Did this girl wear a uniform?

Johanna L.

New Member
Not so many years ago, when we were both in our late teens, a friend of mine left Sweden for a while and travelled to the UK. For a while, she worked for a family doing some cooking, cleaning, serving and took care of their daughter (who was circa 4-5 years ago) inside their house, and lived in a small room. She said it was a strict upper class family, requiring her to appear as a nice girl. Now, here comes the point.

When working there, she had to wear a white long-sleeved blouse and middle-long black skirt. She wore apron if she did some dirtier work. She hated it so much. (I've seen photographs of her, she looked like a waitress girl. Actually, I must say it looked good but as I said, she hated it). They weren't mean to her, but it was strict and they paid bad. Now over more to the question.

A lot of people would refer to this as a uniform, but now I would like to know:
Did she really wear a uniform (English)?
She was the only one working there. If there had been two young girls working there and dressed the same, I would understand but now she wasn't. Since people say uniform is many people wearing the same clothes. But usually even other girls in the same situation as my friend say they had to wear blouse and skirt as uniform.
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  • mtmjr

    Senior Member
    English (US)
    Interestingly, all the definitions listed here (http://www.wordreference.com/definition/uniform) would seem to imply that to be a "uniform", it must be worn by members (plural) of a group/class/profession. However, I would disagree. I see no reason why it can't be something worn by one person.

    So long as it is the one and only outfit that she can wear to work, to me that is exactly what a uniform is: identical outfits worn for a specific reason. Uniform - one form, one outfit.


    Signal Modulation
    English - Scotland
    You can use "uniform" to refer to any form of dress which is mandatory. It sounds as if her form of dress was mandatory, and therefore you can call it a uniform.

    Johanna L.

    New Member
    Yes, these were was only clothes the girl was allowed to wear when she was working in that household. What I know, that family paid to purchase a lot of similair blouses and skirts and required her to wear them.