Overall, What’s The Big Deal with Fridays?

Every Friday, crowds of overall-clad Lick-Wilmerding High School students, faculty and staff spill through the Ocean Avenue entryway. Overall Friday is a tradition that is unique to LWHS, and brings the spirit of creativity and joy to the community after a long week.

Overall Friday began as an LWHS tradition a few years before the pandemic, and participation has only increased since its debut. According to LWHS Wearables and Jewelry teacher Laurel Nathanson, Yeshi Gusfield, previous LWHS history teacher and History Department Chair, announced the birth of Overall Friday during a FacStaff meeting in 2018, appealing to the comfort, style and ease of the full-denim attire.

“There’s something inherently cool about overalls and something that harkens back to being a kid. When you’re little you wear overalls, right?” Nathanson said. “There’s something about overalls that’s more playful and less serious. I think that is what draws people to them.”

When Overall Friday first started, only FacStaff participated. However, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the community’s connectedness and many teachers felt like a new tradition would be the perfect solution – a silly uniform had the power to reunite the community.

“When we came back from the pandemic, we were looking for things to do that would bring the staff and the faculty back together because we’d been so disjointed — half of us on campus, half of us working from home. So, Laurel offered a class where all of us on FacStaff could make our own overalls!” LWHS Receptionist Molly French said.

Nathanson hosted this overall-making workshop in the Spring of 2022. More than 50 members of FacStaff signed up, and although the numbers dwindled over the weeks that the workshop took place, Nathanson felt that it was a great success. She found different options for sewing patterns, and FacStaff chose their own fabrics to make their personalized overalls.

“It was definitely difficult, and if I were to do it again, I would have done things differently. But I think overall (pun intended), it was a great success. The intention was community-building amongst the adults, and I surely saw that as a product,” Nathanson said. By the end of the 2021-22 school year, Overall Friday was a tradition among FacStaff. But in the Fall of 2022, everything changed.

Amelie Maltz ’23 and Maya Iribarren ’23 began to participate in Overall Friday in late September. “One Friday, Maya and I both accidentally wore overalls to school. Overalls are just such a fun clothing item. And we thought, what if we did this every Friday? But then we started talking to our friends about it, and were joyfully surprised to find out that it was already a tradition at Lick for the teachers!” Maltz said.

“We really adore our teachers. We think their traditions are really cute, so we thought it would be really cute to join them. It creates a fun sense of community,” Iribarren said.

As students and FacStaff began to come together through this weekly event, it became more solidified as a schoolwide tradition. Overall Friday posters now line the walls of LWHS, and a student-run Instagram account (@overallfriday) now shares pictures of the participants every Friday.

“I knew that it was adults, and I think it’s cool that slowly, the kids are starting to do it. If we could get everybody on board, that would be wonderful. I think anything that we can all do together builds community,” Nathanson said. “I know the original intention was that we could wear any sort of one piece that’s not a dress. It includes jumpsuits, coveralls, dungarees, work suits, so it’s broader than just overalls.”

Many believe that Overall Friday reflects the creative, playful nature of LWHS students and FacStaff in a variety of ways. “It feels like the community has always been doing it because we’re always looking for fun things we can do to make it more lively around here. That attitude is definitely a Lick thing,” French said.

“It’s uniquely Lick for sure. I think of us, the Lick community, as being really creative and as people who think outside of the box. Leave it to a Lick teacher to come up with it. I’m so glad that Yeshi came up with it, and I wish she could see how it’s taken off,” Nathanson said.

Overalls are often associated with creativity and childlike fun, so their role in the creative LWHS scene is fitting. “Overalls really emulate our creative spirit, especially as students at a technical school. They are also just so convenient because of the many pockets for all of your things,” Maltz said. “It gives me hope. It’s a bright light at the end of the week. It’s something to look forward to, and I don’t need to think about what I’m going to wear because I know I’m going to wear overalls.”

Overall Friday is not only fun and silly for LWHS students, but it also poses a paradox surrounding conformity in comparison to the importance of self-expression. “I love the way that students express themselves with their style. Lick students have some of the most unique styles among San Francisco private schools. And that’s often not seen in many high schools, because in manyhigh school students just kind of conform with the way they present themselves. I think Overall Friday kind of shows the pride that we have and the fact that we’re able to not take ourselves so seriously,” Iribarren said.

“We as a community do not always need to take ourselves seriously, we can be silly together every Overall Friday,” Maltz added.

Maltz and Iribarren are not alone in hopes to uphold this tradition among students and FacStaff in the upcoming years. “There’s definitely a responsibility for the younger students to step up and plan on their legacy. I’m noticing a lot of juniors lately wearing overalls, and I hope that they continue. We’d like to see more participation in the sophomore and freshman classes, hence the posters in Frosh hall,” Iribarren said.

Maltz, Iribarren, Nathanson, and French have all voiced their hope for an increase in participation as the year progresses. They encourage community members to source their overalls as sustainably and responsibly as possible– whether that means purchasing them secondhand from a local thrift store, buying them from the Alameda Antiques Faire, swapping overalls with friends or making them by hand – in order to maintain the values of creativity, joy, sustainability and fun that lie at the core of this tradition.

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Celia Clark

Celia Clark is a senior and a writer for the Paper Tiger. In her free time, she loves swimming at China Beach, painting, camping, writing, and listening to music. Her favorite artists include TV Girl, Mac Miller, FKA Twigs, SZA, and Kendrick Lamar.

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