Photo credit: Sydney Tilles

Colours and Lands’ End are presented side by side on the computer screen. Starting this year, Colours was the new uniform provider, but as of Oct. 1 Archer concluded their partnership and returned to Lands’ End.

Archer began implementing new Colours uniforms at the start of this school year after previously partnering with Lands’ End — a uniform provider for schools across the country. According to Head of School Elizabeth English, there were multiple issues with the introduction of Colours uniforms, including sizing, quality and production.

Archer sent a survey Sept. 4 to learn about students’ and parents’ experiences with Colours, where they received replies from 436 parents and 252 students. In an email to parents Wednesday, Oct. 1, English wrote that while there was some positive feedback, the majority of responses were negative, and stated that after careful consideration, the school has decided to conclude their partnership with Colours.

In her email, English updated the community on the uniform provider moving forward and explained that Archer’s intentions for changing the uniform were to improve comfort, fit and style, and to support a local manufacturer. She wrote that despite their efforts, the outcomes did not meet those objectives nor the Archer community’s expectations.

“Moving forward, we will be reopening our Lands’ End storefront early next week for those who are still without adequate uniforms. Lands’ End with remain our uniform provider for the foreseeable future and will be offering a special Archer discount for re-opening,” English wrote. “Students who do have Colours uniforms may, of course, continue to wear them.”

English acknowledged concerns about sustainability and shared the school’s efforts to minimize any environmental impact. In September 2023, Archer began recommending that families source uniforms from Archer Outfitters — a program where students can donate their old uniforms so other students don’t have to buy them — rather than them purchasing them new.

Last year, students were told they would no longer be allowed to wear their Lands’ End uniforms when Archer switched to Colours. To help reduce the waste, Archer Council for Sustainability Executive Board Member Liv Karp (’26) collected old uniforms from students and de-embroidered them so they could be recycled. With the help of Liv Karp (’26) and her family, they recycled 2,310 pounds of clothing. Fellow ACS Executive Board member and sustainability advocate Katia Thomas (‘27) said she was surprised by the decision to switch back to Lands’ End.

“From a sustainability perspective, I think that this could have been thought through a little bit better,” Thomas said. “The amount of clothes that we’ve been going through for this process is just unsustainable.”

Max Speck (’26) said there was a lot of unnecessary spending for Colours’ uniforms, especially since they were more expensive.

“It was so much unnecessary spending, only to go back to the old uniforms. [Having] to get rid of all of your previous uniforms and then buy full new ones, only to get told a few months into school, ‘Oh, we’re actually going back,'” Speck said. “That’s so many uniforms that we just got rid of. For what?”

Senior Darian Weiss said she is concerned with the cost of switching uniforms back and forth. Similar to Speck, she said she felt concerned for families whose money was wasted by donating their Lands’ End uniforms, only to be allowed to wear them once again.

“Personally, I did not donate any of my Lands’ End uniforms out of the fear that something like this would happen,” Weiss said. “I’m glad I did that, but I know there [are] so many people [who] didn’t do that, so I’m concerned about them. Also, my family spent a lot of money on the new Colours uniforms. That’s pretty upsetting that money was essentially wasted.”

Thomas said she was surprised by Archer’s decision to conclude their partnership with Colours, and she questioned why Archer did not bring this feedback to Colours in order to continue working with them.

“Even if the Colours uniforms lacked quality and there were some issues with them, we could have gone back to the drawing board a little bit and worked with them on that,” Thomas said. “I’m not exactly sure why we’re completely switching this back to Lands’ End and scrapping everything else because we’ve already moved past Lands’ End. We’ve donated all our uniforms, and I’m a little confused as to why that’s happening.”

Some advertisements, including billboards around Los Angeles, still feature the new Colours uniforms, Weiss said. After all the time and energy put towards promoting the new uniforms, Weiss said she was shocked by the school’s decision. Weiss also said this situation could have possibly been prevented.

“They could have, in the past, gotten more student input on the uniforms and everything,” Weiss said. “So I feel like they didn’t get a lot of student input overall. I think that if they had done that, they would have either gotten a better new uniform or they would have not gotten a new uniform at all.”

The Oracle reached out to the administration for additional comment, but did not get one before the deadline.