Figure 1.--Short pants suits and Eton suits were more commonly worn in America by boys from affluent families. Black short pants suits were especially common in the United States during the 1950s.

Dancing Lessons

There was a strong element of social class in dancing lessons and the clothes boys might wear at dancing lessons. They were a required ritual for the children of wealthy families. This was one reasin short pants suits were so common. Boys in weathtly families wore them more commonly than boys in more modest circumstances. Middle class boys also usually were sent to dancing school. The schools they attended, however, were often not as formal and also did not stress the social graces in the same way as the classes attended by the children of the more socially prominent families. Boys from families of modest circumstances might not attend dancing school at all. As a result, the styles worn by boys from affluent families perdominated at dancing lessons. hort pans suits, a style more commonly worn by boys from affluent families perdominated at formal dancing lessons.

Private Schools

Many of the American children that went to the formal dancing lessons also went to private schools. Many of the more traditional schools had uniform requirements, in some cases short pants suits. This was true even in the 1950s when fewer and fewer Ameruican boys were wearing short pants.

St. James school

Wealthy Americans sent there children to prestigious private schools. Many of the most prestigious ones were heavily influenced by English preparatory and public schools. Many of the most influential American families are descened from English families. Many of those families retained their ties. Even those that did not often looked to England as an arbritor of values and good tastes. English clothes, especially for men and boys were very influential as well as English educational standards and norms.

Sheridan school

The strongest memories that I have about the clothes I wore as a boy was the short pants my parents insisted on. Back in 1960, a boy could head for an elite, private East Coast school in a navy blue blazer, bowtie, gray flannel short pants, and navy blue knee socks and provoke no reaction--or at least nothing that registered in his memory. That same boy in that same outfit a year later would cause a minor riot on the streets of a small Western town.