Figure 1.-- The color most associated with English schoolwear is grey. I'm not sure when this convention became stanfard, but it was well established by the mid-20th century. School garments including shirts, jumpers (sweaters), pants, and socks have traditionally been grey. At this school the uniform was all grey, except for the blue tie. This image is kind of funny in that the boys have matched light-colored shorts with light-colored kneesocks and dark shorts with dark-colored kneesocks. We suspecy that this is accidental.

The color most associated with English schoolwear is grey. School garments including shirts, jumpers (sweaters), pants, and socks have traditionally been grey. Caps, ties, scarves, and blazers on the other hand have often been done it colors, especially at private schools. These colors are often repeted as trim on the grey jumpers and kneesocks. A wide range of colors have been used, especially by the prep schools. The most common are black, blue, and red. These bright colors are not as common as they once were when school chikldren in colorful uniforms were once a common sight on the high street after school. Black in particular has become a common color, especially at state secondary schools. We have, however, noted quite a range of other colors, including: brown, green, pink, and yellow. Some sxhools had stripped blazers in various colors. White is not a color commonly used except at cricket matches and for girls kneesocks.

Colors

Black

Many schools have adopted black for their blazers. This is especially true for state secondary schools. Many schools also have black trousers. Almost allways trousers or either grey or black with very few exceptions.

Blue

Blue in historic times was a color associated with school wear, in part bdecause blue was the most inexpensive dye. Blue is next to black the most common blazer color. Usually a dark navy is used, but we have noticed royal blue as well. Some schools in recent years have also adopted blue shirts. A few schools had uniforms with dark blue shorts, but grey was much more common. One prep schools used an informal uniform of light blue Artex shirts and light blue cotton shorts for the Summer term.

Brown

Brown is a very common color for boys' wear, but for some reason brown is not commonly used for English school uniforms. We have noted a few schools with brown blazers. There is even one school that has a brown blazer with matching brown pants and skirts, but this is not very common.

Green

Green was not a common color for school uniform. We do notice green being worn for caps and blazers. We have noted both bright green and dark green caps and blazers. These green blazers were worn with grey shorts and trousers. One reader writes, "Some boys in the northeast wore lovat green shorts as an alternative to the traditional grey." HBC has not noted green shorts wore to school as part of a uniform. A reader writes, "I recall the green and beige etc. for casual wear but school shorts were always grey where I came from." Another reader writes, "Lovat green for SCHOOL? !!!!. That's beachwear!. Sorry, I'm not calling your recollection into question I'm just appalled. Where was this if you don't mind me asking?. The only school green I remember (as far as shorts went) were a group in suits of that colour in the Imperial War museum, London (there's one in Salford now too). Probably a prep school - very badly behaved - all over the place whereas we were kept in line.

Grey

The color most associated with English schoolwear is grey. I'm not sure when this convention became stanfard, but it was well established by the mid-20th century. School garments including shirts, jumpers (sweaters), pants, and socks have traditionally been grey. Sometimes the sweaters and kneesocks have colored trim, but many schools just wear plasin grey ones. Caps, ties, scarves, and blazers on the other hand have often been done it colors, especially at private schools. Soime schools instead of having a colorful blazer adopted grey suits for school uniforms. Some of these schools had colored caps to go with the grey suits, but grey caps were more common.

Pink

Pink is not a common color, used at British prep schools. We have, however, noted a few schools with pink blazers. We notice one boys prep school with a pink blazer. The blazer was worn with a pink cap. We are not sure why pink was chosen. The boys understandably did not like the color. Apparently there are a few other schools that use pink. A HBC reader has provided us some images ofpink school uniform items.

Red

We have noted quite a few schools with red blazers. This was a popular choice for both capa and blazers.

White

White is not at common color used in English school uniform. There is one major exception--of course cricket. Boys for cricket matches or even for practice commonly wear cricket whites. Also girls commonly wear white socks, but rarely boys.

Yellow

Yellow is rarely used for blazers, but several schools use yellow as a complimetary color to accebnt the main school color in times and trim. The only school we know of with a yellow blazer was a choir school.

Garments

These colors are often repeted as trim on the grey jumpers and kneesocks. A wide range of colors have been used, especially by the prep schools. The most common are black, blue, and red. These bright colors are not as common as they once were when school chikldren in colorful uniforms were once a common sight on the high street after school. Black in particular has become a common color, especially at state secondary schools. We have, however, noted quite a range of other colors, including: brown, green, pink, and yellow. Some sxhools had stripped blazers in various colors. White is not a color commonly used except at cricket matches and for girls kneesocks.

Created: September 13, 1998
Last updated: 6:09 PM 7/30/2005