Figure 1.--Boys at the end of the school day common had their kneesocks falling down. For some reason this rarely happened to the girls. A reader writes, "Just looking at the picture here, the boy on the right seems to have a fierce garter mark on his right leg. This reminds me of my school, where this used to happen, including to me, and garter marks became visible when we put on our games kit." Notably he has taken his garters off and his socks have fallen down.

There were three basic types of hosiery at British prep schools during the late 20th century: kneesocks, ankle socks, and tights. Kneesocks were very common, but seasonal changes occurred at some schools. Some schools changed to ankle socks in the summer term. Both boys and girls wore kneesocks and ankle socks, but only the girls wore tights. Tights were also commonly worn seasonally.

Kneesocks

Prep school boys wearing short trousers commonly wore kneesocks. At some schools kneesocks were worn seasonally, at others they were wore year fround. There were both turn-over-top socks and kneesocks that just came to the knee. The most common color was grey. Many boys wore plain grey kneesocks. Many schools also had kneesocks done with top bands in the school colors. These were always the turn-over-top type. Often girls wore white kneesocks. These were not commonly worn by boys, although some boys did wear white kneesovks fpr cricket. While English boys almost always wore grey kneesocks, boys in Scotland often wore a variety of colored kneesocks. While grey kneesocks were by far the most common for schoolwear, there were a range of striped and colored socks for rugby. Most schools had kneesocks for year round wear.

Ankle Socks

Other schools had seasonal approaches to hosiery. Some schools had the boys wear ankle socks during the Summer term. Ankle socks almost always were a summer seasonal garment. Boys worn knee socks during most of the year. The only ankle socks we noted for boys were grey. Usually these were light-weight plain grey socks--never white socks. This was becoming an increasingly common seasonal option during the 1980s, especially in the southern schools. It was much less common earlier. There were white ankle socks for girls. A few schools had grey ankle socks with tops in the school colors, but these were not very common. This was verycommon for kneesocks, but not common at all for ankle socks. Schools varies as to how strict they were with hosiery. At some schools boys were allowed to continue wearing knne socks if they wanted. Other schools were more insistent that the boys all make the change.

Tights

The girls at a few schools wore tights rather than socks. This was not very common. It was, however, a seasonal option at some schools. We see several coed and girls' schools where tights were worn during the winter.

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