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From school to work to the military – uniforms can signal authority and belonging. But what happens when uniforms are worn by those whom institutions normally exclude? Or when they’re used out of context? New Generation Thinker Tom Smith explores playful, creative and queer uses of uniforms, from the cult film Mädchen in Uniform, recently released in the UK by the BFI, to documents he discovered in German archives, to his take on the styles embraced in subcultures today.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Tom Smith is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. You can find other Essays by him for Radio 3 exploring Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music /programmes/m000kfjt and Masculinities: Comrades in Arms /programmes/m00061m5
and hear him in this Free Thinking episode debating New angles on post-war Germany and Austria /programmes/m0006sjx

Image: Joanna Lumley as Patsy (Left) and Jennifer Saunders as Edina (Right) wearing school uniform in Ö÷²¥´óÐã 1 Absolutely Fabulous, 1992.