Figure 1.--Several English prep schools had uniforms with cord shorts, usually grey shorts. The shade of grey often varied widely--primarily because of washing.
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Figure 1.--Several English prep schools had uniforms with cord shorts, usually grey shorts. The shade of grey often varied widely--primarily because of washing. |
Cord shorts were most common in English schools. For some reason we seem them worn more in the private than the state schools, at least by the 1970s, we are not sure about earlier. While perhaps more common in English schools than elsewhere, we do note them being worn at schools in some other countries as well. They were also worn in Belgium, France, the Nertherlands, Scotland, and other countries. HBC has not noted them in former British colonies like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
We believe that some private Belgian schools had school uniforms with blue cord shorts.
Corduroy is a corruption of the French corde du roi, corde or material of the king. It was a material used as livery for the king's attendants on the hunt. It was in effect a kind of poor man's velvet. More details on corduroy in general are available on the corduroy short pants page. I am not precisely sure when the corduroy fabric became widely used in England and for boys' trousers. I do know it was worn by English and American soldiers during World War I because of its hardwearing characteristics. Perhaps it was, as a result, commonly used for boys knickers
and shorts after the war, but I am not sure of this. Cord shorts were commonly worn by English boys through the 1950s. Afterwards they continued to be worn, but mostly as part of school uniforms--almost entirely prep schools.
Relatively few French schools had uniforms. Some private carholic colleges adopted cord shorts, often blue shorts. More commonly cord shorts in France were worn by Scouts. I am also not sure to what extent cord was used for boys shorts and trousers in France. I do know that cord shorts were commonly worn by French boy scouts in the 1950s, although I'm not positive just when the Scouts began wearing cord shorts.
We believe that German boys commoinly wore cord pants, including cord short pants. We are unsure how commonly they were woirn to school.
As far as we know, corduroy was not used for Japanese school shorts.
HBC was not aware that cord shorts were worn in New Zealand. A New Zealand contributor, however, informs me that cord shorts were worn in the 1950s. I'm not sure when they first appeared. He wore cord shorts to school. It was a school in the poorer part of town and money was in short supply as well as clothing. The school had a uniform code. The girls wore white shirt or gray, blue gym slips or blue pinafores, blue bloomers, gray socks and brown shoes. The boys wore gray shirt, brown or blue corduroy or tweed or gray shorts. (All of these shorts were lined with white cotton or old cotton flower bags) gray soxs and brown shoes. He wore brown corduroy shorts and they were lined with old flower bags. He also had several pairs of corduroy's as he got older, but these weren't school wear.
HBC has little information on Scotland. As far as we know, only a few Scottish schools adopted cord. They were worn at both prep schools and the junior section of public schools. They may have been worn to state schools as well, but we do not know of any state schools which required them as school uniform. Both blue and grey shorts were worn, we do not know of any others colors worn in Scotland. They were the same style as English cord shorts.
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