Sacred Heart College Dress Code Talk

by fotw2012 Wed May 20, 2020 5:15 pm

I figure the idea of putting the ideal dress code of a girls school in my mind to a presentation might be interesting. So I make this script as well as the slides shared as follows:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u49XukqKnOdwPPpsrLA3XcYtqu3mKcl_/view?usp=sharing

It's my first time posting a story here. English is not my first language, so please don't hesitate to let me know if you find any mistakes. Comments are welcome as well.

by fotw2012 Wed May 20, 2020 5:16 pm

Good afternoon ladies! I’m Catherine Powell. Today I’m very pleased to be invited by our College Radio Station to give this talk about my personal on-campus dress code. Thank you Molly for having me here, and I hope my talk would be helpful to you in wearing our beautiful uniform in a more proper and smarter way.

Here’s a brief introduction of myself. I’m Year 11, and it’s my great honor to be elected as the Head Girl of our Sacred Heart College (SHC) last year. Before that I have been the captain of the Elizabeth House for one year. I enjoy hockey and swimming, and naturally I’m a member of the two clubs in our college. I’m also the founder of the Vintage Dressing Club, for my strong interest in it as you can see. We started this club two years ago and now we have 17 members including me. Last year, we successfully hold the first Vintage Hockey event. We all dressed up in Edwardian hockey outfits and play hockey with teams from four houses. We received a lot of positive feedbacks from both students and staffs, and we hope to hold this event again this year and attract more people to join us.

Alright, let me start by talking about the basic uniform dress code of our college, which I believe everyone is already well informed since our first day here. Basically we are required to wear a 2-piece or 3-piece suit of different colors with either a skirt or a pinafore. The style is all depending on the season. Other mandatory clothes include a white shirt, a tie, black tights, and a pair of dress shoes. Optionally you can choose to wear scarves, gloves, hats as long as appropriate, and within the permission scope you can wear light makeup and small accessories as well.

The rules look quite strict and conservative right? I’m sure that’s most of the students feel since the first day we enter SHC. However, we can actually see quite much flexibility here. As long as you comply with the basic rules we just mentioned, there are many things you can do to customize your outfits.

First of all, the shirts. The rules never explicitly regularize the shirt collar. That means you can try different collar styles, round, pinned, spread, etc., as long as it goes well with a necktie. Or, if you have heard about it, you can try wearing a tunic shirt with a detachable collar, just like the one I’m wearing today. Detachable collars also have many styles like the normal ones, round, pinned, and even imperial which is the most formal one. I’ll talk about that later.

The second thing you can customize is the ties. Every one of us have at least 5 ties, two are college ones, two are from the house, and one from a club we join because I believe everyone has joined at least one club. I always change my tie in a day. For example, when I get up in the morning and go to class, I wear the college tie; when I go to any club events after class, I change to the corresponding club tie; if I am going to stay in the house public room wearing the uniform, I will change to my house tie. Every day I have all the ties I need ready and put that in my bag. I mean, changing the tie means you show a great respect to your peers, and the organization you are affiliated with. People may find it too tedious, but I would still suggest everyone to do that whenever it’s not something you’re not able to do, like you’re really in a hurry or so.

You can customize your accessories as well. That include tights, collar pins or collar bars, and pearl earrings. Simply similar to shirts, the rules never regularize the tights we wear with enough details. It only says “black tights (40D or higher deniers) with the hem being above the knees and not exposed”, which means it’s covered by the skirt or pinafore. That being said, the freedom of wearing either thigh tights with or without garters, or black pantyhose, is ours. Talking about myself, I wear tights with garters a lot more than many of you. It makes me feel I’m having a tiny and exciting secret. But, don’t try to guess what I’m wearing now. (Laugh.) I mean, some of you might feel shy to wear garters. I totally understand that, but I would encourage you to try if you wish to. The uniform inspectors have no rights to check what you wear under your skirt. That’s your choice, your right and your privacy. Don’t be afraid, and don’t be shy either.

I’m also going to talk about collar pins or collar bars. I believe many of you have noticed I’m wearing one today. It’s actually very easy to be noticed if you wear one, as it looks so different and special compare to not wearing it. It’s one of my favorite accessories, and I wear it a lot. Basically, it pulls the shirt collar together, and holds up and fix the tie knot so that the tie is lifted and jutting out as a curve, which makes the tie look so vivid yet strict. It keeps the tie tight all the time and you don’t have to check if your tie is tidy all the time. As the college only permit two accessory items with the uniform, I always leave one spot to it. And, please feel free to do that as it is allowed; I have confirmed that with the captain of the uniform inspectors. I believe once you start wearing it you feel like you’ll never wear a tie without it.

I’m a person who is more in the formal side, and so is my dress code turns out to be. For those of you who are more in the casual side, I’m sure you can find out your way of customization as well. I suppose that is beyond the scope of my talk today, and I would like to simply focus on my own personal dress code.

I divide the circumstances into four categories: daily, meeting, prefect, and formal. Most of the students would only encounter two of them: daily and formal at SHC. But it does no harm to know the other two. After all, they resemble the business formal dress code which we are all going to face in the future of our life.

Let’s look at the four of them one by one. For daily purpose, I usually wear a white tunic shirt with a detachable soft collar. I like to wear a collarless tunic shirt because you can handily change your collar for different circumstances whenever you like. A detachable soft collar is good for non-formal purpose. The tie knot should also be matched to the collar style too, so I usually wear a four-in-hand knot. It’s the most lightweight and casual knot, not too tight compared to other knots. With a collar pin attached at near the top of the collar, you can easily shape the tie into a beautiful curve as I mentioned before, which will look very smart. To pair the shirt and tie, I wear a single-breasted suit jacket with a pinafore. Remember, before the first time you put on a pinafore, you should check if it fits your breast well. When I got the uniform pinafore, I had it tailored so that the upper hem fitted tightly, and the part below it looser than before for more space for my breast. In this way, you won’t be too out of breath after wearing it for a whole day, and meanwhile it also helps to hold the tie in place. Lastly, I wear a pair of plain and comfortable dress shoes to complete the look.

Next one is the meeting style. Here I’m referring to those professional and business meeting with headmasters, teachers, or senior staffs in the academic clubs. Obviously, I want to show my respect to the people attending the meeting, as in most of the cases I will be the junior one in such meetings. Wearing a detachable soft collar would send a signal of modesty, compared to a stiff one. However, a four-in-hand is no longer appropriate here, as it’s too casual and sloppy for the occasions. Instead, I’ll tie a double knot, as it turns out to be snug, solid and more professional. A collar pin is also necessary to complete the look on my neck.

I would wear a dark-color single-breasted 3-piece skirt suit to show my profession for meetings. The color of the skirt suit can be charcoal, dark gray, or dark navy, all are very nice. Solid is the best pattern, although you can try some very dim pinstripes here. However, I won’t recommend it to you unless you are very confident you can handle it well. Please don’t wear too bright pinstripes for meetings because that‘s way too aggressive for a student talking to seniors. The skirt should be a very tight pencil skirt with the hem of it reaching just below the knees. You would feel your legs wrapped and constraint, and don’t worry, that’s what it’s been designed for. Usually it won’t be easy to walk wearing such a skirt, not to mention running. That means you need to practice a lot to handle it, which is very important. It becomes more difficult as you also need to wear a low heel dress shoes, which is not as handy as the plain shoes that are worn daily. Imagine you have to wear it in a rainy day, and the meeting is starting in five minutes! I mean, practice, practice, and more practice! The meeting outfit is very restrictive, and it’s not meant to be comfortable. It’s a real uniform that I need to discipline myself so much to wear it. No matter it’s summer or winter, sunny or rainy, once I put on such an outfit, I always feel very humble and dedicated to it. The tie should be tight all the time, and it needs to be checked every half an hour. The suit jacket should be buttoned up, and white gloves and professional light makeup should be worn all the time. If you don’t mind me to say again, it requires a lot of practice. If you don’t think it’s too scary to you, just make a good excuse to yourself on a random day, put it on, and practice how to walk in it!

The prefect outfit is a bit different from the meeting one, and it’s also what I’m wearing now. It’s for the occasions where I need to show my leadership, just like today. Therefore I would wear a detachable stiff collar like this one (pointing to the collar), and sometimes a double-breasted suit for it. Also the heels can be a bit higher (turning the body a bit to elegantly show the heels). The double knot and the collar pin would probably work for all kinds of outfits, so that’s it. I can choose the same colors like charcoal as for the meeting outfit, or some bolder colors and patterns, like light grey or navy with a little bit brighter and thicker pinstripes. But still, I won’t recommend too bold colors and patterns as it’s no appropriate to be too aggressive here. Again the skirt should be conservative, and better be the same or similar style as the meeting one. White gloves and professional light makeup are also recommended here. Basically the main tiny difference here from the meeting one is you switch the tune a little bit from the submissive side to the dominant side, for the reason that you’re more likely to comply to seniors in the meeting occasions, while you’re more likely to lead when you act as a prefect.

Here comes the most formal outfit in my dress code. This basically happens three times a year: the new year service, the Easter service, and the Founder’s Day at the beginning of the each autumn semester. If we read the dress code, it only says ”dark three piece skirt suit, white shirt, and dark color tie required”. As we‘re already wearing three piece skirt suit in meeting and prefect occasions, we can actually go a bit further here. I have a morning skirt suit for formal events like services, funeral, and formal family gatherings. It’s like a three-piece skirt suit, with the suit jacket in tuxedo style, and the pencil skirt is dark grey with white stripes. It’s supposed to be paired with a detachable stiff imperial collar, which is the most formal style of all. For those of you who never see it before, here I show you the imperial collar I have. It‘s 2 ¾ inch high, which is so high that the collar almost fully covers my neck and reaches my chin. I spent quite some time to learn how to sit, walk, eat, or talk wearing it. It was actually quite scratchy on my neck at the very beginning, but as I wear it more, I get used to and even love wearing it. With this collar you really need to wear you tie very tightly, not only to help you tighten the collar and reduce the scratchy feeling, but also to show your most formal vibe. The choice of tie knot is very important. You can choose between Windsor knot or double knot as we did most of the time. You should notice that a Windsor knot is empty at the top, so it can’t really be as snug as a double knot in practice. However, if the collar itself is already a very tight and snug one, you can safely go with a Windsor knot. It’s also very important to choose a pair of dress shoes for different events. Usually you’re not supposed to wear heels for services, so a pair of Oxford is the best choice here. High heels are for the Founder’s Day events, and I would always wear a 3-inch black leather heels. For formal occasions, white gloves and a dress hat are mandatory, so please comply to it! You’re also encouraged to put on the best makeup you can wear. But still remember, these are very formal events, and the makeup itself should also be formal and conservative as well.

I also have some personal rules here. These are rules I set up for myself, but you can simply take them as tips. Feel free to do so if you find you like them.

First of all, wear you tie tightly all the time! It’s very rude to wear a loosed tie, even ruder than not wearing one! There’s no excuse to loosen your tie when you’re not alone, unless without doing so your life is in danger. I always tie my tie extremely tightly. That’s my requirement to my own: I need to show respect to everyone seeing me wearing it. Every time I push the tie knot up tightly to the shirt collar, I feel confident, humble, more focused, and loving myself. It’s a complex but wonderful feeling. Someone would ask if wearing a tie tightly all day long is difficult. Well, I would say, yes it is. However, one thing I found very interesting is about one’s tolerance. If you think your tie is too tight, make it twice tighter. The golden standard of a well tied tie is two facts: you’re clearly feeling the shirt collar and tie are squeezing your neck; and, when you turn your head, the tie also turns with it. I know this could be hard to some of you. Believe me or not: you can definitely handle it, and it pays off.

Secondly, wear black tights all the time! I’m very glad to see black tights on our dress code all the time, so I just stick to it! Just like I mentioned, I‘m a formal person, and I wear a skirt suit and tie a lot when I’m not wearing a uniform. Black tights are the only choice, I mean, literally the only choice, to pair with a skirt suit. You can imagine how much of my awake time I’m in black tights! One very important thing is to always have an extra pair in your bag. It would be extremely rude and awkward if a run happens. You can’t be too cautious about that!

Last but not least, I suggest wear a pair of white gloves whenever needed. Our dress code requires white gloves only for formal occasions. However, you can wear that more than you think. My own experience is that you can even wear that every day on campus!

That’s all of my talk today, and thank you so much for your attention! I hope you all find this talk enjoyable and helpful to you. We have a 10-min Q & A session. Any questions?

by UniFan Fri May 26, 2023 7:12 pm

I do have one question Cathy!

" If you think your tie is too tight, make it twice tighter."

This seems like an infinite loop! Very Happy

by fotw2012 Fri Jun 02, 2023 11:19 am

Thank you for the question! That's just an exaggeration, but you get my point right?

by UniFan Fri Jun 02, 2023 11:32 am

Yes, I knew it was an exaggeration, I just really liked it Very Happy

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just one question for the new head girl...

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