A Short Update

Just a quick not to anyone interested in the sources for the garments I depicted a couple of entries ago - latex and plastic knickers etc...I neglected to put in the relevant credits and contact details for the pics concerned...I am working away from home this weekend but on Monday I'll go back and add links and references to all the relevant companies and sources. Also the next complete update will probably be late Monday night or Tuesday as I have to go in for an eye checkup on Mon Morning...Meanwhile, isn't it a shame that the bulletin board I told you about closed down (see last few entries). It is possible though that the original postings may still exist as cached pages on Google. Try typing in this: Too old to wear white socks to school (it was the original thread title), then read what you find (if it still exists) and think about other keywords to use to track down any other entries. If there is enough interest and if none is found cached I may try to further recreate the gist of the discussion in precis form (with a bit of illustration if I can).

Even better is to type into Google: Too old to wear white socks to school +worsted (don't forget to select the cached page - but you won't be able to follow on to more directly from that page - you will have to find the cached follow on by clever use of keywords).

Volume 2 Chapter Outline and Blog Updates

I have just discovered that the links to the dress discipline bulletin-board I have been discussing for the last few posts no longer work; I guess it has been taken down. Therefore I have removed the links from my posts but have left my discussion in place.

Yesterday night I went back over the previous two posts to this one and added a series of illustrative images - so it might well be worth looking back. Incidentally the photo at the top of the last article came from my collection of scans taken from New Uniform Girls and dates to the late 1990s (probably sometime between 1997 and 1998 but let me know if you know different) as do those on this page. I couldn't resist posting more of this series. There are many reasons but one is because it is so different from the usual schoolgirl attire depicted (yes it is basically a gymslip - but the cross-over style of its bodice is what makes it interesting) and therefore eminently suitable for the purposes of those message board correspondents I've been banging on about. Then there is the unusual colour scheme, with the girl wearing a maroon blouse, highly conspicuous and therefore attention drawing - this particular shot I find exceptionally exciting; it is the way she is tinkering with her hair and her deliciously glum expression. One is driven to the impression that perhaps only a short while ago those locks had been much longer - I would hope that we are seeing an intermediate stage here and that she is shortly to be summoned back to the hairdresser's chair, having had the bulk of the length dealt with, to complete its metamorphose to the regulation style. In fact, despite the lack of overt evidence of haircutting in the photograph nevertheless it is one of the images that helped form my interest in the imposition of regulation hairstyles as part of a disciplinary regime. Ordinarily hair styling is a personal thing, it reflects a girl's whole personality -that freedom is an element that can be taken away, and to devastating effect.

From that statement one might imagine that one of the earliest procedures that a girl might undergo upon entering the hospital psychiatric unit’s clinical trial section outlined in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1 would be to receive the regulation institutional hairstyle. But it is because of that very effect that, as we see with Susan in volume 1, it is not imposed until a substantial amount of time has already passed in isolated incarceration and after having passed through many other stages of depersonalisation - it is kept back as the final straw to break the camel’s back as it were. Immediately afterwards and before she can regain any semblance of equilibrium she experiences the kiss of the cane for the first time; that too has been held back upon. And of course it all has the desired affect - she signs what she is given to sign, agrees to continue on with, to even restart and extend in actual fact, her tenure as a psychiatric clinical trial subject; and this despite the fact that she is already fast approaching the end of her originally agreed period of stay.

Similarly with diet and exercise; to exercise or not, to gain weight or two lose weight, these are all choices taken for granted - but that element of control too can be taken away as a certain character learns in volume 2.

Now just to go back to that uniform again: I think that the school badge is a nice addition but it should always be properly embroidered directly onto the fabric, never sewn on as a patch and definitely not attached, as here, pinned on like a brooch (it shows good styling and attention to detail – such care can only serve to underline the importance placed on discipline).

Today it's being a bit difficult to concentrate - my head is itching like mad where I have received my transplanted grafts. Nevertheless I am going to be working on a chapter of INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 that I have provisionally entitled Police, Camera, Action (a bit cheesy I know - but I am sure it will come to be called something else by the time it is published). This chapter has been a sticking point for some time now and if I get past this (and a little part of the introductory section) the thing will be pretty much complete as a book.

Basically, the premise is this: rumours have been abounding, missing persons have been reported, ethical concerns have been raised and, worse, apparently the police have been called in and, in their wake, the dreaded ethics committee. One of our young ladies finds herself placed in a standard hospital examination gown, whisked into the hospital proper she is hurriedly shoved back into her home clothes whereupon she is handed into the protective custody of two female police officers - having first been warned to say nothing about her time in the unit. She is questioned and then taken to be interviewed, in their company, by a panel made up of three elderly male psychiatrists: obviously her ordeal is over - but first they wish to ascertain her suitability and reliability as a witness and to assess whether she has been damaged in any way by her experience.

On the surface it all seems a happy resolution to her story, but is it all as it seems? The questions are probing - and she doesn't seem to have all of the answers. She has been told to say nothing by the unit’s matron - but what hold can that woman have over at her now; surely she is free of her? Then there is that door at the back of the room, the door through which the three doctors arrived … she is not restrained in any way, she is free now, but she feels afraid, uncomfortable with all the questioning - should she just dash past them, through that door and out into the sunlight beyond and presumably the waiting arms of the press?

And finally: It has come to my attention that the link to Art by Carlo no longer works (the site has been taken down). I have therefore removed the link until I can relocate the site.

Still More Babblings Inspired By That Dress And Domestic Discipline Discussion Board

Moving on from my last post and still regarding the points made on the discussion board that I provided links to there: There is much talk of girls being taught to sew and knit that they might, under strict guidance and supervision it goes about saying, make their own uniforms. This would seem a wise decision on many levels: Remember we are dealing with the late teens or even early twenties here and the local school outfitters are unlikely to stock much that might be persuaded to conform to the filled-out developed maturity of these girl’s forms - something made all the more improbable when one takes into account the fast-food plumpness typical of today's modern miss. Even where larger sizes are accommodated the styling and cut of the cloth are unlikely to be such as to correctly follow the flowing lines of the burgeoning and curvaceous female form in a way that might please the critical eye of the more fastidious and appreciative governess stepmother or guardian. Nor would such a size range be likely to encompass the more junior style ranges that many would apparently prefer to see their charge dressed in. Besides, if we read between the lines it becomes clear that few if any school uniforms from be current era, despite their resurgence of late, would really be deemed strict or restrictive enough for the tastes of most and the criticism could be levied that such modern styling fails to sufficiently differentiate the uniform from more everyday wear. A more anachronistic approach to design, then, would seem likely to address many of these issues; the result would certainly be suitably strict and restrictive and the sheer anachronism inherent in the styling would alone be enough to ensure that it be sufficiently unusual so as to encompass the all-important element of humiliation, to single out the wearer as one kept on a short rein and, even more importantly some might say, to be unmistakable as anything other than a uniform - and a very juvenile-looking school uniform at that. Once again, though, we are lucky to be living in the Internet age: one or two suitable or adaptable products are commercially available - of which the dress on the left is a remarkably imaginative example in my humble opinion.

So, things are looking up for our discussion group here; gingham dresses are knocked-up under strict supervision and doubtless made along the lines suggesting a suitably humiliating level of immaturity and woollen and knickers are duly knitted. But surely here is the perfect opportunity to introduce all sorts of unusual features that might further make conspicuous both the garment's identity as part of a uniform and the wearer as one under discipline. And there is the point - she should feel uniformed, she should feel under discipline, but more importantly she should be kept constantly aware that all who lay eyes on her can plainly see that she is kept in a uniform and under discipline. All around her she will see her peers running in and out of all those high street fashion outlets with their gangs of giggling friends or hand-in-hand with their boyfriends and dressed in the latest clubbing styles - just as she once did, when she had been free.

But she is not free: she has no need of shopping malls - her clothing is chosen for her and besides, she is allowed no money of her own, not a penny, nor is she allowed to go out to work to earn a little independence. In any case she has nowhere to go she might need to dress up for: she has long ago lost track of all her old friends - letters, texts, e-mails, even phone calls having all gone unanswered it is hardly surprising. Her boyfriend is long gone (he had been deemed unsuitable but it had taken quite a few cuts of her new governess's cane to persuade her likewise).

University is out of the question for her. She is thought to be too immature, a view encouraged by her appearance and the childish uniform she is constantly kept in, an innovation of her governess; the true reason has a lot more to do with her guardian wanting her kept under close supervision. Her future is mapped out for her, it has been agreed that in time she be allowed some form of employment but she knows that will only be allowed if she should work for her guardian's company. If she has ever contemplated developing any form of career then that ambition has already been crushed; she has already been told that she shall be employed in the most junior of positions and each day be required to wear a suitable uniform of her guardian’s own devising and designed specifically for her. Deep down she knows that no matter how well she works, how great her potential, it will be ensured that she never rises above that junior role, absolute rock bottom in his organisation, and that in time she will be taking orders from, and being subservient to, girls many years her junior.

This is how I would see the situation, the uniform the girl presently wears she might well have been obliged to make herself and it might well consists basically of the sort of gingham dress that the correspondents suggest. Then there are those little details that the opportunity suggests could be incorporated - all the more to the chagrin of the young lady concerned. For example; shoulders can be exaggeratedly puffed, long sleeves can be terminated in long white cuffs fastened by a row of three buttons much in the style of a Victorian dress. The neck can be high-buttoning and incorporate an overlarge white collar. The bodice can be cut so as to be closely fitted to her figure, the latter enhanced perhaps by old-fashioned ‘stays’ - perhaps a nice boned corset with high-lifted bust cups having the sort of conical profile typical the 1950s. The waste can be self belted, a belt formed of the same fabric as the dress and buttoning with two buttons to the front, as this is a feature seen little outside of the world of uniforms and workwear. A school badge would be prominently embroidered on the breast pocket to leave onlookers in no doubt that what the girl is dressed in is, in actuality, some form of school uniform. To see the principal at work here you have to fix in your imagination a childishly juvenile frock, but one whose design has, mixed in, features designed to show off the maturity of the wearer's figure - but not in anyway that the young woman might be proud of.

Once again this one of those unfinished posts but I have to rush out. I will return and put up some suitable illustrations and further discussion of that particular message board. There are some great ideas developing there are much mileage to be had.

A Return To The Dress Discipline Site

Yesterday was mostly spent lying on my back – I was having a hair transplant (part of my ongoing programme of self improvement). It was just a bit of filling in at the front ~ 1000 grafts in total, but boy did it take a long time, talk about boring. But with nothing else to do my mind first turned to finishing off volume two and came up with one or two inventive ideas that lead nicely into volume three while knitting together the remaining loose ends and I shall be putting all my efforts into that goal for the next few days (I’ll have little distraction as I’m barred from heavy exercise for ten days because of the surgery, so no gym visits and no drinking…and no sex).

Then my mind moved on to the ‘dress discipline discussion board I had been looking at the day before (I took another look last night – the latest stuff can be found at: Link removed ( the links to the dress discipline bulletin-board I have been discussing no longer work - it has been taken down) there are somewhere in the order of 10 pages of discussion there, ostensibly following a thread regarding the advisability or otherwise of retaining knee socks on young ladies in their late teens / early twenties if still under parental or other guardianship. But here and there the discussion has digressed to encompass quite long and detailed descriptions of various shame-dress / punishment-costumes as well as the concoction of carefully prescribed lists of rules, restrictions and impositions as a framework outline for a domestic discipline regime. Enthusiastic prose are generously lavished on the benefits of worsted pinafore dresses, bib-fronted and pleated-skirted. Thick woollen knickers irritate and abrade sensitive parts, fully buttoned round necked cardigans are over-hot yet must remain fully buttoned nonetheless and doubtless, school ties while stifling must remain tightly knotted.

Imaginative, certainly, yet I couldn't help thinking these folks are missing a trick or two here: what is wrong with some experimentation with different fabrics – latex or PVC for knickers rather than all that wool. and worsted material for example. If the intention is to instill shame and a sense of discipline what could be better suited than a pair of short-legged or medium-legged bloomer-style knickers manufactured in a suitably practical material – even if of nylon or a nice thin glossy acetate, closely fitted. And its not as if suitable, or at least adaptable, commercial products are not freely available. A quick perusal of the Internet brought up several useful examples within a few moments. Notable was this fetching rubber example by Honour:

But then there are plastic pants, frilled latex pants and even locking pants. And if you go to the foot of this page there are a couple of complete 'looks' that may be achieved with commercially available products.


Particularly intriguing in terms of possibilities is the all-in-one plastic style on the left - imagine that adapted to incorporate an integral sprung steel locking waistband!!!

Such a choice of underwear would I think have a particularly interesting effect if it were teamed with a subtle shortening of her skirt’s hemline – nothing too drastic you understand, she should be allowed to appear decent when in public (as long as she should remain standing of course). At home is a different situation entirely of course. A pinafore dress as described by the various correspondents is fine - but I’d imagine it as mini-skirted affair with an attached bib-like bodice to front and rear held up by shoulder straps, each fastening at the girl’s shoulder with a neat little row of three buttons, and with its mid thigh hanging circular knife-pleated skirt, those pleats being nicely stiffened, producing a most eye-pleasing swing around and about latex, PVC or nylon sheaved thighs.

And then again while she is at home, perhaps under the supervision of a stern stepmother, or if she is to live tied to the apron strings of a strict governess or, better still, confined to some sort of institution, there seems little reason on benefit to be derived from our limiting our pallet to that of the traditional school uniform colours nor our choice of fabric to serge, cotton or even nylon / polyester. If one is to retain the school uniform theme, perhaps for the purposes of instilling a heightened sense of restriction and of discipline, for which purposes it is admirably suited, then one is free to embellish each garment accordingly with such features as braided edging and piping and of course a school badge. Even a school tie may be incorporated into the design but of course in all these features and other forms of decoration, should ‘unorthodox’ colours and/or fabrics be chosen then that must be taken into account if the correct image is still to be achieved. Details such as button holes and pockets may be picked out and edged with contrasting stitching to enhance the look and feel of the garment as being part of a uniform (or printed and or embossed if latex or PVC are used) . Of course it goes without saying that pockets should only ever of use as a stylistic device and be of no real utility – our young miss is not to be trusted with her own money nor troubled by the possession and carriage of combs and other personal effects.

I like to envisage a soft pastel pink for the dress under such circumstances with a school badge embroidered in pale powder-blue and gold thread over the left breast and repeated at a jaunty angle at its skirt’s hem. The knickers would be lent a pinkness to their hue, despite being their being in actuality white, by the soft flesh beneath. The dress I can imagine as being fabricated in overall-weight nylon (practical and washable - if somewhat sticky in warm weather) but could just as easily be of a suitable fabric so as to match the knickers, be they latex, PVC or what ever and would be worn over a nylon school blouse of pastel pink and powder-blue stripe having a high-buttoning stiff collar neatened by a traditional looking school tie but in pink with powder-blue and gold diagonal stripes.

Her hair – corn gold of course – would be kept tightly French plated and brought down to either side as a pair of little stubby pigtails, each tied in a bow of broad pink and blue striped nylon ribbon to match her uniform. Finally the whole confection would be topped off with a traditional school straw boater adorned around its crown by a ribbon matching those in her hair that hangs down to at the rear as two tails to her mid back.

Imagine the scene if you will – all of this, the sharp pleats of that little skirt stiffened and running down and out from the tight trim little waistband at 45 degrees to swing stiffly at mid thigh, well out from the fullness of her thighs. Glimpse beneath that abbreviated hemline the bewitching sight of taught fleshy globes. Her well rounded bottom cheeks sheaved as closely as to have completely lost the thickened latex or PVC seam deep within the cleft between to only emerge at the front at the very top of the deeply defined and detailed declivity outlining her femininity there. And if she should have recently tasted the cane then what could better display and detail those swollen wheals then thin skin-tight white rubber. Then below, long coltish legs flow down to meet little pink anklets, their frilled and lace decorated tops prettily turned down, a little bow in contrasting powder-blue decorating each to the rear. Then at last our eyes come to rest upon the shoes: Mary Janes in a shiny patent light blue or pink plastic (never leather).

To return to the correspondence on that particular message board for a moment; it can not be said, I think, that any of the aspects of the design I would advocate and the characteristics lauded by those correspondents are necessarily mutually exclusive. In answer to the case put for the wearing of coarse woollen knickers for example I would point out the endless possibilities inherent with the provision of interchangeable knickers-liners which could in principle be of any manufacture one might desire while retaining the special advantages of the latex or PVC outer garment. Besides, in an institutional environment, depending on the type of institution wherein the young lady is being detained, it is easy to envisage that the regulation knickers she would be provided with might well be likely to incorporate internally some system or other designed to secure an absorbent pad or towel in place.

Designed to deal with the needs of patients to whom incontinence has for one reason or another become troublesome, for example, the securing straps or bands within such an undergarment could equally be pressed into service to hold in place a wide variety of pads and towels having an almost infinite set of different textures and other characteristics. Every thing from the intolerably-pleasant caress of a lover's velvet tongue to the equally intolerable yet infinitely more diabolical prickle of coarse velvet could thus be made available for her to experience – imagine, if you will, a towel having the surface qualities of glass-fibre roof insulating material for example. Should she have been unlucky enough as to have found herself somehow or other and by some twist of fate consigned to a place habitually used to dealing with the disturbed, unstable or otherwise handicapped she might well find that the same locking waistband mechanism that safeguards those poor souls from their unknowing tampering is just as efficient at preventing tampering with the rather special punitive measures applied to her. Imagine, then, the truly fiendish torture that I would call the unscratchable itch – best kept to such a institutional scenario this one, a place wherein the proper medical restraint measures can be put in place and applied in conjunction. A few thousand candida spores finding their way somehow into the perfect incubator that is the hot damp environs of a pair of rubber or latex incontinence bloomers and you have a case of thrush producing truly sanity-endangering irritation and discomfort. Yes, best kept for the caged-bed, humane restraints, the straitjacket, padded room and professional supervision.

Even if a girl has not been in such a way institutionally confined one can still imagine a governess under the right circumstances, perhaps an ex-psychiatric nurse and chosen for that fact, and having the girl under her roof with cart blanch over her, having access through old contacts and other channels to such resources. And perhaps to others too. I imagine a woman almost permanently garbed in the old-fashioned navy-blue uniform dress she once wore on the ward, at least when alone with her charge, a leather tawse hanging from her white Petersham ribbon belt with its ornate silver butterfly clasp.

Upstairs the girl's bedroom is as plain as anything a puritan might have imagined: an old hospital bed takes up most of the space. This having barred sides, one side presently lowered to the floor, the lockable hinged top, swung back and leaning against the plain white wall. The white plastic mattress has strewn upon it a well-worn assortment of medical restraints, ankle cuffs at the bottom, a broad abdomen strap crossing at the centre and having attached wrist cuffs to either side and a strap to secure the forehead lies across the pillow. At this end of the bed the one object that might seem to lighten the mood,taken in the context of its usual late teen occupant only deepens the foreboding, asking more questions than it is willing to give answers. A curving metal bracket holds a child's mobile, a simple circle of sparkling silver stars – illuminated by two small strobe lamps, these mounted on the bars of the bed end, one to either side, it shimmers and flickers and holds the eyes with jaw-dropping fascination as it turns.

Just beyond the bed's foot thick 'blackout' drapes have already been drawn across a small window, whitewashed in any case lest the girl should waste her time sky-gazing and daydreaming when she should be turning her attention to her impositions and protected by vertical steel bars, both inside and out, lest she should feel the least bit insecure. This is where a somewhat over-plump girl is presently easing herself into her night attire, rolling skin-tight latex over curving hips. Folded neatly on the the only other pieces of furniture present, a child's combined school desk and bench seat, is an abbreviated and juvenile little green and white school dress.

It is just coming up to two o'clock in the afternoon and most of her old friends would now be on their way back to work from lunch, those not presently at university that is – for her, though, it is time for her afternoon nap. Her governess, looking as implacable as ever in her hospital uniform, is standing impatiently by the bed, pointing...it is all that is needed, the command needs no words, not after so many months in charge of the girl. not with the help of her little toy glittering away so soothingly, her little secret as she calls it, not to mention the promised kiss of her tawse – and the girl has felt that once today already.

More on Dress Discipline

Not much time today but as dress discipline in its various forms features so majorly in the INSTITUTIONALISED series, what with the nurses in their uniforms and their unfortunate charges in theirs and of course not forgetting the various flavours of school uniform that some of our young ladies find themselves placed in at home or at the hands of a governess I thought you might like to check out this little site if the discussion of dress discipline and the imposition of humiliating punishment uniforms appeals to you.

Link removed ( the links to the dress discipline bulletin-board I have been discussing no longer work - it has been taken down)

And don't just settle back to read the stuff...contribute. (Well you can't now, see above - but you can still post your thoughts here if such stuff is your bag)

Dress Discipline

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Yet More Gymslips I'm Afraid - I LOVE 'EM!

Yet once again I find myself forced to apologise for the sparsity of posts. As you probably know, from the outset I have undertaken to try to post at least once each weekday. But in recent weeks, what with the treatment I have had to my eyes and the complications thereof and then the banking crisis with the attendant insane shuffling around of bank accounts and out of blind panic (treated with a liberal dose of alcoholic bingeing) things have gone somewhat awry. When I have managed to post something it has of necessity been very short and sharp (and hopefully sweet) and part of a consequence of that is that the site has notably been gradually going off track of late. The aim as stated was always to discuss the INSTITUTIONALISED series, the things such as images, films, TV shows and books that have influenced me in writing it, the ideas I've had and others that have recently come to me and that I am developing at present - and also to provide a platform for you good readers to contribute your own ideas and feedback. In addition I try to keep track of the type of thing that visitors have come to this site searching for (those of you that arrive as a result of a Google, or other search engine, keyword search) and then try to provide either the relevant content (if it is relevant to the stated aims) or a link to it. But what with the various distractions I have had the tendency has been to provide content as quickly as possible and easiest way was to work around those keyword searches.

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This was something I had intended to address this week, to get this site back on track but again things have gone somewhat awry - I am behind with the writing of volume 2 of INSTITUTIONALISED, there is still the stress of all this banking nonsense and somebody, who shall remain nameless, sent me a link to a marvellous source of vintage pictures - a vein that could take weeks to mine to exhaustion and that I really should leave alone because of the time I'm spending on it, but it's just so damn addictive!! On top of all that I spent most of yesterday traipsing round various hair clinics receiving quotes for a transplant - just a little to either side at the front you understand, I'm still pretty much well thatched otherwise (honest). So far this week I've only managed one post and that pretty much consisted of a series of links to the various albums I've been building up. Of these, only Betty Bow 1973 has been much visited and I think probably because people are mixing up the name with that of Betty Page . The first is a British women's workwear and uniform manufacturer, the second is a famous vintage burlesque star (click on her name to visit her site) and muse of the great John Willie (AKA John AS Coutts, of which more we must wait for another time - as influential as his work was on me in my formative years).

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As for today, once again I am somewhat short of time so for the moment and the completeness and bracket and because people still come to this site having typed in gymslip is a keyword) I'm posting up a few more vintage pictures. And then at some later point I am going to place all the gymslip pictures I have together in a single album and supply any link to it from the sidebar. Later today or tomorrow I will endeavour to get the site back on track with some stuff actually directly pertaining to my writing and influences, with a couple of nice illustrative images I've come across, possibly a snippet from volume 2 or volume 3 and a story outline that I've sketched out and that will form part of the body of volume 2.

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Mind you, isn't it nice to see a bottle green one - so near-perfect for a girl's first arrival at the institution (think INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1). Of course the shoes would never do - and where the hell has her tie gone? That Should warrant a caning straightaway, don't you think? Far too slovenly - and her skirt is creased.

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Finally, I just couldn't resist this little pic of what so easily could be a nice little summer dress with a bit of imagination (perhaps in a nice bottle green or royal blue gingham check) - nothing like the type of thing that the uniforms I envisage the girl's wearing in the institution are based upon of course, but quite lovely in its way nonetheless. Girlish enough to be an acceptable for a young lady under the tutelage of a stern governess I should think - and brief enough as to invite frequent slaps across the back of her thighs and equally frequent visits to the caning horse.

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Thanks for your patience and best wishes - Garth (soon to be immensely hirsute - a rock god in the making I shouldn't wonder).