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sharkattack
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19 Mar 2014, 7:26 pm

I only really feel at ease in jeans a t shirt and sneakers.

I always hated school and work uniforms especially the trousers I hate the way they hug the bum.
I hate shirts and I feel exposed in shorts.
Formal shoes or anything to do with suits is something I would never pick.

As I get older I will wear these whatever the situation calls for and I do wear my work uniform.

At the beach or swimming pool or if I visit a hot country I will wear shorts but in my home country I feel too awkward to wear them.

I am trying to reduce the time I spend in Jeans and sneakers and I am coming along but my question is am I just an oddball even for somebody with ASD?



mr_bigmouth_502
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19 Mar 2014, 7:36 pm

Honestly, I hate having to wear a uniform for my job, mainly because they want us to wear dress shirts, which I find are extremely impractical for doing any sort of work. They have long sleeves, they're made out of a thin fabric that doesn't provide much warmth, and they're time-consuming to put on. I would much rather be able to work in jeans and a T-shirt, and I actually have on a few occasions, but the boss doesn't like it. As far as the dress pants I have to wear go, again, I find they're quite tight and sweaty, and the material they're made out of just doesn't feel "right".



auntblabby
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19 Mar 2014, 8:46 pm

in my experience, 99.99% of uniforms suck in one way or another.



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19 Mar 2014, 9:18 pm

auntblabby wrote:
in my experience, 99.99% of uniforms suck in one way or another.


This.

Add to that the fact that many people with ASDs have sensory issues and may be bothered by certain materials or clothing that fits differently to what they're comfortable with, so they're probably even more unpopular among aspies.

Personally (not sure if aspie or not), the idea of being expected to wear a uniform puts me in quite a rage, and while if someone elsewhere (i.e. not on an ASD message board) provoked me into a discussion about it I would probably tell them it was because I disagree with the enforced conformity, and that would be true, I think the other, possibly stronger reason is that I'd be extremely physically and mentally uncomfortable if asked to wear anything other than what I usually do. I wore a school uniform as a child and absolutely hated the winter uniform, but didn't mind the summer one, because the winter one felt unpleasant to me in a number of ways whereas the summer one was fine in that respect.



auntblabby
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19 Mar 2014, 9:20 pm

i had to put up with winter issue BDUs in the army, even in the damned hot summer. I was skinny because I literally sweat the weight off. those damned infernal hot woolen uniforms in the summer sun were murder.



JakeDay
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19 Mar 2014, 9:57 pm

And it's not just the sensory sensitivities to cheap, abrasive, ill-fitting attempts at corporate identity. There are aesthetic considerations too. Like, I think the polo-neck t-shirt is the most grossly offensive item of attire, and yet there are many service jobs here that expect one to look like a complete and total dufus in uncomfortable polyester textures. Frigging make up your mind: are you a T-shirt or formal wear?!



auntblabby
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19 Mar 2014, 10:11 pm

I HATED having to wear a military short uniform haircut when I was in the army.



ASPartOfMe
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19 Mar 2014, 11:00 pm

A suit is uncomfortable. Ties choke me. In the summer it feels like I am wearing a heavy coat. I the cool weather the open area up front gets cold.


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rapidroy
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20 Mar 2014, 12:47 am

To be honest, aside from the fact that I could not wear what seems like 90% of the uniforms out there because of sensory issues, I absolutely hate having my body branded with someone else's logos and slogans.



auntblabby
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20 Mar 2014, 12:49 am

rapidroy wrote:
To be honest, aside from the fact that I could not wear what seems like 90% of the uniforms out there because of sensory issues, I absolutely hate having my body branded with someone else's logos and slogans.

QFT.



pensieve
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20 Mar 2014, 1:52 am

I think I preferred to wear a school uniform to casual clothes. You didn't have to think about wearing something different. People didn't judge you by what you wore. You just wore the same thing every day.

And I love military uniforms.

If I had to work I would prefer to wear a uniform. I have sensory issues in what I usually wear so I suppose it'll just feel the same to me.


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League_Girl
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20 Mar 2014, 2:09 am

I never had a problem with uniforms. At one of my jobs in Montana, we just had a shirt we had to wear with the hotel logo on it. It was just a regular t shirt and we all had our own pants we bought and they had to be black. Then at my job here in Oregon we had uniforms but they were green pants and a green striped shirt that buttoned in the front and we had to change into them once we got into work and then change out of them after work and drop them off in the basket for it to be washed. The fabric was stiff. At my current job it's a shirt we have that also buttons in the front and we can wear our regular shirts under it and we have to wear blue jeans. The only good thing about it is I didn't have to worry about having lot of clothes to wash because I stay in my pajamas all the time unless I head out and if I am going to work, I am in my work uniform but when I worked at the hotel here, I wore my regular clothes all the time when I went to work because we had to change in and out of our uniforms there. It was the way they did it while all the other places have you keep your uniform and you take it home with you and wear it to work and back.


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20 Mar 2014, 3:37 am

Depends if it's practical and doesn't make me itch.


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20 Mar 2014, 3:58 am

I hate a collar tight round my neck. As a priest, this was a problem at times! I prefer a tee shirt, and tell people that the dog collar is where it belongs - on the dog!

I have a tee shirt with a cross and the word 'priest' on it. I thought this was obvious enough until I wore it when taking Air Cadets to a museum, where the server in the cafe looked at it then said 'so you're the bus driver, are you?'



matt
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20 Mar 2014, 4:15 am

I don't hate the concept of having to wear a uniform, but most uniforms seem to cause horrible sensory problems. They have tags. They're too loose, or too tight, or even worse, too loose in some places and too tight in others. They're made of horrible fabrics that are scratchy or flimsy or heavy. They're staticky. They have parts that hang off of them, like collars that rub up against me. They get crumpled up in certain areas. They flap around in wind. Dress socks are made of nylon or wool, so they feel oily or scratchy. Dress shoes are painful.



CyclopsSummers
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20 Mar 2014, 4:44 am

Like pensieve and matt, I'm not opposed to the concept of uniforms; but as matt said, it's important that they're comfortable. I don't have any great sensory problems myself, but I can imagine how labels, frills, tight-fitting collars, and certain textures could be a source of great discomfort.

I've never worn a full-body uniform at any of my jobs- the thing that comes closest is wearing company t-shirts. I was always quite pleased wearing our cleaning compamny's t-shirt (it was comfortable enough), but I should probably also add that I liked it best when I was the first to be given a new design of our t-shirt, which I personally thought was more aesthetically pleasing because it had blue sections on the sides below the sleeves/armpits, while the old t-shirts were monochrome dark blue. So when it comes to the aesthetic side of it, I'm partial to companies that allow a LITTLE bit of leeway when it comes to personalizing the uniform a little.
At the factory where I used to work, we didn't have a single style uniform, rather we had different sets of clothing that were similar up to a point (all having the company's name/logo sewn onto it), but they came in a range of colours, usually blue, red, and grey. As I was more of a temporary worker there, I was never given the uniform or even just the shirts, but I would have liked if I had gotten the opportunity to wear one. So I was always working in casual dress. At one point, I wore one of my favourite red shirts, and one of my co-workers commented 'Oh, I really like this version of the uniform you're wearing', because she mis-took my shirt for one of the company shirts. :D


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