Parents in a town near Paris have voted in favour of school uniforms for their pre-teen children - a rare development in French state education, reports BBC News.
Six primary schools in Provins, teaching children from age six to 11, will adopt the dress code in November.
On Sunday the education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, said schools must be free to introduce school uniforms, but the government would not rule on it.
Most children in the EU, apart from the UK, do not wear school uniforms.
French news website LCI says the Provins children - 759 in total - will be encouraged, but not forced, to wear a standard blue polo shirt bearing the French republican motto: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". The 10-piece uniform, including the shirt, will cost 145 euros (£127; $170).
If a family has more than one child in that age group the uniform will be 72.50 euros.
According to a September 2016 survey in France, 65% of respondents were in favour of introducing school uniforms. French news magazine L'Express reports that the percentage in favour has grown year-on-year; in 2011 it was 50%.
Mr Blanquer said he favoured uniforms because they could "encourage pride in the school" and "it's a question of equality between children".
"Clothes brands count for too much these days. The uniform can be an answer to that."
President Emmanuel Macron's election manifesto did not spell out any policy on school uniforms, but it did promise to ban mobile phones from classrooms.
The Muslim headscarf and other overt religious symbols are banned from French schools - and the Macron manifesto said it would "enforce secularism strictly". But the headscarf ban would not be extended to universities, it said.