Figure 1.--The placards tell us that this was a first year class during the 1952-53 school year. We believe in was a Soviet Eastern Europen satellite country because of the white shrt and Communist neckechief that one boy. We are not sure about the coutry, Germany is the most likely. All of the boys wear short pants or perhaps afew are wearing rompers. We see mostly ankle socks and quite a few sandals and strap shoes.

There were still subsantial difference in schoolwear from country to country in he 1950s. It was still possible to identify the country by having a look at the garments worn. school uniforms were not very common. We mostly see them in Britain and British Empire schools and even in Britain they were mostly worn in private schools and secondary schools. We also see some school uniforms in the Soviet Union and some of the Soviet satellite countries. We also see uniforms in Japan and Korea. Otherwise children mostly wore their own clothes to school. Clothes varied somewhat in Europe geographically because of the Nort/South climate differenial. There was also an income differential, bit thant began to close in the 1950s. British uniforms tended to be rather formal, but in countries where children wore their own clthig, styles by the 1950s tended to be rather informal. Some secondary schools still had more formal dress code in the 1950s, but this was changing fast. Boys commonly wore casual shirts. Sometimes they buttoned at the collar. We see sweaters in cold weather. We see any boys wearing short pants in Europe, with kneesocks furng the colder months. By the end of the decade we see more boys wearing long pants. Sandals were common for younger boys. American boys mostly wore long pants. We see some shorts with younger boys in the early-50s, but by mid-decade even the youngest boys mostly wore long pants. We see some sneakers with younger boys.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer] [School sandals]

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Created: August 30, 2003
Last updated: 2:05 AM 3/28/2017