Figure 1.--Here we have an unidentified state school we think in tthe 950s. We are not sure what kind of schools this was, perhaps a secondary modern. The children look to be about 12-13 years of age. The school seems to have a blazer, but hardly anyone wears it--unless the one of the boys wears a blazer from a different school. One of them must because the badges are different. Most boys do wear suit jackets, but most with open collars and not ties. The footwear varies. We see low-cut oxfords, sandals and sneakers. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the class.

We see boys wearing a variety of footwear in the 1950s. Age, gender, and price were all factors as well as the type of school. Some primary school boys wore sandals, but not as many as in the 1940s. School sandals were more common for the younger boys and were even more commonly worn by girls of all ages. They seem more common at prep schools which often had rules about footwear. Many prep schools required the boys to wear sandals. Boys in secondary sdchool, however, did not commonly wear sandals. Most boys wore leather shoes. By the 50s we only see low-cut oxfords. We see a few boys wearing sneakers, but they were not very common. Most mothers did not think thst they wrere suitble for school. We believe they often meant that the family could not aford leather shoes. The idea of fashionable sneakers or the modern word trainers had not yet developed. We do see styles different than the plimsols worn for gym.

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Created: 12:05 AM 5/5/2007
Last updated: 12:05 AM 5/5/2007