Figure 1.--The photograph of an unidntified English boy is a family snapshot taken on some kind of outing. It is interesting that he is dressed up in a suit or the outing. His school my have a suit as the school uniform. More likeky he is just wearing his school cap with his regular suit. Notice the wide lapels which suggest the 1930s. .

Short pants suits became fairly standard for English boys in the 1920s. This trend continued in the 1930s. Short pants suits were not uiversal, but close to it. This depended a bit on school. Most boys finished schools at about age 13 years of age when they finished primary school. Boy finish school and entering the job market they often began wearing long pants suits. Boys in school were more likely to continue wearing short pants suits. This varied from school to school and parental choice. Another factor was that lower income boys often did not have a separate suit other than what they wore to school. And state primary schools did not have school uniforms. The boys wore what usually mum selecte. Boys commomly wore school caps. This could be part of a uniform. But we also see boys wearing their school caps even when wearing regular suits. Some schools expected this, especially private school and grammar scholls. But buting a peaked cap which matched the suit was not very common. More common was to wear their school cap. Middle-class boys were more like to have suits in additiion to what they wore to school. Private schools had uniforms, but state primaries did not. Secondary schools , both state and primary tended to have uniforms. The suit styles were very similar in the 1920s and 30s. We note suit jackets with very wide lapels, wider lapels than any other decade. Most boys wore suits with kneesocks. We notice patters ob the turn-over-tops. The priamry difference between the 20s and 30s was that high-top shoes were still common kn the 20s and we mostly see low-cut shoes in the 30s.

Created: 11:54 AM 8/13/2019
Last updated: 11:54 AM 8/13/2019