In the 1950s-1970s many schools enforced strict dress codes. Skirts could not be too tight or too short, the same went to girls’ sweaters. Boys and girls couldn’t even wear jeans (or dungarees as they were known back then).

If a student was caught breaking the rules they might get detention or even be sent home from school. It was a very serious thing! In the ’50s the greaser and rock & roll trends meant that many kids were wearing quite the wrong thing to school because it just looked cool to them. This film reel from the ’50s in Hicksville, New Jersey, in shows just exactly which clothes the high school students were to wear and which they were to stay away from. It’s interesting that even the inappropriate clothes back then would be quite modest by today’s standards. Have a look in the video below.

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