Figure 1.--Grey became a major color for English boy's clothing. A major factor here is that many schools adopted grey-colored uniforms. Grey was common at private chools in the late-19th century. And after World War II, state schools began aooting uniforms, commonly with grey colored items, especilly the shirts, pants, sweaters, and knee socks. This boy is pracing his trumpet during the after lunch rest period at a prep school in 1988. The only non-grey item here is a blue tie and brownish-red school sandals.

Children's clothing, especially boys clothing, was for much of the 20th century rather drab. Colored garments were not unknown in the early 20th century, especially for younger children. For the most part, however, we see rather drab colors being worn. The only colour at school was ties, sock tops - and blazer/cap badges - for posher schools blazers would be coloured. A British writer in the 1960s remembers mostly grey school clothes. He writes, "Most of my school clothes were grey, although I had a blue blazer. A friend attending a R.C. state primary had a fancy blue and gold blazer and they had trimming on the jumper too. His primary school and mine were considered the best R.C. and C. of E. respectively primaries in the district so there may have been a bit of religious rivalry about who had the best uniform. Mostly we wore grey items." Outside of school there was more colour - bright t-shirts and so on but even then our cords were always grey, blue, green and brown and never a bright shade and the cotton shorts that my brother preferred were similar colours. Socks were always grey or khaki. Even plastic macs were always grey. Colored garments seemed to come in later, the late 60s/early 70s.

Color Shades

Boys have worn a range of colors over time. Today girls generally wear a wider range of colors, but this was not always the case. When younger boys wore dresses, we note quite a range of colors. We note an unidentified boy wearing a bright red jacket, we think in the 1820s. We see George Bond wearing a red dress in the 1840. We notice pink dresses nd smocks in Allingham water colors, but this declined as the fashion of dressing boys in dresses declined. Blue became an important color in boys' clothing, in part because blue dyes were some of the lss expensive ones. We see blue tunics being worn a early grammar school. England's famed hospital schools, also known as blue coat schools, had blue tunics as the major uniform item. The modern schools have very dark navy blue tunics. We are not sure about the original color. We see Denis Bond wearing a forest green tunic in the 1840s. We note a younger London boy wearing a bright blue tunic in the 1850s. We notice an unidentified boy wearing a brown cord sailor suit. we think in the 1880s. Another important color was grey. In cadditiin to the blue coat schools there were also grey coat schools. Gey flannel scuits became fashion mainstays in England during the 20th centry, widely replacesd with Terelyn after Workd War II. Boys also wore black. The famed Eton jackets wre black, worn with grey or other lighter colored trousers trousers. White was also impotant. It was inpractical because it was easily soiled, but bleach could be used as there no colors to spoil. This was important before modrn laundry detergents became available.

Garments

We hope to gradually develop color pages for the various garments. At this time we only have an English color page for tunics.

Chronology

An English reader tels us that since World War II, "British colour conventions to seem to be similar to and highly influenced by American ones." [Burnett] At the same time, grey became increasingly important for school wear as more state schools adopted uniforms. Britain was known as a 'grey, staid country in the 1950s, partly to do with rationing during and after the war. That was both adults and children. Grey shorts/white shirts carrried on with schoolwear right into the 80s, but in casual wear, for children but NOT for adults. A British reader writes, "We had the brightly coloured t-shirts influenced by the U.S. I think. I've seen pictures of Dutch and German children who wore these bright clothes (of course their school class photos showed that as they did not, generally have school uniforms so wore the same clothes to school as to play) but I still think it took longer to come in in England." An English reader writes, "Boys in the 1960s wore white/grey/brown/khaki/navy blue/bottle green (restrained colours) on the whole both in and out of school (the flashes of colour being on kneesocks, ties and school blazer badges and, of course, Cub and scout scarves. Each pack had their own colours and there were so many they used all sorts of combinations). More bright colours in all items of clothing came in around the late 1960s and going mad into the 70s. There were some bright stripey U.S. style "t-shirts" when I was growing up in the 1960s, but they weren't that common around my way and I didn't like them at all."

Post-War Trends

English readers privide some insights on trends in the post_war era, primarily the 1960s. We ill eventually move this into the chrinological secrion.

Schoolwear

Grey dominated English schoolwear, but we notice some colors. The color at school were caps, ties, sock tops - and blazer/cap badges - for posher schools blazers would be coloured. A British writer in the 1960s remembers mostly grey school clothes. He writes, "Most of my school clothes were grey, although I had a blue blazer. A friend attending a R.C. state primary had a fancy blue and gold blazer and they had trimming on the jumper too. His primary school and mine were considered the best R.C. and C. of E. respectively primaries in the district so there may have been a bit of religious rivalry about who had the best uniform. Mostly we wore grey items." Grey shorts and black rousers and mainly white or grey shirts have survived as schoolwear to this day. Many schools now wear coloured sweatshirts instead of jumpers or blazers. The fairly drab clothing was often the norm for state schools through the 1960s. A Britosh reader writes. "We wore blue uniform garment with a blue blazer. This was cquite common I think. Here I am more talking working class schools here. Private prep schools often did had really bright stripey blazers and caps from an early time (maybe even the 30s?). In fact that's where the word "blazer" came from (the bright colours). But we rarely saw these boys in the city - just occaisionally on museum trips where there was a shared school lunch area. We'd laugh at them, even though we had blazers and full uniform too but theirs seemed totally over the top! Stripes and checks on shorts or jackets (including blazers) or even shirts, jumpers and so on were always seen as being a bit extravagant around my way (and maybe because of the pattern these sort of clothes were more expensive to manufacture and so more costly to buy and hence for "posh" boys). It is another reason why my check shorts stood out so much - and why I hated them. M Mum, of course, thought that I was lucky to have them."

Non-school Clothes

We have only limited color information on 19th century clothing. We have color information on tunics, cut-away jacket suits, and several other gaments. Outside of school there was in the 20th century more colour - bright t-shirts and so on but even then our cords were always grey, blue,green and brown and never a bright shade and the cotton shorts that my brother preferred were similar colours. Socks were always grey or khaki. Even plastic macs were always grey. Colored garments seemed to come in later, the late 60s/early 70s. Very brightly coloured (orange, yellow etc.) co-ordinated outfits - shorts socks and check or striped shirts appeared in the late 1960s and early 70s. I think they first appeared in street markets which tended to handle mostly cheaper imported goods. A reader tells us, "My Mum did buy us all a set of clothes there once - but she wasn't too happy with the quality. I've been meaning to tell you about the street market and will at one point as it was another source for cheap, casual clothing - but as I say my Mum rarely bought there." Our reader tells us that in the late 1960s, his mother bought his some colored shorts. "At the time, BHS started getting in a new range of much more brightly coloured clothing for boys - including underwear - so I think the late 60s was a real changing point as far as moving from the 50s look mainly of grey/white in school and khaki/bottle green/navy blue out of school was concerned. That is how I remember it anyway. My grandmother was most upset about these new clothes as she was used to the older style - but Leeds probably caught up with London later. A British reader who traveled to Germany in 1968 writes, "When I went to Germany most boys my age did wear (brown/black/grey) lederhosen to play out in - but their t-shirts and so on were brighter then I would have known in England. I also think that it is interesting that the brighter colours that came in in London stood out in Yorkshire. For some reason my Grandmother saw it as being symbolic of a lapse in discipline in young people. I particularly remember a fiery argument she had with my Mum over this. My Grandfather, who normally left them to it, had to intervene! After that I just kept my mouth shut and wore what my Gran wanted when I was going out with her and let my Mum decide otherwise - but it was weired as it was only about colour. It must be a generational thing."

Sources

Burnett, Sian-Louise. E-mail message, September 8, 2008. Burnett is a university student researching the topic.

Created: 12:28 AM 5/21/2005
Last updated: 1:04 PM 7/20/2016