School uniforms in general are odd. The shape of the clothes is very widely used -- tailoring some special style is expensive. Basic colour schemes are widely used. My recollection is that the only really distinctive piece was the school badge. Even the necktie patterns were used by more than one school (and, in the case of my school, I later heard it matched one of the top-end English schools, as well as seeing it being used in the movie of "The Odessa File". OK, so a seifuku is not universal. You get the same use of an outdated style used for British "schoolgirls" -- Google on St Trinian's for the style, and you may be able to think of other examples. (And if anyone wants to do a St Trinians's style of school uniform, don't call it that. It's a "Traditional Enlisg Schoolgirl".)