Vintage School Uniforms

I recently submitted a post over at Vintage Shopper.  It explores the British origins and history of school uniforms, how they came to be popular in the US, and how to wear and how not to wear a retro school uniform look today. 

• Did you know the origin of school uniforms originated in the U.K.during the reign of King Henry VIII?
• Did you know that Bill Clinton suggested that schools adopt uniforms in his 1996 state of the union speech?
• Did you know that a 2013 study conducted by Lands' End and the National Association of Elementary School Principals found that 49% of U.S. public schools have a school uniform policy in place or plan to implement one.

I invite you to check out my post over at Vintage School Uniforms.

Gap Inc - Retail Roundup Series

The Gap, Inc. is an American multinational clothing and accessories retailer. It was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest specialty retailer in the United States with over 2550 stores in the US. In additional to the Gap stores, the company operates 4 other brands: Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta. The Gap offers free shipping on orders over $50 and free returns on all orders.

GapKids carries a line of school uniform items.  If you've read a few of the posts from last summer's Best Bets series, you may have noticed that the regular retail price of the GAP uniform items tend to fall at the top the charts. However, if you're a smart shopper, you can score these items for deep discounts.  Last fall, I bought a few basic polos for may daughter for 5 bucks each off the clearance rack. 

Girls Bottoms

Girls uniform pants are offered in 5 styles: trouser pants, boot cut, skinny and capri and ponte styles. The shorts are offered in two styles, the traditional bermuda short as well as a shorter flat front style.  They also carry fold over yoga pants which would work for PE class and leggings.

Girls Tops

They carry short and long sleeve polos in several colors (white, blue and navy).  They carry a no-iron long sleeve button down, long sleeve oxfords, short sleeve peter pan blouses, and a ruffle shirt. The cable knit cardigans are offered in navy and white and the v neck cardigan in gray and navy.

Girls Dresses

The polo dress is a classic drop waist pleated style and offered in gray, navy, pink and red. The pleated skirt is offered in two styles: a GapShield and a more casual ponte knit. They offer two jumpers: one in Gapshield fabric with a shirred empire waist style and another straighter style in ponte knit. They sell  three packs of knit shorts that a can be worn under the jumpers, skirts or dresses.

Girls Outerwear

They also offer several jackets. A ponte navy blazer, a hooded fleece coat, a peplum coat and a rain coat.

Boys Bottoms

Boys uniform pants are offered in 3 styles: flat front, straight, and pleated pants. They carry a dress pant, as well as a wide-wale cords. The shorts are offered in three styles, the flat front, pleated and cargo.  

Boys Tops

They carry short and long sleeve polos in a nice variety of colors.  They carry a no-iron long sleeve and a short sleeve button down, as well as long sleeve and short sleeve oxfords. The v-neck cardigans is offered in several colors and mock zip cardigan.

Boys Outerwear

They also offer several jackets. A knit blazer, a knit peacoat, and a rain coat.

Video Pick: 5 Uniform Outfit Ideas for School

For my video pick, I'm sharing a video from thebeautyguru4u, a 16 year old beauty and fashion video blogger.  In this recent video she shares 5 school uniform ideas to help individualize your uniform look. These ideas work best for a girl at a school with a uniform dress code, aka the khakis and polos look.

February Poll - What's your favorite place to shop for school uniforms?

I want to hear from you. Please take a minute to chime in on this month's poll and tell me your favorite retailers for school uniforms.

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French Toast's Mobile Website

This month I received a copy of the Spring 2014 French Toast catalog in the mail.  I browsed through it to see if any new items were featured.  The clothing items featured included the same classic items that parents count on.  Instead, I noticed several features promoting their mobile website for "on the go shopping".

I spend a good amount of time on my iPad, so I picked it up to see if I noticed anything different on their site. I didn't; I was still browsing the full, regular site.  However, when I browsed the French Toast site from my iPhone, I was redirected to a mobile version with simple text menus for navigation.  The menus are consistent with the choices available on the full site, so they were familiar and easy to use.

I work in technology so I am very familiar with the trends showing rapid growth of consumers using tablets and phones to connect with brands and shop online.  I applaud French Toast for making the effort to develop a mobile friendly version of their site.

So what does this mean for us?  Well, next time your out and about and your little one rips a hole in the knee of his school pants, you can go ahead and place a quick order to have a replacement pair sent to you. Instead of waiting until you get home, you can place an order during warm ups at soccer practice or in the waiting room of the pediatricians office or wherever you find a few spare minutes. As parents, we have a lot going on.  In my opinion, all efforts to simplify things and help us easily cross items off the family to-do list are greatly appreciated. Less time on family chores means more time for family fun.

So give it a try and chime in here to let us know what you think of the new mobile friendly site at FrenchToast.com.

Celebrating our First Year!

It's been one year since I started Uniform Mom. I set out with a goal to create a community for parents of kids that wear school uniform to share information about brands and products, sales and promotions, as well as advice to help us manage the uniform wardrobe for our school aged kids. Since then, I've shared quite a bit of information on school uniform retailers, advice on building and maintaining a school wardrobe, and numerous reviews of children's school clothing items. Over the past year, I've developed relationships with retailers to be able to bring you the most timely information.

The Retail Round Up Series is made up of posts on each of the major retailers that offer school uniforms year round. Most of those retailers have stores nationwide and a few are regionally located and also offer an online option. These posts provide a bit of background about the store, tell you what type of items you'll find there, what sizes they carry, the store's return policy and anything else that I found interesting. You can find all of them conveniently listed on the "Where To Shop" tab.

The  Back To School "Best Bets"  is a series of posts which provide useful information for building a school wardrobe.  Each post features one clothing item and provides a list of features you should look for when shopping, as well as the all important price comparison between all of the major retailers. These posts are easy to navigate from the "Best Bets by Clothing Type" tab.

Over the past year, I have reviewed over eighteen different school uniform clothing items from at least seven different retailers. I did not receive any compensation for these reviews. I just gave you my honest "Mom" opinion of how these items have worked out for my daughter and how they have held up during the school year.  I am actively seeking input from others to provide more guest reviews, especially on boys clothing items.  I also featured several sponsored reviews on a handful of other products that would be interesting to parents of school aged children.  

Each Friday, I share the "Weekend Shopping Guide" which includes information from the retailers to let you know what's on sale and provide coupon codes to help you save even more.  I also organized giveaway opportunities on uniform clothing and accessories and bought you opportunities to enter other giveaways that would be of interest to most parents.

So what can you expect from Uniform Mom in the next year? 

Definitely more reviews, more useful advice and more information from the retailers.  I am also planning more ways for you to let me know which information you find here on uniform Mom is most useful.  We'll be doing monthly polls so you can provide more input and I can focus on how to get you the information you need.  I'll be sharing more sale alerts and coupons on the Uniform Mom Facebook page.  If you haven't connected with me on Facebook, please head over and "Like" the page to stay in the loop.




Uniform Mom is PR Friendly - Brands looking to connect with parents of kids that wear uniform to school should feel free to contact me with opportunities such as sponsored reviews, participation in affiliate programs, exclusive coupon codes, and more.

Monthly Poll: Lunch boxes

One morning, we found our daughter's lunchbox next to her book bag near the front door with a wet spot on the outside.  We opened the lunchbox to find what had been a half eaten container of applesauce was now a gooey mess throughout the inside of the container and through the fabric. Yuck!

The inside of the lunchbox was pretty easy to clean with a little kitchen spray cleaner and a sponge.  Where the applesauce had leaked through the fabric, I ran it under cold water and then let it air dry.

My daughter has the insulated lunch bag from Lands' End that matches her backpack.  We bought them when she was starting Kindergarten.  I wrote about the book bag previously (read my review here), as it has held up very well to daily use for over a year and a half now.  The lunch bag doesn't get use as often because she buys school lunch a few days a week.  However, as the example above outlines, it gets exposed to spills, leaking goo and a never ending assortment of crumbs.  In my opinion, it can be a breeding ground for cooties and germs.  Since I use it regularly to pack food items that I intend for my daughter to eat, I take special care to clean and sanitize it best I can.  One of my girlfriends told me that she favors a lunch box with a hard surface that can be cleaned easily rather than the soft insulated bags made from fabric.

So tell me how often you buy a new lunch bag or box for your child?

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