The moment the event “Just White” was announced I thought that this might be a question that was going to come up.

“Just White” is a concert at the Hessentag where entry is free, but you must come in white – or so the posters say.

Sometimes they just say simply “Dresscode: white”.

So does that mean going all in white, or just something you are wearing has to be white? (more…)

Ask almost anyone child in England who is learning German at school and there is one thing that they can tell you about German schools: they don’t have school uniforms.

Whilst some may like the sound of this more liberal attitude towards clothing, for the children it can mean the hard decision of what to wear each day, with conflicts arising among peers over designer labels, colours, and so on.

This, coupled with the fact that Germany has a general problem with uniforms anyway as a result of its past, meant that it was never going to be easy to introduce one into German schools.

But some are trying it out, and one of them is not far from us.  The new Grammar School in Rüsselsheim has opted for a “standard school clothing” rather than a “school uniform”, consisting of a standard blue T-Shirt, pop shirt, jumper with hood and a jacket.  A set costs around 90EUR.

Actually school T-Shirts are nothing new, but most children only have one that comes out for special occasions.  This extension of that idea may be sufficiently flexible (and “non-uniform”?) to catch on.