How to customize your school uniform!

Hello there! Right, so if you go to a school like me where the rules are strict, here are some tips on how to customise the uniform. Before I start, i'll show you the list of uniform rules we have. (Just saying, this is for girls as if you don't know already, I AM a girl.)

Girls:

- Black school blazer with school logo.
- School Tie
- Plain black trousers which do not trail on the floor. (not leggings, skinny jeans or trousers, stretch, baggy, flared or bell bottoms, canvas or corduroy)
- Girls may wear a black knee length skirt instead of trousers if preferred (no pattern or additional colours visible on the skirt) in an A-line or straight style. If belts are worn they should be narrow and plain black with a normal buckle. Logos on belts are unacceptable.
- Plain white shirt with collar and buttons up to the neck (not polo shirt).
- Plain black socks or plain black tights may be worn.
- Black or white headscarf for Muslim students.
- Black footwear (no coloured marks or logos, no flip flops, ugg boots or high heels)
- (Optional) royal blue cardigan or V meck jumper.
- Only one pair of stud earrings and a watch may be worn as jewellery.

Phew! As you can see, there are quite a few uniform rules here. BUT HAVE NO FEAR! Some of these rules you can get round, and there are some more creative ways of customising your school uniform.

This is a list of things you can get round in your uniform rules:

- Certain earrings
- Shoes (will explain how)
- Socks
- Belts
- Tights
- Buttons

Earrings - just because they have to be small studs doesn't mean they can't be interesting. Wear small patterned earrings or little shapes like triangles. Or you can wear smaller sparkly ones in different colours as they are cute but practical! See what you can do with them :)

Shoes - as you probably know, I have a love for vintage so for my school shoes I have black brogues. BUT, if you have shoes with laces, you can change them to black ribbons instead! Warning in advance, if you do this then you shoes will probably become untied quicker but it's a really sweet way to change up your uniform.

Socks - even if you are supposed to wear plain black socks, chances are the teachers won't really care/notice if you wear neon pink socks with zigzag patterns like I do...but if you ARE told to wear normal socks, you can try to get away with wearing stripy socks or something quite subtle.

Belts - personally I don't wear belts, but you could wear black belts that are threaded and have patterns in. If your shirt covers up your belt, you can test your limits and see what kind of belts you get away with wearing!

Tights - now the teachers will be more strict with tights, so you should try and stick to black/navy tights. Most people get away with a subtle zigzag pattern or something not too noticeable, but if I were you I wouldn't try and push the teacher on this one too much. Also, always keep a spare pair of tights with you - a big ladder across the back does NOT look good!

Buttons - now this is the fun part. In about 95% of school uniform policies, they will not mention buttons. If you wear a blazer like me, take off your normal buttons and replace them with fun ones! (Experiment with them, see if you can get the matching the school colours...that would be great!) If you are a sewing noob like me, get a parent or someone that can sew to put the buttons on for you. If you do get caught out with these, either say the following:
- My other buttons came off and these were the only ones I could find.
- It doesn't say anything about it in the school policy so I thought it would be okay.
- (This is only if the button colours match your school colours) I was trying to be creative with my uniform and after all, these do match the school colours while still looking individual!

If none of these work, apologise and tell the school you will sort it out ASAP. If you still want to be individual, either try it again but more subtly a few months later. (If you were caught out first time, teachers will probably keep their eye on you for a few weeks!) OR you could decorate your bag with badges and ribbons if you still want to be individual. One of my best friends decorated the strap of her bag with badges so it looked like they were on her blazer, but she couldn't get in trouble for it! Win Win!

A few other points:
- You can wear tops underneath your school shirt, or coloured vest tops but leave them untucked so they make your uniform cute :-)
- Wear colourful hairbands on your risk, you can't be told to take them off as you need them for P.E! (in the pictures I am wearing quite plain ones but you don't have to do this)
- Get trouser with buttons on the side, I buy mine from New Look :) it makes them slightly different and more quirky!

I hope this post has helped you out and given you some ideas on how to customise your school uniform, and i'll he making a youtube video about this sometime if you want to see how some of it's done. (My youtube channel is LottieRa2197) Thanks for reading! Do you customise your uniform? Any other interesting ways to stand out in uniform? Let me know in the comments!

xo