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I'm trying out different designs for my ultimate podcast host uniform So I got out this old sewing machine Oh, it's jammed again!
Ultimate podcast host uniform?
You mean like a special outfit for hosting podcasts?
Exactly! I need a signature look.
Molly, how do you feel about Ruffles?
You do realize no one can see you on a podcast, right, Joy?
Yes, but they can hear me.
And I sound my best when I look my best. Joy!
Be honest. What do we think about the feather boa?
There's magenta, lime green, and aqua.
Oh, hi Molly. Hi Hannah.
I see you're also working on a podcast host uniform.
I personally like the aqua colored boa but the feathers might make me sneeze.
Oh, good point. That might be distracting on the pod.
What about bangle bracelets instead?
Beautiful but noisy.
Neon 80's style windbreakers?
Rad! But too swishy.
Molly, you're a podcast host. What's your go -to podcast host uniform?
Well my ideal podcast host uniform is all about comfy boots and a striped turtleneck sweater.
Rain or shine, snow or sun, catch me in a turtleneck sweater.
I admire your commitment Molly.
Ugh, it's so hard to decide what my uniform should be!
Well, we can all agree on one thing, right?
The ultimate podcast host accessory?
Headphones! Yeah, how else are we supposed to hear how good we look?
Welcome to Forever Ago from APM Studios.
I'm Joy Dolo and I'm here with Hannah from San Mateo, California.
Hi, Joy. Today we're talking all about the history of uniforms. to help us get inspired to make our very own podcast host uniforms. Uniforms are a set of clothing that's specific to your work, school, or organization.
They can help tell you what job somebody does or what school they go to.
If you deliver the mail for the US Postal Service, you wear a blue shirt and pants, and carry a special mailbag.
That's a uniform! If you're a royal guard in the UK, you wear a long -sleeve red jacket and a big furry black hat.
Also a uniform! There are different uniforms for people in the military, which can help show which branch someone serves in.
And athletes wear special uniforms too, which creates a unifying look for the whole team and they help people keep track of who's on which team.
Some schools have uniforms too.
Hogwarts, anyone? Wednesday, Princess Diaries, Sailor moon?
Those are all examples from TV and movies but it's true.
School uniforms give a distinct look to each school and help show which students go to which school.
It's like everyone is on the same team.
Plus it means no one has to feel bad at school because they don't have the latest looks.
Hannah, you wear a school uniform, right?
Yes. Nice. Have you always had to wear one?
Well, we have free dress days, sometimes.
Is it like is that like one day a week or is it like Fridays and Mondays?
It's like sometimes we do like donation drives and whichever class gets like the most donation items, they can get free dress day, maybe?
Oh, nice incentive.
Okay, so I have two questions.
One, what is your uniform?
What does it look like?
And two, when you have when you get a free dress day, what do you like to wear?
My school uniform normally looks like a white polo shirt and navy blue pants, or maybe black.
And, um... I think I like wide -bottom pants or, like, something comfy, maybe.
Mmm... So when you're at home on the weekends and you're hanging out with your family and you guys go to the park or something, like, what do you like to wear when you're just hanging out and lounging?
Well, kinda, like, maybe the same, like, as free -dress day or maybe, like, if we're, like, playing at the park, but maybe if I'm inside, maybe, like, I like to wear pajamas.
Yeah. Oh, I love pajamas.
I have a onesie pajama that I like to wear.
It's like, it buttons all the way down and it's got long sleeves and then I have, like, big, thick socks that I wear with it, too.
That's cool. Hannah, if you could design your dream school uniform, what would it look like?
Like, I think it'd, like, be cool.
Like, maybe, like, silky.
Mm -hmm. With, like, bright -ish color so it's, like, Not neon, but like red hearts or something.
Oh, yeah, red hearts would be cool.
Or, like, orange, maybe?
Like, do you like those kind of bright colors?
They're, like, warm colors so it's like a sunset.
Oh, I love that. You know blue and orange is, like, my favorite combination?
Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah.
That's cool. And silky would be nice on the skin, too.
Listeners, we asked you to design the school uniform of your dreams, and here's what you had to say.
Hi, my name is Abigail, and I live in Rescue, California.
I like to design my own uniform and I would like it to have bright orange long sleeve shirt with feathers on the cuff and a bright pink shirt.
Hi, my name is Alexander.
I am from Olathe, Kansas.
My dream school uniform would be a tie -dye shirt with buttons, there would be a shirt pocket and on the shirt pocket there would be a little bumblebee, but instead of yellow and black stripes, there would be blue and black stripes.
Hi, I'm Ellie, and my design for a school uniform will be a light green skirt or pants and a blue and yellow striped shirt with a purple bow.
If I could design a school uniform, it would be sort of like a mood ring where it changes color depending on what emotion you're having at that exact moment.
For example, if you're feeling happy, it will be green.
But if you're feeling angry, it will be red.
Hi, my name is Zara.
I'm from India, Hyderabad.
I wanted the uniform to be a light blue dress that has a rainbow on it.
Thanks to Abigail, Alexander, Ellie, Nathaniel and Zara for sending in those awesome uniform design ideas.
I'm writing all of this down to help me decide on my podcast host uniform.
Joy, have you ever had to wear a school uniform?
That's a great question Hannah.
You know, I've never had to wear a school uniform.
But I can relate to the idea that like every day I had to think of something else to wear and I would get stressed out about it because I'd be like, well, I wore these pants already.
I can't wear them again because I wore them on Monday and it's Thursday.
And I don't know where that came from.
It doesn't make any sense.
Like, I could have worn the same pants every day and I would have been fine.
Cause I do that now, and nobody notices.
Actually, nobody here knows that I've wore these pants for like two days in a row, but now you all know, and I wish I didn't say that out loud, but no, I've never had to wear a uniform.
What about other uniforms?
I used to wear uniforms when I had my regular day jobs.
Like I worked at Red Lobster for a long time, But when I worked there, I had to wear black slacks and a white polo, and I don't know if you know this, but there's lots of, like, greasy food stuff around.
So it was really hard to keep that white polo clean.
And they don't give you a bunch of them, they only give you one, so it's like...
Bye -bye. Yeah and then, like, sometimes when people came in, you have to, like, take the little lobsters out of the tank and, like, show them.
It was weird, but I had to do it all in my uniform, so, like, it would always smell, like, shellfish and...
So, um, I've got a lot of different uniforms from, like, working in restaurants.
Did you ever have to wear a cool uniform for an acting role?
There was one time I did a show where I played a soldier, and I had, like, a soldier uniform, and they even had somebody from the army come in and show us how to do a proper salute, so we could look like real soldiers.
Yeah, so I guess I've had a lot of uniform experience, just not necessarily in, like, the school context.
So cool. every uniform has a story and today we're going to tell the story of the school uniform the first school uniform we know about is from 800 years ago in England this was way back at a time called the Middle Ages most people spent their days farming and eating porridge instead of going to school kids helped with farm work and other chores, too.
In England, school was mostly for wealthy people, like royalty or people who owned a lot of land.
Schools were run by churches back in the Middle Ages.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was the leader of the Church of England, had an idea for his students.
I, the Archbishop of Canterbury, hereby decree that all the students of the Church wear a Capa Clausa.
Kappa what now? Kappa Clausa means closed cloak in Latin.
These cloaks were long, so they went all the way to the floor.
They also had hoods, and get this, these early school uniforms were sewn completely closed, except for an opening in the front for the hands.
Kind of like if you had a really long poncho with a hole in the middle of it for your hands to come out.
This was the first known example of a school making students wear a specific kind of clothing.
Flash forward a couple of centuries to the mid -1500s, toward the end of the renaissance.
This is around the time when playwright William Shakespeare was born, the guy who wrote Romeo and Juliet.
The printing press had been invented, which means more and more people were learning to read and sharing information with each other.
And clothing for students became a lot more practical than that big old cloak called the which is a really cool name.
This is when the first modern school uniforms popped up.
It was around 1552.
Once again, in England.
Right. These new uniforms started at Christ Hospital Boarding School outside of London.
This school was also tied to the Church of England, just like the school that made students wear cloaks.
But these uniforms were nothing like a cloak.
They were made up of separate pieces of clothing with distinct colors.
yellow knee stockings and long navy blue coats, with matching navy shorts underneath.
The school gave these uniforms to the students, who were mostly poor children or orphans.
The people of London pitched in to help pay for the school uniforms too.
Here's a fun fact, the school is still around today, and the students wear the same uniform!
Yep, they still wear blue coats and yellow stockings almost 500 years later.
It's really cool that this look survived all the fashion trends over the years.
It really has staying power.
Thank goodness shoulder pads weren't in style in the 1500s.
That'd be a tough look to pull off for hundreds of years.
Hmm, but they might be just the thing for my podcast host uniform!
Large Shoulder pads, question mark?
Okay, so we know that school uniforms got their start in England, starting as far back as the Middle Ages.
And more modern uniforms showed up later in England during the 1550s.
Both of these school uniforms had ties to churches.
So how did uniforms get to the U .S.?
And why are they at some non -religious schools now, too?
Great question. We're going to dive into the answers after the break.
But first let's play First Things First. That's the game where we take three items and put them in order from the oldest to most recent in history.
Today, we've got three clothing items, penny loafers, which are a type of fancy slip -on shoe, neckties, and blazers, which are like a suit jacket.
Hannah, have you heard of these three things?
What exactly does like a blazer look like?
You know, like, business folks, they have that like jacket that goes with the pants.
It's like a suit, you know, like a blazer, it's like that top part.
And neckties, what is that?
It's like a tie like a like a suit and tie.
Okay, cool. So I think first is maybe neckties?
I mean like it seems like an old timey thing that like, rich people would wear with padded wigs.
Yeah, I don't know and blazers.
So I don't know that just seems something in the middle that people would wear like in the middle.
Yeah, Yeah. And... penny loafers.
Well, it says like a lot of shoe parts and like you have to slip it in.
Yeah. Well, that's a good question too because it's like, which came first?
Like shoes that you slip on or shoes that you have to tie?
Yeah. So right now we have number one as neckties.
Number two is blazers.
And number three, penny loafers?
Yes. All right, we're gonna lock that in.
And those are some great guesses.
We'll hear the answers at the end of the show after the credits.
So keep listening. Hey, Forever Eggo friends.
We love getting your episode ideas and history questions.
Hannah, what's something in history you'd like to learn more about?
I think I want to learn more about architecture, like, how skyscrapers came from like old fashioned houses.
Yeah. Oh, that's so cool.
You know, I just read a book about cathedrals and how cathedrals were built.
I think that's a great idea.
If you all out there have a question about history or an idea for an episode, record it and send it to us at Forevergo .org slash contact.
You can also send us fan art.
Yes like a picture of your personal podcast host you to form or a picture of your favorite cathedral or skyscraper or a picture of me, Hannah and my pet elephant Hermes stomping down the runway at the latest fashion show.
I can't wait to see what you come up with.
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Since you're a fan of Forever a Go, you'll love the other shows in our universe.
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This is Elio of Earth.
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Yes, it's really happening!
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Welcome to the Com -universe.
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food and I am not fireproof.
Disney and Pixar's Elio.
Rated PG. A rental guidance suggested.
Only in theatres. Tickets available now.
You're listening to Forever Ago.
I'm Joy. I'm Hannah.
Before the break, we learned about how school uniforms got their start in England.
First in the middle ages, with long, closed cloaks.
And then again in the mid 1500s with yellow socks and navy jackets at a boarding school outside of London.
Both of these uniforms came from schools in England that were run by churches.
So, how did school uniforms end up in the U .S. And why are they in some schools that aren't run by churches?
To help answer that, I called up a fashion expert.
Hi, okay, I'm here for the fashion emergency.
It's fellow podcast host Avery Truffelman.
She's burst through the wall and she's covered in debris and she's here to save the day.
Avery hosts a podcast called articles of interest all about what we wear.
Parents, check it out.
Hi Avery. Hey you two.
Ugh, Joy, do you need more stain remover?
I thought you'd learned your lesson after the melted chocolate pocket incident of last summer.
No chocolate pocket here.
Actually, this is a fashion history emergency.
We're talking all about uniforms today.
Avery, as a fellow podcast host, what would you say is your podcast host uniform?
Hmm. I kind of like a uniform that sounds almost like what the kids wore outside of London.
I like to wear a little blazer.
I like to wear a little collared shirt.
I don't know, it makes me feel sophisticated.
ASHLEY Oh, yeah, sophisticated outfit.
It sounds like you're like that too, Hannah.
You got a sophisticated outfit too.
I need some sophistication in my life.
This is all really great intel for designing my own podcast host uniform.
Maybe I'll have like a button down collar and then like a blazer and then like navy blues shoes in honor of Hannah's.
And then what else is sophisticated?
I can have like a white fluffy cat that I pet all the time.
Yes, yes. And maybe a shirt that says I'm sophisticated underneath.
That's a great way to be sophisticated.
Yes, I love it. Sometimes you just have to spell it out for people.
Big glasses, the thicker they are, the smarter you are.
Ah, yes, I read that on the Internet.
Mmhmm. We've been talking about the history of school uniforms, we know they started in England.
But when did people start seeing them in the US?
That is a really great question.
We don't see school uniforms becoming more popular in the United States until a couple hundred years later in the 1800s, just after the Industrial Revolution.
Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution was this super important period in history when more stuff started being made in factories by machines instead of by hand.
Exactly, this meant that there were lots of new jobs in the United States, and lots of immigrants moved to the United States to work those jobs.
Immigrants are people who move from their home country to a new country.
Many immigrants were moving to the United States looking for a better life.
At the time lots of these immigrants were from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe, but these new people were not always welcomed when they moved to the US.
In fact, many Americans treated immigrants poorly just because they spoke a different language or had different cultures and religions from their own.
Some businesses wouldn't hire them as workers.
And sometimes immigrants were mocked in newspapers and cartoons.
Unfortunately, it's a story we hear again and again throughout history.
The treatment of these new immigrants was unfair and wrong.
A lot of these immigrants were also Catholic, which wasn't a very popular religion in the United States back then.
Right. The majority of Americans practiced different types of Christianity and viewed Catholics as really different from themselves.
Even some of the public schools were super anti -Catholic.
A lot of these Catholic immigrants didn't feel comfortable at these public schools, so they decided to band together.
Catholic immigrants started to make their own Catholic schools, where students could be around other kids who shared the same religion and spoke the same language, like Irish or Polish or Italian.
I bet that helped these people feel more at home in their new country.
It can be nice to be around people who understand you and your culture.
And one way to help a group feel even closer is to have a uniform.
And that's what these schools did.
They had students wear uniforms to make everyone feel like part of a team.
So what did these American school uniforms look like back then?
Some of these early uniforms were inspired by the military and had square collars, Kind of like you'd see on sailors' uniforms or Donald Duck, if you remember what he's wearing.
This is also when we start to see navy pants or skirts paired with white button -down shirts.
It's honestly very similar to some of the uniforms we see in schools today.
Oh, maybe my podcast host uniform should be navy with buttons.
So sophisticated, so much to consider.
Over time, newer uniforms were made with more colors and different shapes of jackets.
By the 1980s, almost 100 years later, some public schools started using uniforms too.
Like at my school! We're not a religious school, but we still have a uniform.
Exactly! And, parents, if you want to hear more about school uniforms, I'm doing a whole episode about this on my podcast, Articles of Interest. And Hannah's in it, too!
Yep, and so is my mom!
Subscribe to Articles of Interest so you can check it out.
We'll also add a link to it in the show notes as soon as it's released.
Thanks for sharing with us Avery!
My pleasure! Sounds like I'm being summoned for another fashion emergency.
Vogue Bulgaria needs to know if bows are in or not.
Gotta blast! Bye Avery!
Today there are school uniforms in all sorts of schools, whether they're public or private, religious or non -religious.
Just under 20 % of American public schools require school uniforms. That's about one in every five schools.
Most American students don't wear a school uniform, but that's not the case in other countries.
Right, in places like Japan, Australia, and India, the majority of students wear school uniforms. But there's a lot of disagreement about uniforms. Ah yes, the age -old debate.
To uniform or not to uniform?
That is the question.
Some studies argue that school uniforms cause less distractions because everyone is wearing the same thing.
They can make getting ready for school much easier too.
Because you don't have to think about what to wear.
Some researchers even think uniforms might help kids do better on tests or improve their attendance.
But other researchers say uniforms don't really change student behavior at all.
And some people say uniforms make it harder for students to express themselves with their looks.
We wanted to hear what you think so we asked you what you liked and disliked about school uniforms. Hi, I'm Divrat I live in India and I think kids should have to wear their own comfortable home clothes to school.
Hi my name is Abigail and I live in Rescue California.
I think kids should wear uniforms because they'll know which class they are in.
Hi, my name is Shoshi.
I think school uniforms should not be allowed because of the school I go to.
We have uniforms and they're very uncomfortable.
Hi, my name is Elliot I'm from Olathe, Kansas.
When I think about school I think everybody should wear the same school uniforms. Hi, my name is Ida.
I think uniforms shouldn't be allowed because, as they don't allow a kid to wear what they'd like to wear if they don't like what their uniform is or looks like.
Hello, my name's Maxine and I go to school with uniforms. I am against uniforms because most of the time we're rigid and if you shop for them in summer, then it's wasting your summer time you could be playing games like frisbee.
Thanks Abigail, Devrat, Shoshi, Elliot, Eda and Maxine for sharing your thoughts.
Hannah, as someone who has always worn a school uniform, how do you feel about them?
I think I'm fine with them.
I don't think they're bad.
What do you like about wearing a uniform?
You don't have to, like, rush through your warning and say, oh, no, what do I wear?!
Yeah, that's what I experienced when I had to figure out my school uniforms. Or, like, if you want to wear something, you want maybe, like, other people might not make fun of you because you're all wearing the same thing.
Mm. Yeah, yeah. Are there things that you don't like about it?
Or that you wish would change?
Sometimes. I think they could be more comfy, like, not too scratchy all the time.
Maybe, like, a bit more color into it to make it seem cool.
Yeah, what color would you pick?
I don't know, because mine is like Mandarin immersion, so maybe red, that's what our graduation t -shirts are.
I love red. That's a great color.
Well, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Anytime. Uh -oh. Joy, don't tell me you've had another melted chocolate pocket incident.
I leave loose chocolate chips in my gene pockets one time in the middle of the summer, and I never hear the end of it.
But no, that's my fashion timer.
It means it's time to debut our podcast host uniforms. I finally decided on the perfect fit.
Lights, cameras, fashion.
A fashion show needs some MC.
Hit it, Molly! First up on the runway, it's Hannah wearing her very own podcast host uniform.
A polka dot vest with wide leg pants.
Yes and yes. And don't forget my star hair clips!
Yes, who could forget.
Tens, tens, tens across the board. Next up, it's Joy Dolo here in her signature pink denim jumpsuit and fresh Converse.
Peep the match in tube socks.
They're key to regulating my temperature in those chilly recording studios.
Sporty, stylin' and oh so practical and here comes Avery in a pinstripe vest over a crisp button up And are those earrings made out of wall debris?
They're incredibly heavy, but oh so chic.
And here comes Herme the elephant in leather overalls.
So sleek. And is that Gumpy?
Joy's sculpture come to life made entirely of chewing gum?
And he's wearing Gauchos.
Love it! Cooloffs are back, people!
Uniforms are specific clothes that show what kind of job you do, school you go to, or organization you're a part of.
The earliest school uniforms date back to schools run by English Churches 800 years ago.
School uniforms didn't become more popular in America until the 1800s, when Catholic immigrants from Europe started their own schools.
Now people all over the world wear school uniforms. There are pros and cons to wearing school uniforms. Either way, uniforms and fashion continue to influence each other.
This episode was written by Ruby Guthrie.
It was produced and fact -checked by Nico Gonzalez -Whistler and edited by Sandin Tauten and Sheila Farzan.
Engineering help from Victoria Bharato and Gene Barron with sound designed by Rachel Breese.
Original theme music by Mark Sanchez.
We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team.
Molly Bloom, Rosie DuPont, Anna Goldfield, Lauren Humppert, Joshua Ray, Mark Sanchez, Charlotte Traver, Anna Weigel, and Arun Woldesal Stevens.
Beth Perlman is our executive producer and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavadi and Joanne Griffith.
Special thanks to Avery Truffleman, Grace Tarducci, Debbie Shafer Jacobs and Elizabeth Lynn.
Okay, Hannah, are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First?
Yes, I guess. I'm excited.
Okay, so as a reminder, we're putting these three clothing items in order and you said number one was neckties, number two was blazers, and number three was penny loafers.
Are you ready? Yes.
Drum roll, please. duh -duh -duh -duh, duh -duh -duh.
Oh, Hannah. Oh, you got it right.
So number one was neckties, and that was invented in 1636, and the modern necktie can be traced back to 1636, when French King Louis xauthent soldiers to help fight a war.
The soldiers secured their jackets by tying colorful pieces of cloth at the neck.
King Louis loved the look and nicknamed it the cravat, coming from the French word for Croatians.
By the early 1800s, the cravat had spread to other countries, and England even published an entire manual on different ways of tying and knotting the neck scarves, hence the name neck tie.
I did not know that!
Cravat, coming from the French word for Croatians, that's cool.
So when you see somebody wearing a neck tie or a tie knell you can be like, nice cravat.
it's pretty sweet also side side note my dog's name is King Louie so now I gotta get him a little necktie so you're right number one necktie something you were also right for number two for Blazers there are different stories about the origins of the blazer but both are in England during the 1800s one story goes that the term blazer is traced back to a college boat club in Cambridge, England, back in 1825.
Members of the club's rowing team wore bright red structured jackets that got the nickname Blazers, like a fiery blaze.
The other theory is that the jackets were named after a navy boat called the HMS Blazer in 1837.
The boat's captain made his crew wear matching navy blue jackets in hopes of impressing the Queen on a royal visit.
So we have the necktie 1636, we have the Blazers in the 1800s, and the most recent is the Penny loafers, and they were invented in 1936 by a Maine shoemaker, G .H.
Bass. Bass was inspired by Norwegian farming shoes that were made for loafing in the field.
The loafers have a small leather strap across the front of the shoe with a little cutout in the center.
The shoes got the nickname penny loafers because people used to put coins, like pennies, in the cutout of their shoes.
I knew it! fashionable and functional, like a tiny coin purse on your foot!
Like so then, I'm gonna go to a store, okay, one penny please.
Yeah yeah, and you take your shoe off and give him a penny.
You're like, why is this sweaty?
Sorry. Did you, uh, were you surprised by any of these answers?
Well like, I kind of expected it maybe like, at a different point in time, maybe?
It's interesting like, the name of the inventor is like, To loaf around in the field.
We're just out here loafing.
Thanks for listening.
It is estimated that over 4 million people have been abducted by alien life forms. But only one of them asked for it.
This is Elio of Earth.
If any aliens are listening, come and get me.
From Disney and Pixar.
Yes, it's really happening.
he'll go where no one has gone before.
Welcome to the Comuniverse.
Whoa... What is this place?
These are the lava tunnels.
Food and I am not fireproof!
Disney and Pixar's Elio, rated PG.
The rental guidance suggested, only in theaters.
Tickets available now.
