Figure 1.--Most schools had grey short or long trousers and black long trousers. A few schools, mostly Scottish schools had blue short and long trousers. |
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British prep schools by far most commonly use grey or black trousers. There are other colors, but grey and black are by far the dominant color. Traditionally grey was the dominant color, but as long trousers began to become more important in the 1960s we begsan to see black becoming an important color at schools thrughout Britain, including prep scools. Here shorts are only grey while long trousers can be both black and grey. Less commonly we see blue short and long trousers. Shorts come in some other colors such as khaki. Coruroy trousers also come in several different colors, incliding grey, blue, rust, and maroon. These different colored corduroy troysers are mostly shorts. Corduroy longs are usually dark blue. White of course was worn for cricket.
The reason for black trousers getting into schools was the fashion of the late 1960s, when flares first appeared and jet black trousers with very tight seats were much sought after. To begin with the only pockets they had were cut horizontally at the front, on the base of the waistband, but by
then boys were already demanding more convenience in daily living and side pockets soon reappeared (either on the side-seam or slanted) and a back pocket returned to most designs a little later.
The admission of black trousers in schools, which had a practical aspect to them, followed and they have remained ever since although not to the exclusion of dark grey (the lighter grey of the 1940s and 1950s had already been giving place to darker shades). Since shorts were being abandoned by schoolboys at much earlier ages from the 1960s, they tended to remain in the traditional grey. Shorts contiued to be worn in the prep schools longer than in the state schools. However, even today, they tend to be very dark by comparison with 50 years ago.
Less commonly we see blue short trousers. We do not see blue long trousrs, except for a few schools with with blue cords. We see very few blue shorts in England. There were a few schools with blue shorts in rgular material and corduroy. These were almost always a dark blue. We see several blue shades, but virtually all dark. Some were so dark they lookedcblack. We did note one lone school with blue cotton shorts as a summer uniform item. They were a light blue. Blue shorts were more popular in Scotland than England. They were used at several private schools. A number of academies had blue shorts rather than the grey shorts that were mostly worn in England. While boys wore blie shorts at these schools, we only notice grey or black long trousers. We do not notice them wearing blue long pants. We did not notice boys in the state schools wearing blue trousers. This uniform influence can be seen in New Zealand. This resulted in some Scottish educators playing an important role in thecealy development oif the New Zealand school system.
British prep schools by far most commonly use grey or black trousers. There are other colors, but grey and black are by far the dominant color. Grey flannel became standard for school trousers through the first half of the 20th century. Grey was so common that when Wolf Cubbing was organized 1916) that grey shorts were included in the uniform. This allowed boys to wear their school shorts rather thn having to buy a specialmpair of trousers. Traditionally grey was the dominant color, but as long trousers began to become more important in the 1960s we begsan to see black becoming an important color at schools thrughout Britain, including prep scools. Here shorts are only grey while long trousers can be both black and grey. One noticeable trend is that the modern shorts tend to be a darker grey shade than the grey flannels worn in the early 20th century.
Shorts come in some other colors such as khaki. Khalki was not very common, but we noted a few schools which had khaki shorts as part of the uniform.
Corduroy trousers also come in several different colors, incliding grey, blue, rust, and maroon. These different colored corduroy troysers are mostly shorts.
White of course was worn for cricket. Often for games at school the boys do not wear cricket whites. For games with other schools they do wear cricket whites. Generally these are long white trousers. At scome schools the younger boys play in white shorts with white kneesocks.
