A failing Norwich comprehensive school is being turned into an academy and as part of the drive for excellence, the pupils will wear Savile Row-tailored school uniforms. Designed by Thomas Mahon, who has dressed the Prince of Wales, the new uniform with a traditional logo: a school crest; a jacket and formal trousers is set to create a smarter attitude according to the new academy’s head. She says ‘The Savile Row uniform shows we want the best for the school and students. It shows we hold the students in high esteem that we have got them the best possible uniform’.

But in Huddersfield bus drivers are overheating about their workplace clothing. They want to be allowed to wear tailored shorts as part of their uniform, but recent new clothing rules outlaw shorts, although passengers are wearing the bare minimum on the hot, city-centre buses. One driver said, ‘we have asked the managers if we can change the uniform, but they had said it is not company policy.’

What role does uniform have?

Both these cases seem to suggest that a minimum standard is set by clothing, and that those wearing the clothing are encouraged in some way to reach for a certain level of behaviour and attainment through wearing the clothing.

On the other hand, clothing that is overly restrictive and uncomfortable may contribute to lack of attention to tasks and to frustration and even rebellion on the part of those being forced to wear it.