Fashion and beauty: Out with uniforms and in with style - college girls prepare for a new chapter in their lives

Sep 3 2009 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Fashion and beauty: Out with uniforms and in with style - college girls prepare for a new chapter in their lives

Thousands of Huddersfield 16-year-olds entered the world of sixth form college this week - leaving school uniforms behind. To celebrate, Hilarie Stelfox took three newly-liberated students for a make-over

AS A PARENT I’m all in favour of school uniforms. My 16-year-old daughter despairs when I say such things because having to wear the school’s ‘corporate’ colours, with ties, shirts and smart black shoes, appears to be the bane of every schoolchild’s life.

Parents like uniforms because they cut across social and financial divides; they’re generally cheaper than ‘everyday’ clothes and, there’s no getting away with it, they look smart. A strict uniform policy does away with competitive fashion and unsuitable clothing.

But by the age of 16 the vast majority of today’s young people have had enough of conforming and being made to look the same.

And so there’s a collective sigh of relief when the post GCSE pupils move on to become sixth form college students.

Although Huddersfield’s sixth form colleges do have some dress restrictions - no cropped tops, ‘belts’ worn as skirts, green hair etc - students are allowed the staples of teenage girlwear such as jeans, jewellery and make-up.

So it’s a massive change for 16-year-olds, many of whom are intensely interested in fashion and want to make a positive impression on their classmates.

To celebrate their new-found freedom we took three sixth form college students, all former pupils of Salendine Nook High School, to the Vanilla hair and beauty salon in Moldgreen to give them new, individual looks.

Our college girls - Charlotte Broadhead of Edgerton, now a student at Greenhead College; Emily Nardone, of Lindley, who is studying at New College; and Sara Barrow, also from Lindley and at Greenhead College - are all taking A levels and hope to go on to university.

The girls agree that sixth form college offers a transition between school and university and that being able to choose their own clothes made them feel more “grown-up.’’

“We all had to wear a uniform at school. We couldn’t even wear a coloured bobble in our hair or coloured socks,’’ said Sara, who is taking history, English and art. “At 16 people want to start being individual. You feel more relaxed out of uniform.’’

Emily, who is studying English, drama, media studies and psychology, added: “At school the girls wanted to rebel all the time, trying to blend fashion into their uniforms and see what they could get away with.’’

“One summer,’’ said Charlotte, who has chosen applied science, English, psychology and health and social care, “the girls tried to wear shorts because they said that their skirts blew up in the wind, but we weren’t allowed.’’

But their days of rebelling are over and the girls were looking forward to re-vamped hairstyles and the latest make-up looks from stylists Jane Prentice, Francesca Ellis and Elisha Pervaz and beauty therapist Michaela Cadogan.