smocks to bev unifirms. The only major exceotions were English public schools and grammar schools. We akso see Yugoslav girls wearing uniforms (figure 1). Where smocks and uniforms were not worn, school wear is basically a relection of popular styles and school portaits are an easy way to follow popular fashions. A major tuning point was World War II. Before the War, girls often attended separate schools. This was especially case beyond villiage primaries. This was not the case in America, but it was in many countries. After the War there was a signifiacnt change toward coeducation. Only a few countries had school uniforms befiore World War II. This changed somewhat with the Soviet creation of an Eastern European empire. Eastern European Communists tended to follow the Soviet example of uniforms and coeducation. The major exception ro coeducation was the Arab countries that were just beginning to build public school system often chose to proceed with single gender schools. Another post-War development is the increasing influence of British school styles.







HBC




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Created: 9:04 AM 12/3/2018
Last updated: 9:56 PM 11/28/2019