Style at St. Trinian's

Perhaps the least alluring covering ever devised for the female body, not excluding the Mother Hubbard, the feathers of the Harpies, or the St. Laurent trapeze, is the saggy, sorry habit of the British private-school girl. At best, the ensemble --long black woolen or cotton stockings, knickers that approach the knee, a vague navy-blue outer garment called a gym slip and a long-sleeved, high-necked blouse with a frumpy tie--makes her resemble a hockey goalie; at sorriest, a carelessly stuffed knackwurst. Cartoonist Ronald Searle immortalized the getup in his books on "St. Trinian's."

Last week the headmistress of one private school defended the costume: "There is no reason for a girl to be a girl until she leaves school. That's quite early enough." A buyer for Daniel Neal, largest English supplier of children's uniforms, presented a different defense: "The British schoolgirl just doesn't have the sort of figure one ought to draw attention to. Her poor little tum bulging with rice pudding, you know, and no foundation garments to take care of her seat. More often than not she is covered with a thick layer of puppy fat, and we think it more tactful to keep most of her well covered up."

British Vogue Editor Audrey Withers complained that the uniforms give British girls scant chance to "blossom into pretty, well-dressed young women." Recently one girls' school decided that a modest blossoming might not bring on moral blight: Headmistress Eileen Evans of Bedfordshire's Luton High School announced that her sixth-formers (mostly 17-year-olds) could chuck their uniforms, put on regular dresses, nylons and makeup --but no jewelry. Encouraged by this move, one clothier last week invited headmistresses to a showing of remodeled uniforms, including gym slips with "a hint of fashion line."

But the British gym slip clings fast, although it reveals nothing. The frosty comment of a spokeswoman for Brighton's Roedean School: "We have absolutely no intention of modifying our uniform." During the week, well-blossomed (35-24-36) Suzanne Cripps, 12, was asked to leave St. Helena's school for girls in Eastbourne. Reason: With her mother's consent, and after school hours, she got herself up in shorts and a halter, was photographed by newsmen. Her headmistress looked at the results, decided she was "much too precocious."

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