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What To Wear To School

What To Wear To School
Carly Jacobs

My Smaggle readership is extremely diverse. I frequently get emails from 60-year-old retirees telling me they must be the oldest Smaggle reader in the world and then I often get emails from 16-year-olds asking if they’re the youngest Smaggle reader.

I honestly don’t know but I freaking adore the wonderful mish-mash of readers I get here. There’s mums, men, teenagers, couples, singles, LGBTQI people and child-free people. It’s like everyone knows it doesn’t matter what their job is, how old they are or what they look like as long as they don’t want to suck at life, this is the place for them.

I try to write articles that are interesting for everyone but that’s literally impossible. That’s why the range of subjects at Smaggle is so broad. Also because I’m just interested in stuff. I like lots of different things. It makes life interesting.

I’ve had a few readers ask me to do a post on what to wear to school for teachers and students. I think it’s safe to say that most of my readers are no longer in a traditional school setting (and in Australia, most schools have uniforms anyway) but I know I have lots of readers who are at university or college as well as many readers who are teachers. There’s also cooking, craft and language ‘hobby’ style schools that plenty of my readers frequent. I was chatting to a fashion brand manager at an event the other day and she said their brand caters to women with creative careers. Like teachers, graphic designers and small business owners. People who don’t need to dress in a traditional corporate manner but like to look presentable in their casual attire. I actually really love how they managed to define that market. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about but that’s been my whole professional career. I worked in a casual office, then schools for years and now I’m a small business owner so funky/casual is kind of my jam. Here’s what I wear on a typical work day, an outfit which incidentally works quite well for school settings too…

what to wear to school

Wearing 

Pants from COS – I don’t wear pants often but I wanted to bust these bad boys out before I get too big for them! #secondtrimester

Dress worn as top from Supre

Wrap cardigan from Religion – I bought this in Singapore about 5 years ago and I love it. It’s 100% cotton and just perfect to pop on when it’s chilly but not too cold

Clogs from Funkis – Cannot tell you how happy I am with this purchase. I wanted a decent, hard wearing pair of shoe for every day in winter and they are straight up delivering

Tips for what to wear to school…

Wear something comfortable 

I was never one for glamming it up at uni but I always liked to look presentable. Same with teaching. I taught kids with special needs and if you want to end up covered in shaving cream, mud, dishwashing liquid, pancake batter and glitter, just spend 5 minutes in a special needs classroom. I’d still wear dresses and cute little cardigans every day but I’d make sure they were clothes that washed and wore well and also pieces I wouldn’t be devastated if they ended up ruined. I did the same thing with jewellery school. I still wore clothes I felt stylish in but I never wore anything that would upset me if I spilled acid on it.

Wear something you can sit on the floor in 

I don’t know about you but in any kind of learning situation, I always end up sitting on the floor. To be fair, I’m a big floor sitter because I like to wriggle around and change position a lot but I still need to plan for this. I generally wear a dress that’s roomy enough to keep me covered up or some comfy pants or jeans. In classroom or learning environments, I often find myself climbing a lot too. I’m tall so I’m generally the one standing on a chair trying to get a ball off the roof or hanging up decorations in doorways. Comfy pants are excellent for teachers because if you stand on a chair in a skirt, half the kids on the playground will wander over for a cheeky look and you don’t want your students running home and telling their parents they saw the teacher’s undies at school today. Pants are almost always the way to go when you work in or attend a school.

Wear natural fibres so you’re not totally stinky by the end of the day 

Teaching is one of the most active jobs I’ve had. I was constantly running around – upstairs, to the front office, pelting across the oval trying to catch a kid that went rogue. Natural fibres were my saviour. I could get away with polyester on a rainy winter day when we stayed inside most of the time but summer? Forget about it. I also find that cotton wears really well and will take repeated washes without falling apart. Like this cardigan – It’s been washed, worn, thrown in a suitcase and used as blanket/pillow on a plane more times than I can count and it’s 100% cotton. You need hard wearing clothes when you spend most of your time at a school.

This outfit was worn for a day chained to my desk – so many emails and admin this week. The admin of running a blog, a crochet school, a podcast and all my freelance work is a job in itself. I’ve also got A LOT of work on at the moment which is great but also intense. Looking forward to a big weekend of errand running – Mr Smaggle needs to get some overalls because he’s about to be a dad and all dads need overalls. There’s also a 30% off yarn sale at Lincraft that’s whipping me into quite the frenzy.

What are you up to this weekend? Any fun plans? Also, what do you wear to school? Any good learning outfit tips to share?

P.S Also you should totally sign up for my newsletter. It’s full of cool stuff.
P.P.S Don’t forget Crochet Coach has a free trial offer period at the moment so make sure you sign up!

2 Comments

  1. Rhi 6 years ago

    I have the most deliciously comfortable pants from Just Jeans called Luxe Sateen pants that I wear to school most days in winter. I can walk/run/squat/climb/sit in them. They are excellent and are a black pant rather than jean. Size down when purchasing. I highly recommend them.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      Oh awesome! I have jeans from them and they’re amazing – will definitely check these out!

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