The Japanese schoolgirl sailor uniform is an icon in Japan.
Its roots are also the source of a controversy.
"We were first!"
"Nope, it was us!"
Yeah...everyone wants to be first. Chances are they got the idea from somewhere in China if you ask a Chinese person.
A school in Fukuoka says they introduced the fad in 1921.
However, another school, Heian Jogakuin, has a picture of a girl in a western style one-piece sailor uniform from 1920.
The Heian school opened in 1875.
The Fukuoka school opened in 1885.
The reason for the controversy - private schools think their history and traditions are important when recruiting new students...always about the money, isn't it?
Major school uniform manufacturer Tombow is trying to play the diplomat -
"Heian Jogakuin was the first school in Japan to employ western clothing. But the design of today's sailor uniforms came from the uniforms that Fukuoka Jo Gakuin employed at the time. You could say that there is truth to both claims of having the first sailor uniform."
In any event, we may not know or care when it started, but we do know the uniforms have come a long way.
Before -
Now -
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