ABSTRACT

Sometime in the mid-1990s, a headmaster at an elite private secondary school in New York City instituted what he wryly called a “navel blockade” to prohibit young women students from coming to class in spare shirts and lowcut pants that exposed their bellies. Clever creatures that they were, these blooming adolescents had managed to abide by a dress code while at the same time complying with the new fashion trend. This was especially remarkable in this rather conservative establishment that cherished its early American origins. The school had lifted the uniform requirement only in its recent history.