Figure 1.--Some schools had corduroy uniforms or at least corduroy shorts. This school used only corduroy shorts. Grey was the most common color, but some schools had blue cord pants like the school here. |
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Some schools had corduroy uniforms or at least corduroy trousers. Corduroy trousers were less common than the Terelyn trousers that were worn at most schools. We did, however, note corduroy being used at quite a number of schools. Corduroy by the 1980s seems to have been primarily a school material. We noticed few boys wearing corduroy outside of school.
Corduroy appears to have been a popular choice at some of the schools with more informal uniform standards. Corduroy is a hard wearing cotton fabric that required less care than many other fabrics. A few had uniform made up of matching corduroy lumber jackets and trousers, usually short trousers. Sometimes this was just the ordinary school uniform and the boys had blazers for special occassions. At other schools it was the uniform for all occassions. More common were schools that just used corduroy for the trousers, both short and long trousers. The corduroy was done in different colors. Blue and grey were the most common, but we also noticed tan colored corduroy. We think corduroy was more common in the 1950s, but quite a few schools still used corduroy in the 1980s.
Some schools had corduroy uniforms or at least corduroy trousers. Corduroy trousers were less common than the Terelyn trousers that were worn at most schools. We did, however, note corduroy being used at quite a number of schools. Corduroy by the 1980s seems to have been primarily a school material. We noticed few boys wearing corduroy outside of school. This was not the case earlier. It was a popular material for boys as recently as the 1950s.
Corduroy appears to have been a popular choice at some of the schools with more informal uniform standards. This varied of course from school to school. At scome schools with cord uniforms that was no other more formal uniform. The boys wore the cord uniform for everyday and just added a blazer for more formal wear. Some schools did not even have blazers, but this was not very common. At other schools the cord uniform was just the everyday uniform. For formal occassions they haf blazers with wool trousers or even suits.
Corduroy is a hard wearing cotton fabric that required less care than many other fabrics. Corduroy washed well and looked good ecven without ironing. This was probably one reason that cord was especually popular when flannel pants were more common before permapress Terelyn trousrs were available.
We only noted corduroy being used for two garments, lumber jackets sometimes called jerkins and trousers. A few schools had uniform made up of matching corduroy lumber jackets and trousers, usually short trousers. More common were schools that just used corduroy for the trousers, both short and long trousers. We noted most schools used corduroy for short trousers, but there were several schools that had cord long trousers as well. At some schools short and long trousers were worn seasonally. At other schools they were optional asnd up to the children to choose. The short cord trousers were just for the boys, but we noted a few coed schools let the girls wear cord longs during the winter term.
The corduroy was done in several different different colors. Blue and grey were the most common, but we also noticed blue, burgandy, tan colored corduroy as well. We have seen green cords, but never saw a school that had green cords as part of the uniform. Actually there seems to be more colors than there actually were. This is because corduroy tended to fade as they were washed. Thus boys at any given school seemed to wear different colors of trousers. Gery may have started out as a very dark shade and ended up as a very light shade of grey. The same occurred with the other colors, but for some reason the grey cords seem to gradually become a lighter color than the other shades. I'm not precisely sure why that was. Perhaps our British readers will know more about this.
We think corduroy was more common in the 1950s, but quite a few schools still used corduroy in the 1980s.
