School uniforms for girls

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

From preschool to university and beyond, all students wear a variant of the same uniform. The kindergartners may not wear a full gi and camisole pinafore, but the basic ensemble is still there. This is the girl’s one, and it’s much more elaborate than the boy’s uniform.

Year-round, all students wear a school armband with their year and class embroidered on it and a badge of education, which is pinned to the top button. Girls wear a selection of other traditional items.

The gi is a ceremonial quarter-pleat worn by schoolgirls and the wider public generally. It is usually embroidered for the festival month it was made in, and many Vekllei girls have several gi for different celebratory months (birth month, blood month, shipbuilder’s month, etc). In summer it is also common to wear a sun petticoat, a delicate lace petticoat worn exposed beneath the hem of the skirt. These are often handmade. Traditionally hair is pulled into a fountain hairpiece if it is long enough, and can accompany temple hairpieces as well. These hairstyles trace back to the spirit priestesses and have become fashionable again.

In winter, both boys and girls wear a half cape for Vekllei’s miserable winter months. These are usually wool and lined with insulating materials. Girls also wear a camisole pinafore, which is essentially a traditional girl’s camisole that is tucked into the skirt to make a dress for the winter months.

Armbands, badges, half capes and gi are worn in many other industries as well, since nearly every company employs a uniformed staff. It is common for a girl to hold a gi from her middle-school years, where it is oversized and clumsy, all the way to graduation and then employment.

For those wondering what happens to valuable metals and gemstones in a moneyless society like Vekllei, you simply have to look a little closer — they are often sewn into badges and ceremonial clothes. Stripped of their commodity, they have become precious and sacred items that bejewel important objects. The badge of education, for example, contains a ruby in its heart.

None of this stops roughhousing, and Tzipora’s just beat the shit out of a girl who called her a lesbian.