Hockaday's White Blazer Fitting Was Canceled the Day Before

The uniform itself goes back to the school's founding in 1913, the student paper, The Fourcast, reported in November 2024: black pleated bloomers, white middy blouses, wool stockings and hip-length green sweaters. In the 1930s the skirt had to be long, with at least three yards around the hem. After the Second World War came a practical shirt attached to shorts, with a skirt on top that girls removed when it was time to run. In the 1950s, the paper says, one of the most popular pastimes was designing new uniforms. The white blazers date from that decade.

The class of 2026 had a white-blazer fitting scheduled for late October 2024. The day before, it was canceled. "We were notified the day before the blazer fitting that Dennis was not coming to the fitting," said the parent representative for the class, Courtney Johnson. That suggested something bigger. When families checked the uniform company's website, its stores were listed as temporarily closed and online orders were unavailable.

Eleven years of uniform fittings nobody remembers, and the one everybody was waiting for is the one that vanished.

A junior who had been at Hockaday for eleven years told the paper the blazer was something they had heard about since they were little, and that even the thought of missing out was unsettling. Her favorite uniform memory was from her first day, when she wore the blouse over the jumper instead of the jumper over the blouse. She also said she'd like the uniform to cost less, so that families could join the tradition without financial stress.

The fitting was rescheduled for November 19. Johnson said that, thankfully, the original date had been on the early side.

At our house the youngest wears a uniform polo, navy, from a company that has, so far, stayed in business. Last month she put it on backwards, with the collar under her chin, and insisted it was correct. I let her go to school that way. Her teacher sent a photo. I am keeping it for her senior year.