Kate Stephenson, A Cultural History of School Uniform

School uniforms are, as Kate Stephenson points out in her introduction, a ‘widely identifiable and understood symbol of the British education system’ (p. 1). They are also a topic of current discussion, as schools seek to maintain the principle of uniformity while accommodating the modesty codes of religious adherents, the identity of non-gender-conforming students and the limited budgets of lowincome families. An examination of the origins and principles of school uniforms is thus both timely and necessary. School uniforms present a challenge for the historian, as their origins lie at opposite poles of the social spectrum: charitable institutions for poor or orphan boys, and private academies for young gentlemen. Additionally, for a phenomenon that is widespread in contemporary Britain, it can be difficult to separate out historical practices from those that are familiar today. Stephenson starts with a detailed account of the charity schools founded from the sixteenth century, examining how the clothing provided for their ‘poor scholars’ was both a gift and a way of publicising the foundation and the generosity of its donors. As she recognises, the meaning of these uniforms changed over time as the required garments became outdated. Stephenson also discusses the distinctions between charitable foundations, with some (like Christ’s Hospital in London) being recognised for its academic achievements, while others remained true to their original aims of training children for a life of service. A further distinction not considered by Stephenson is found in the Workhouse schools set up from the 1840s, whose institutional clothing was deliberately stigmatising. Stephenson goes on to discuss the reformation of private schools such as Eton and Winchester in the mid-nineteenth century, in order to provide not only the learning required to enter Oxford or Cambridge, but also the self-discipline and esprit de corps needed to rule the Empire. As she recognises, the insistence on large wardrobes of clothing suitable for team sports and formal occasions, as well as study, reinforced the reputations of schools as elite institutions while acting as a barrier to parvenu or insolvent parents. A different dynamic was present in the elite girls’ schools founded in the late nineteenth century, as they were educating girls for professions that were mostly closed to them. Thus, their ethos was idealistic, even quixotic, and strongly imbued with feminism. In practical terms, this meant an emphasis on sports and gymnastics, and on clothing that was not too tight or cumbersome while remaining ‘ladylike’. Stephenson uses school archives and unpublished photographs to provide a nuanced discussion of the different solutions proposed by different schools, from the fashionable dresses of Cheltenham Ladies’ College and the ‘djibbahs’ of Roedean to the gymnasium tunics of St Leonards. The latter were the forerunners of the pleated ‘gym slip’, which was first introduced to elite schools in the 1890s and, by the 1920s, ‘extremely widely worn’ (p. 82). This brief statement skates over one of the questions that the book does not fully address: how and when did garments developed for elite institutions become the norm in state schools? Chapter 4 outlines the expansion of state school provision, including the setting up or absorption of grammar schools, whose uniform distinguished their pupils from those at secondary moderns. What is missing here is an acknowledgement of the exceptionalism of any schooling over the leaving age; in 1950, 70% of children left school at the age of fifteen. In this sense, the distinction was not so much