Fashion Stories: Uniforms - an alternative history

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From school to work to the military – uniforms can signal authority and belonging. But what happens when uniforms are worn by those whom institutions normally exclude? Or when they’re used out of context? New Generation Thinker Tom Smith explores playful, creative and queer uses of uniforms, from the cult film Mädchen in Uniform, recently released in the UK by the BFI, to documents he discovered in German archives, to his take on the styles embraced in subcultures today.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Tom Smith is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. You can find other Essays by him for Radio 3 exploring Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kfjt and Masculinities: Comrades in Arms https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00061m5 and hear him in this Free Thinking episode debating New angles on post-war Germany and Austria https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006sjx

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
0:01.5	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
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0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:34.6	Welcome to the Arts and Ideas podcast.
0:37.3	I'm Shah Hadabari and in this episode we're bringing
0:40.2	you fashion stories, short talks by new generation thinkers, that gang of academics who work with
0:46.6	the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share their research. Here's Tom
0:52.2	Smith with an alternative history of uniforms.
0:56.1	As a child, I was the only person in my family who enjoyed school uniform shopping.
1:01.8	The uniform shop in my hometown was narrow and extended far to the back and underground,
	...

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