Girl Scout uniform gets a Gen Z update
It’s been decades since the last clothing changes
NEW YORK — A vest designed for the modern Girl Scout must have pockets, and those pockets must be large enough to fit the largest model of the iPhone.
“In all our fittings that was the No. 1 thing,” said Wendy Lou, deputy chief revenue officer of the Girl Scouts of the USA. “Can you fit the iPhone in there? Yes? Let’s go.”
The new vest was designed by three students from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. It was unveiled recently along with more than a dozen separates for Girl Scouts in grades six through 12, including things that are likely already in their closets, such as black spandex leggings and a denim jacket.
The student-designed collection is an attempt to make the Girl Scout uniform more versatile and relevant — to infiltrate the modern teenage wardrobe with Scouty swag, sometimes camouflaged as athleisure. The organization hopes the new styles will encourage older girls — those in the trenches of middle school and high school — to stick with being Scouts.
When the three FIT students met with a few dozen Girl Scouts to present ideas and get feedback during the redesign process, it was clear that “they wanted something cooler,” said Melissa Posner, 24, one of the designers. Girl Scout events are often held after school, but many would rather quickly change clothes after the final bell than wear their uniforms to class. “They wanted something that wouldn’t be so embarrassing to wear to school,” Posner said.
The centerpiece of the
official Girl Scouts uniform is a vest or sash — or, for some younger girls, a tunic — in blue, brown, green or khaki, depending on the Scout’s grade level, decorated with their badges and pins. When officially representing the organization, girls must layer their sash or vest over either a white shirt and khaki bottoms, or Girl Scouts-branded “official apparel” — a previously limited selection of mostly polo shirts and plain skirts.
For preteen and teen Scouts, the khaki sash hasn’t visibly changed much in the FIT redesign; there are only so many
ways to redesign a diagonal loop of cloth, although it got a hidden iPhone-size pocket too.
The khaki utility vest is another story. It has a new notch collar, epaulet shoulders, snap buttons and a cinched waist. The color is lighter and the fabric softer. It’s the Burberry trench of Girl Scout vests.
But the biggest expansion is the new range of about 20 teen-targeted “official apparel” items for girls to wear underneath their vests or sashes. Ranging from $10 to $49, there are crew-neck sweatshirts and drawstring joggers,
short knit dresses and short cargo skirts, a belt bag and a denim utility wrap. It’s not Fashion Nova, but the collection is a trendier take on the current Scout uniform.
“It’s been more than 20 years since we’ve done something to this scale,” Lou said. “If you look back at historical Girl Scout uniforms, they really reflected the fashions of the time. We were evolving every decade. And somewhere along the way, about in the ’90s, we stopped evolving.”
When the FIT students began redesigning the uniforms, they started with
the Girl Scouts’ unexpectedly rich fashion archives.
In 1928, green was introduced, and it’s still used prominently today. Earlier uniforms were khaki, which was contentious because the color was widely viewed as belonging to the Boy Scouts and the military, not homemakers.
In 1948, the Girl Scouts commissioned Mainbocher to design its uniforms. An American couturier, Mainbocher had moved back to New York at the start of World War II after a decade of dressing royalty, socialites and celebrities in Paris. His Girl Scouts uniforms were grass-green shirtdresses with sporty neck scarves and badges sewn onto long cuffed sleeves.
Twenty years later, Stella Sloat designed a green suit for adult Girl Scouts that leaned more flight attendant than outdoorswoman. It had flared elastic-waist slacks and a short-sleeve zip-up tunic.
Halston designed a polyester collection of professional separates in 1978, introducing a trouser, vest and belted jacket in a more subdued green. Bill Blass brought back bright green in the 1980s, cranking it up to nearly neon, and continued making separates,
allowing the Scouts to mix and match.
Despite the lull in recent decades, Timothy Winkle, a curator at the National Museum of American History who organized an exhibition around the group’s 100th anniversary in 2012, said the Girl Scouts has changed its uniform more than any other major Scouting organization.
“Not necessarily to always be on trend,” he said, “but to constantly look at their uniform and their brand and say: ‘What is it that our members really want? What would they find appealing? What is going to excite them?’ ”
The three FIT student designers (all 2020 graduates) said it was important to them to continue the tradition of mixing and matching, particularly for girls in that 11 to 18 age range.
“At that age, you start to look at what you like, compared to what your mom or somebody else picks out for you,” said Nidhi Bhasin, 24. They wanted the girls to be able to explore and play with fashion, to figure out and forge their own styles.
“It’s more about discovery and self-identity,” Jenny Feng, 22, added. “And just choosing who you want to be as an adult.”