The earliest recollections I have of the type of clothes I wore as a boy growing up in the north of Englad during the early 1970's are about my school uniform. I was a day boy at school and a lot of my friends at home thought I was very posh because of the full uniform. Most of them wore shorts to primary school, but didn't have to wear blazers or caps. My friends Mothers would comment on how smart I looked.
When I was younger, I suppose I had an angelic look, with very blond hair and my school uniform with its blue and white colours--looking back, I am sure that I did look very smart. Even as a child I always took a lot of care over my appearance and would not be seen with one sock down round my ankles. I'm not sure where that came from. Looking back. there are probably two reasons. I think I am particular about my clothes for two reasons. At home my mother always inspected us before we left the house and
believed that untidy children reflected badly on the parents and how
they were brought up.At school any teacher would tell you to tidy
yourself up especialy if your socks had fallen down.As I said earlier,
this was often emphasised with a slap on the back of your legs.Most
of my friends understood that I went to a different school that had
very different views,but I think they were glad that their school
was not so strict.
I attended a private day school right through from age 5 to 18. As it was a private school there were very strict rules concerning school uniform.
In the junior school, up to age 11, short trousers were compulsory, regardless of the weather. The full uniform consisted of cap and blazer in dark blue, white
shirt, blue and white striped tie, grey pullover, grey shorts and dark blue socks.
Cap: My cap was all blue but had the school crest in white on the front.
Tie: The ties were blue and white diagonal stripes and were the same for junior and senior boys.
Shorts: My junior shorts were at first lined in white and had two side pockets but no belt loops. The shorts I wore latterly in the junior school had had two side pockets, one rear pocket and belt loops. They were
also lined in white.
Belt: A snake belt was another optional item but if you wore one it had to be the official school one in blue and white. This was only in the junior school.
In the winter we had to wear black lacing shoes but in the summer sandals were an option. I would guess about 75 percent of the class would were them. I didn't
particularly like them and prefferred my normal black lace up shoes. The style differred over the years but they were always brown with a T style strap, and were closed at the toes. As I didn't like them I don't remember wearing them that often out of school. You may have heard of a British company called Clarks who make shoes for children. When I needed new school shoes or sandals, we always went to a shop that sold Clarks.They were accepted as suitable for school as they tended to be very conservative. They did boys and girls styles
and in the summer there were usually a couple of styles of sandals to choose from.My mother was quite happy for me to choose which style I wanted--as long as they were sandals. She insisted on sandals, but was not bothered by the style.
When the weather was wet or cold (or both as it often was) we could wear a gaberdine overcoat and scarf. The scarf of course had to be in the school colours of blue and white. It always seemed strange to me as a boy, that in the middle of winter we had to go to school in overcoats, scarf and gloves but still with short trousers!
Most of my uniform came from specialist school outfitters although having two older brothers meant a number of items were passed down. In the early years my shorts came from a local dept store, no doubt
because they were cheaper than the specialist outfitters. This suited me fine as they were like most of the other boys wore. They had an elasticated rear waistband and were cut quite short.
My friends Mothers would always comment on how smart I looked. I remember this destinctly, although over the fog of time I have unfortunately forgotten precisely what they would say. The jist would be around how smart I looked and I suppose
they liked the fact I was wearing an outfit that an adult wanted me to wear and not something of my choice, a form of parental discipline all parents seem to approve of. My friends would try and tease me if their mothers had complimented
me on my appearance although it didn't bother me.
My mates at home, of course thought my uniform was awful--especially the cap. They would were always trying to steal it, especially as it was another school rule that you must
have your cap on at all times when outside. My mates thought that
as my school were so strict about uniform that they must be very
strict about everything and the image of boys being punished for the
slightest thing.
When I was older, however, I could fit into the shorts my brothers had worn. As they are quite a bit older,their shorts were of a far more traditional cut.
They were much heavier material and had side adjusters rather than elastic. They were also quite a bit longer and baggier. I hated them but was told to wear them by my parents. It was easy to tell which boys in my class had older brothers as they also had this type of
shorts.
When I moved into the secondary part of the school, the only parts of the uniform that changed were the shorts and long socks were replaced by grey long trousers and ankle socks and we no longer had to wear a cap. In senior school, the longs were not lined and
had two side pockets and belt loops. In the senior school a plain black leather belt had to be worn.
I remember when I first moved up to the senior school. On the first day back after the summer holidays there were three boys who came to school still in shorts. This was very unusual and not something I every saw in any subsequent years. I always meant to ask them whether it was their choice or their parents. Going by the amount of ribbing they got about their junior shorts, I guess it was their parents. By the end of the third week, they too had long trousers.
As a boy my shorts for play were typicical blue or khaki. They had elasticated waists when I was younger and the two clip and zip style when older. Up to age 11, I wore shorts for playing during the summer with ankle socks. I don't remember wearing knee socks other than for school and cubs. However during the summer holidays even after age 11 I was
expected to wear shorts on hot days, as it was said this was far more healthy for a growing boy. As i said earlier, I have two older brothers and my mother was very careful about putting their outgrown clothes away until I was old enough to wear them. As they are quite a bit older than me I suspect they wore shorts more often and longer
than I did, although this is something I have never discussed with
them. Therefore my mother had a very large supply of hand down shorts
stored away.
Every summer she would get these out of the cupboard and have me try them on until we found two or three pairs that fitted. As the shorts were older they were of a more traditional style with zip, two clips, side adjusters and front and back pockets. In terms of colours they were either dark blue or khaki but there was a dreaful
pair of light blue ones which I tried to avoid wearing. Most of my friends didn't have older brothers and therefore wore more up to date styles and most tended to wear sports style shorts or tennis. I would have quite happily worn tennis shorts but my mother felt that white shorts were totally unsuitable for playing in the garden. [HBC note: the British use "garden" as Americans would yard. Thus the author here is talking about his back yard. However an avid British gardner would be most upset if you called his back garden a "back yard"] She was probably quite right.
After I left junior school, I tended to wear longs for both playing and school. It was very much a case of when you are old enough to go to school in man's trousers then you will be treated as one. When wearing short trousers either at home or school, the back of your
legs which are bare from the hem of your shorts to the top of your socks are a perfect target for a parent or teacher to slap when you have done something wrong.
I didn't like wearing sandals during the summer as I thought they were very childish and prefferred my normal shoes, especially when playing soccer in the playground. The type I wore always had the wider centre strap but I don't remember discussing any of my
uniform with class mates. As we all had to dress the same and
within strict guidelines,then no one appeared particularly
different from the next boy. Again I don't remember discussing my
sandals with my mother. She had decided that I was wearing sandals
during the summer and that was that. I knew better that to argue! At least she allowed me to choose which style I preferred but not whether I was wearing them or not.
No I didn't have a short trousered suit but did wear shorts for formal occassions. For formal occassions I wore smarter shorts and one pair I remember were a tweed material. With these I would wear ankle socks, a shirt and tie but rarely a jacket.
I never wore my blazer as dress clothing outside of school, without the rest of my school uniform. It was in fact, one of our school rules: all the unifrom or none of it, when
worn on a non school day. In the winter I would have certainly
worn a sweater to go out rather than a jacket.
I was both a cub and scout.
At cubs the uniform was, surprise, surprise, compulsory, with green cub jumper, neckerchief, cub cap, grey school short trousers and grey school knee socks. As the area I lived in was quite well to do, most of the other cubs attended
similar schools to mine so also wore short trousers to school, so
everyone was used to it and didn't think it too different to wear
them for cubs. As I said, all cubs wore them and when one boy turned
up in long trousers one winter's evening, he was told that he would
not be welcome back if he didn't have his short trousers on next
time. I used to wear an older pair of my school shorts for cubs, so
as not to mess up my smart pair for school.
As a scout from aged 12, I wore long scout trousers, which were a
dark khaki colour, green scout shirt and neckerchief. We did not
wear caps. As I was leaving scouts there was a move to allow boys
to wear jeans instead of the trousers to try and encourage more
boys to join. There was no such move at the time to allow the cubs to wear jeans.
As a boy I noticed the uniforms that boys at other schools in my area were wearing. I remember when I was in secondary school and getting the train home from school I would
sometimes see a boy who was of a similar age to me but he was still in shorts. This went on for a couple of years and many years later I found out that this school kept all boys in shorts until age 13. I used to wonder how he must have felt with most other schoolboys on the train in longs and him in shorts and knee socks.
Not only did I consider what clothes foreign children wore for school but I used to see on TV boys from other countries, especially New Zealand, South Africa and Oz, wearing shorts to school at a much older age. I always felt that if everyone was and the climate suited it, then it probably wasn't too bad. I have recently returned from holiday in
New Zealand and Oz and noticed that many boys wear very formal and junior uniforms. I saw one group of boys who were wearing dark grey short trousered suits, grey knee socks and boaters. Even the oldest boys were wearing this outfit. What was strange was that some were wearing longs but it did not go by age. I wondered whether it was totally by choice and who's, the boy or his parents?
Roger
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site
[Return to the Main English page]
[Return to the Main English school uniform page]
[Introduction]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Biographies]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[Movies]
[Activities]
[Countries]
[Boys' Clothing Home]