Subject: [h-cost] 1960s-70s School Dress Codes To: "h-costume" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
My students have been asking some really good questions. These
questions I >only know the answers from personal experience. I lived in Mississippi at the >time and do not know if we were really far behind fashion or not. If you answer >these questions, please let me know your location and the app. year you >remember these fashions were worn to public elementary through high school: A very interesting question, I look forward to reading some of the other anecdotes. I was in elem school 1965-71 Washington DC area (Falls Church). I was in 7th&8th grade middle school 71-74 Washington DC area (Falls Church). I was in high school 74-76 Washington DC area (Falls Church). I was in elem school 76-78 American Community Schools, Athens Greece While some of the schools I went to were private, I did not go to any sort of religious school. 1. Mini-skirts: Girl's skirt lengths were measured Not at my schools. None, neither country. My favorite dress 2nd grade was a mini-dress, double knit horizontal stripe (put your coffee down now) in wide hot pink, narrow lime green, wide volkwagen orange, narrow turquoise. I wore that thing until it was merely a shirt. In early HS, I had a midi that swirled. My mom made it in earth toned calico prints. 2. Girls' pants: When were girls' allowed to wear pants to school. Pants-suits, hiphuggers? Always. I had a cord pantsuit with matching vest and paisley blouse in 5th or 6th grade. My mom made it for the church fashion show. It was keen! In 7th grade, oh say '71, I had hot pants (your medieval self would call it counter change)... left cheek royal purple, right cheek white. I had another pair of hot pants in volkwagen orange. My mom turned the jeans, hiphuggers of course, that I embroidered in 7th-8th grade (with dogs, cats, flowers) into pillows that still live on the rec room couch. I still have and can wear the jean jacket I embroidered in 11th grade history class. 3. Boys' Hair: Allowed to wear long hair 4. Boy's mustaches: When allowed I dont remember. If you need more data I can check the yearbooks, but that's an archaeology project in the garage! The mullet, tho that's not what it was called, was definitely a Big Thing. So was the big 'Fro. You didnt ask, but the prohibited items at my schools were (early on) things that might provoke racial tensions. Segregation had just started when I hit 1st grade. By the 70s, earing a Mod Squad T-shirt was ok, cuz that showed a mixed race team, for example. A hat in the style of Malcom X's ... not permited. There were race-based fights nearly every weekend from 8th grade onward. When Pol Pot's troupes overran Cambodia, the Boat People, many of them, ended up in the DC area on emergency political asylum visas. Suddenly the race based fights were the blacks+white vs the newcomers. When we moved to Athens, no particular clothing styles were prohibited. No symbols, religious or political, were banned. My HS graduation class had students of 31 nationalities in it. The school as a whole had over 40 nationalities. There really no way to legistate anything that wouldnt offend someone. The topic just never came up. Most of us were only staying for a few years with parents on govt tours of duty or corporate rotations; I suspect, perhaps unknowing, that the school administration realized that clothing of where a student came *from* was part of identity, identity is an issue for many teens... so leave well enough alone. Native language & accent & parents occupation identified us just fine... now those gang fights made DC look like a picnic. --cin Cynthia Barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
