“Relieved,” “empowered” and “stylish.” These are the words freshman Giovanna Brazell used to describe her reaction to the reveal of the new uniforms. Colours Uniforms owner and Archer alumna Leylie Aghili (’04) introduced the reimagined Archer uniforms to the student body in the Zeller Student Center during FLX block April 24.
Colours Uniforms is a modern school uniform company. According to their website, it was founded to bring comfort and confidence to the typical uniform. They believe that if students wear what they feel strong and empowered in, this will be reflected in their performance. Archer, along with five other schools — including Marlborough School and Notre Dame High School Belmont – is working with Colours Uniforms to help achieve this mission for their students.
Junior Dakota Tooley said she tried to go into the reveal with an open mind and enthusiasm for the fresh look. As a junior, these changes will impact her for her senior year.
“I went in also with being a little nervous, so now that I’m actually seeing them, it’s not that bad. I think a lot of people just thought it’s going to be so crazy,” Tooley said. “But I think that it’s a good change, honestly. And I thought that they weren’t too different from what we have now, which is good because I like how we still get to keep our colors.”
Abby Levett (’31) said she was nervous going into the meeting not knowing if the new uniforms would meet her expectations. She had seen early previews of the uniforms, but was still unsure what they would look like in their final form.
“I was kind of nervous because I knew it was going to be a different change,” Levitt said. “I’ve seen some sneak peeks already, so I was like, ‘What else am I going to see in there?'”
Though she had a positive response to the fashion aspect of this new change, Tooley said she worries that 11th grade families may not want to pay for a brand new wardrobe only for one year of school.
“Financially, I don’t know if my parents are really going to want to pay for another year’s supply of clothes for just, again, one year,” she said. “I think that there might be ways around that because I think that they were talking about logistics they don’t have anything finalized. So when that comes out, I think that would be really helpful.”
Last school year, administration formed a uniform task force to ensure students opinions were heard and input into revamped uniform designs. Because of her love of fashion, freshman Katie Culp became a member of the task force last year. Culp said the group gave students agency on what they are wearing in order to feel “confident and comfortable” during the school day.
“I felt really good about it because they took our request and what the school was comfortable with and created a right-in-the-middle spot,” Culp said. “We wanted more comfortable things: we just wanted to look more fashionable at school, and that was definitely done by the team.”
Ninth grade Dean of Culture, Community and Belonging Stephanie Ferri said she feels the revamped uniforms give students a wide variety of different styles, while also being better quality. She said this rebranding demonstrates Archer’s mission.
“I think [the rebranding] gives us an edge,” Ferri said. “I also just think at the heart of it, it tells people who we are and what we’re about. I think, whether that’s the slogans that were launched — ‘May the best self’ win type of slogan — or what went into changing the uniform and why we selected Leylie and everything, I think it all packages in to reflect Archer’s mission.”
