Housemistresses

[Katharine]

Then there came the glad day when, as an U1Ver I was promoted to Vests. I longed for Vests, thinking that with Vests I might find a modicum of peace, of fulfillment, of.... predictability. The Hankies had reduced me to a state of unnatural agitation, frustration and grief. Now Vests! But I was again in despair. How could Vests go missing from their sets with even more evil intent than Hankies?

My problem with vests was finding where I had hidden them! I don't think I wore one after my first term, but it had to be screwed up so that it looked worn, when handed in. Under the sheet was considered a good hiding place.

[englishangel]

Katharine, how could you, I always wore a vest, still do but now it is one of the Tesco brightly coloured ones. All my family do too As husband and boys say, "if it's good enough for the England cricket team it's good enopugh for me".

I drive them mad in the office when they complain ofthe cold and I ask if they have a vest on.

[Katharine]

Mary when I was at school I just didn't feel the cold. I took perverse delight in being the only person in the whole school not to wear a jersey in dining hall, I'd look around and see a sea of navy and just my pale blue blouse! However years of living and working in the tropics have changed things, now I do feel the cold - and have been known to wear vests!

[chaosriddenyears]

The underwear we were given at Hertford was determinedly horrible - it put me off vests for life!
And the Sunday uniform was pretty nasty as well - we called them "plastic sacks" and if we sat too close to the radiator for too long they went soft and sticky. Yuck!

[midget]

In winter we had woolen vests, and did they itch!!

[englishangel]

Ours were cotton, but they were nice and long and kept your b*m warm too.

I remember one girl who was very grateful becasue she had worn a Liberty Bodice (que?) at home. This was 1965

[Katharine]

As far as I remember, Mary, in our time the winter vests were woolen, and we changed vests in summer.

[englishangel]

No wonder you hid it then, I certainly never had a woollen one.

[chaosriddenyears]

No, I think I got it wrong - I think the plastic sacks were day wear. Help! The memory is going! Sunday uniforms were the navy tunics and cherry reds.

[Vonny]

Sunday uniforms were the navy tunics and cherry reds.

Yes - that was what we wore in the 80's - delightful weren't they?

[chaosriddenyears]

Very fetching!

[Kim2s70-77]

I really think that, in the entire history of CH, we were blessed with the least imaginative, ugliest and least flattering of all uniform updates! At least the current pupils can blame 'costume' if they get a second glance - ours was just blandly ugly!!

[Katharine]

I think our coatdresses went quite well with the boys' uniform, they were classic and lasted a long time. See viewtopic.php?f=58&t=2651 for examples.

When I started these were our Sunday Winter uniform, they must have lasted until I was in Upper V or thereabouts. They were navy serge with yellow piping down the front and on the belt. The collars were changed once or twice a term and until you had been shown the tricks were a b***er to sew back on, but a useful skill to learn! If you were the cold sort, not me then, you could easily wear a jersey under the dress. They had no shaping whatsoever, just the belt, that didn't matter. They worked and they looked good, can't think why they changed them unless it was because they changed the vile Summer yellow dresses. After these we had the grey pinafores with tartan blouses for Sundays.

[Jo]

I'd never seen the coat dresses until Hertford Museum last year but I thought they looked very smart indeed, and, as you say, complemented the boys' uniform. DR talked about her uniform decisions in Half to Remember, which explains some of them a bit. Doesn't excuse them though!

[Katharine]

Just remembered they were called coatfrocks not coat dresses - I didn't think that was right last night but had almost forgotten the word frock!