What do you remember about the dress code from your schools?

37 comments

1. At my public school, we weren’t allowed to have facial hair and had to tuck our shirts in, but there were only a couple teachers who gave a shit about either

2. One of the only things I remember was everyone who played a sport got around every dress code by wearing the school sports clothing/uniforms. I’m old lol

3. I was a boy. Couldn’t tell you the first thing about the dress code.

4. At some point I remember that brand Big Johnson T-shirt’s were added to the can’t wear them list at school.

5. We had a tucked in shirt policy. Preparing us for that t-shirt tucked into cargo jorts life.

   Edit: You also weren’t allowed to have sagging pants that showed underwear. You were given an orange prison jumper to wear if you showed up to school with sagging pants (I’m not joking).

6. I remember overhearing the disciplinary guy in middle school say that he had to kick out a kid from graduation because he showed up in “full gang regalia.”

7. Any skirts or shorts had to be at least fingertip length, and shoulders had to be covered.

   They actually enforced it pretty actively. Even in gym or weightlifting, even the boys couldn’t wear tank tops

8. The only dress code my school enforced was nothing sexually proactive (g-strings, miniskirts, etc) and no profanity on your clothing

9. In elementary school, the “I love boobies” rubber bracelets got banned

10. I don’t think we had one at that time – it was the early 90s in a fancy suburb.

11. I remember the teachers not knowing if shirts for the band “pretty girls make graves” were against policy or not

12. No graphic designs or multicolored shirts.

    Shirts had to be tucked in.

    Belts were mandatory.

    Shorts weren’t allowed, unless you were part of a school sports team on game day.

    Girl’s skirts had to be fingertip length.

    Undergarments being visible at any time for any reason was an automatic visit to the office.

13. As long as I had a collared shirt tucked into pants with a belt, I was good. Also had to wear socks, but shoes were whatever so must wore slides. Could wear any kind of sweater/hoodie as long as it was school affiliated.

14. ‘Don’t be naked’

15. When I started high school, it was chill: Within reason, wear what you want. Then the long-time principal retired, and the new interim (who got the permanent job), in her first act, changed the dress code to a near uniform policy.

    We had to have khaki or black pants and a collared shirt in one of the three school colors. And they were draconian about the colors. I’ll never forget my friend getting a written warning because his shirt wasn’t “red”, it was “wine”.

16. It never really affected me because I came from a religious family and always wore long skirts or fairly loose fitting pants, but girls couldn’t show shoulders or thighs at all

17. There wasn’t one that I recall.

18. I went to a bunch of different schools. Most didn’t have a dress code (unless you wearing something consider provocative or derogatory). One school made the guys (for I am a guy) wear polo shirts (that were either navy blue, white or black), khaki pants (I can’t remember if it was color particular, but I’m pretty sure we couldn’t wear shorts), and a belt. You had to have you shirt tucked in and if you came to school without a belt, they would bind your pants with a zip tie.

19. I remember for girls they couldn’t have a skirt above where their fingers would rest on their legs when standing up. My high school girlfriend was (well, I assume she still is) very tall and so kept having to go get measured – even following the rule it still looked like a lot of leg.

    I was very anti fashion in school so I never worried about the dress code because I only wore khaki cargo pants and solid colored t shirts. Impossible to run afoul like that lol.

20. As a male in a public school the only things I remember were to keep your pants from sagging so low people could see your underwear and no hats inside. I never had an issue with my pants sagging and didn’t see the point in wearing hats inside so it wasn’t an issue for me.

    For girls I remember it was a lot more complicated. I think I remember the straps on tops had to be at least 3 finger widths wide and skirts/shorts had to extend at least halfway to the knee. They had a lot more rules and they wore more routinely enforced.

21. Really, the only thing in my schools – all public – in the 80s and 90s – was no shorts. I live in Wisconsin but I can be hot here in early fall and early summer. I was glad I’m female so I could wear dresses and skirts.

22. In middle school no sweat suits or tracksuits. Some boys were going around pulling down girls pants.

23. We didn’t really have one.

24. My school changed the dress code to a more restrictive one. Shorts were no longer allowed, but girls could still wear skirts. The boys protested and wore skirts. The Principal got a big laugh out of it, but refused to change the policy.

25. Public school- Skirts had to be no more than two inches above the knee and shorts had to be past our finger tips. I think that spaghetti straps weren’t allowed.

    Private school- no earrings outside of your dorm room, skirts had to be at the knee or longer, no bikinis on school trips to the beach, girls had to wear skirts or dresses to church on Sabbath morning, uniforms had to be worn in the building where the classrooms were

26. I still have an aversion to crop tops and short skirts because any time I wore a shirt that wasn’t basically a dress or a skirt that wasn’t designed to hit the floor, I would get dress-coded because I’m longer than most people, so things fit differently. I also feel self-conscious in sleeveless shirts (which were forbidden) and I only really started wearing shorts again last year. I also think it was humiliating to make girls kneel to see whether our clothes are long enough, but maybe that’s just a me problem.

27. Don’t remember any kind of dress code

28. I was a t-shirt and jeans kinda gal, so I didn’t pay too much attention to it, but one day it was like 95 degrees so I wore [one of these types of shirts](https://www.nordstrom.com/s/ramsey-sleeveless-cashmere-sweater/7061955) (it was like 2002, they were trendy at the time). At the beginning of one of my classes this one kid walked in wearing a band shirt that had a swear on it, and he was followed in by the headmaster who was all pissy because that shirt was against the dress code. The headmaster and my teacher started bickering (this was the young “cool” teacher, and he and that kid were buddies), and my teacher said, “well if you’re going to call him in you should call her in too” and pointed to me. So I got called in too, had to sit in the headmaster’s office for like an hour until my mom could bring a shirt over that I could change into.

    I was so bitter toward that teacher after that.

29. I only did a few years in public school but bandanas were banned, some schools had gang colors banned, slap bracelets were banned. Friday’s were assembly day and you were encouraged to wear your best for the play or speaker, it wasn’t required but you didn’t want to be casual that day.

30. Went to a stuffy New England boarding school where tie & jacket was required in class. It wasn’t that bad though. This, btw, was where I watched Tucker Carlson get acquainted w bow ties. So punchable.

31. I think the length of shorts had to be longer that the length of your fingers with your arms extended.

32. Girls had to follow the five finger rule. You could only wear shirts like v necks to a certain length that did not touch your cleavage. Also no showing shoulders so some blouses were not allowed. Shorts, skirts and dresses had to be knee length and nothing above. Jeans with tears in them had to have leggings underneath.

    Now that I look back on it as a fully grown woman it makes no sense how they had to police what girls could wear then. It was always “Its a distraction to the boys and takes away from their learning” meanwhile girls would be pulled from class to the office having to wait for their parents to bring them a spare change of clothes. Thats taking away from girls learning and a waste of time 🤷‍♀️

33. Uniforms and you had to buy them from a specific contractor. You couldn’t just buy any slacks + blue shirt. It was basically a racket.

34. The chubbier the girl was, the more likely she was told to change

35. No hats or coats. Girls couldn’t wear spaghetti straps. No shirts with curse words or inflammatory things on it. No midriff-baring tops. That’s all I can remember…most of the dress code was about what girls couldn’t wear.

36. No bandannas, shorts had to be a certain length… except the cheerleading uniforms that girls wore to school. And anyone who looked “acceptable” in them. No spaghetti straps or strapless shirts. Pants had to be around the waist.

    We also had to wear IDs at all times for the last two years of high school.

37. That I got removed from class for showing my midriff a little bit when I raised my hand but boys in gym could literally run around topless.