随着又一个秋季学期的开始，英国的孩子们将开始把夏天的短裤和T恤衫换成裙子或长裤。舆论对于校服的看法并不一致：要么认为它是保存自尊和团队精神必不可少的要素，要么认为它是旨在划分特权阶层和普通大众的不合时宜之物。但是很少有人会否认，英国顶级独立学校对于校服所花的心思堪称夸张。
1、舞会服装
如果你希望你的孩子将来能领导这个国家，那他们就需要接受鹤立鸡群的训练，伊顿公学(Eton College)在这方面就做得很出色。伊顿燕尾服最初是为19世纪的绅士而创设的，但如今依然穿在那些手拿iPod的学生身上的，与当初的燕尾服几无差别。“没有比这更好的方法来培养自我意识了，”麦康奈尔(JDR McConnell)在1967年他的入学导言中写道。
2、很高兴，不是灰色
查尔斯王子在哈罗兹附近的山丘小屋(Hill House)预备学校就读时，成为第一个与杰出平民共用一间教室的王位继承人。该校创始人、校长斯图尔特•汤森德中校(Lt-Col Stuart Townsend)要求学生们在骑士桥街道上游行时身穿紫红色灯笼裤、黄色套衫和围巾。“灰色的校服会导致灰色的男孩，”上校的妻子、设计了这套校服的比阿特丽斯(Beatrice)说。
3、时尚宣言
一些伦敦市中心最热门的预备学校知道，他们的国际客户希望自己的小公主看起来像真的公主一样，例如在切尔西的花园别墅女校(Garden House Girls’ School)。该校校服是一件精心剪裁、迷人的碧绿色花呢外套，一顶别致的小贝雷帽——由与之相配的天鹅绒制作——这身打扮多么像年轻的女王啊！
4、西服
英国收费最昂贵的走读学校威斯敏斯特学院(Westminster School)坚持选用灰色西服作校服。但是，并非所有的“威斯敏斯特学子”都符合伦敦金融城的标准，分开的衬衫下摆就是一个典型的扭曲之处——虽然该校曾经的学生尼克•克莱格(Nick Clegg)明显不属于这种情况。(译注：尼克•克莱格是英国第3大党自由民主党党魁。)
5、考虑女学生的需要
看起来只有公立学校会认为他们的女学生仍然需要让脚踝得到良好的保护——毫无疑问，这是要防范寒冷的狂风和淫荡的目光。莫尔伯勒学院(Marlborough College)和拉格比学校(Rugby School)要求女生的裙子长及地板（虽然拉格比已经体贴地重新设计了校服，让穷人也能吃得消）。
6、蓝色外套大出风头
在苏塞克斯郡的基督学校(Christ’s Hospital)，男孩也能享受旋转式裙边的待遇。该校著名的及地式蓝色外套——始自该校在都铎时代成立时——配的是黄色长袜和齐膝短裤。虽然也许让年龄小些的学生有点尴尬，但年龄大些的男孩发现，它可以帮助他们营造出浪漫的调调。
丽莎•弗里德曼经营着一家学校事务咨询公司At the School Gates，www.attheschoolgates.co.uk
译者/郁之
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035028
Next week British children will start to swap summer shorts and T-shirts for sensible skirts and trousers as another autumn term begins. Opinions on school uniform are divided: it is either essential for self-respect and team spirit or it’s an anachronism designed to distinguish the privileged from hoi polloi. But few would deny that England’s top independent schools take uniforms to extravagant lengths.
1. Uniforms as fancy dress
If you want your children to lead the country, they need to be trained to stand out from the crowd and Eton College does the job nicely. The Eton tailcoat was originally created for 19th-century gentlemen but remains virtually unchanged for today’s generation of iPod-toting pupils. “There is no better cure for self-consciousness,” wrote JDR McConnell in his 1967 guide to the college.
2. Glad not to be grey
Prince Charles was the first heir to the throne to share a classroom with the great untitled when he attended Hill House, a preparatory school near Harrods. Its founding head, Lt-Col Stuart Townsend, required pupils to march the streets of Knightsbridge in burgundy knickerbockers, yellow jumpers and cravats. “A grey uniform produces grey boys,” said the colonel’s wife Beatrice, who designed the look.
3. Uniforms as fashion statement
Some of central London’s most sought-after prep schools know that their international clientele want their own little princesses to look like the real thing. The uniform at Chelsea’s Garden House Girls’ School, for example, includes a well-cut tweed coat in a fetching shade of aquamarine, accessorised with a chic little beret in matching velvet – how like the young Queen!
4. Uniforms as business suits
Westminster School, Britain’s most expensive day school, insists on the grey business suit. But not all “Wets” conform to City standards and the untucked shirt-tail is a characteristic twist – though clearly not in the case of former pupil Nick Clegg.
5. Keeping women in their place
Only public schools appear to think that their female pupils still require well-covered ankles – no doubt as protection from chilly blasts and lascivious glances. Both Marlborough College and Rugby School demand that girls’ skirt lengths graze the floor (though Rugby has kindly re-designed the garment to enable the poor things to run).
6. Blue coats cut a dash
At Christ’s Hospital in Sussex boys, too, enjoy swirling hemlines. The school’s famous floor-length blue coats – dating from the school’s foundation in Tudor times – are accompanied by yellow stockings and knee breeches. Though perhaps a tad embarrassing in the early years, older boys find it helps them cut a romantic figure.
Lisa Freedman runs the schools consultancy At the School Gates, www.attheschoolgates.co.uk
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