Figure 1.--The trend in England during recent years has been toward more informal, comfortable schoolwear. Boys at this school wear yellow polo shirts.

England has helped to set some school shirt styles. This seems to have been especially true of the more formal styles. There are two basic types of collars, detached and attached collars. They were done in many different styles which varied over time as fashion trends changed. The Eton collar was the best known detacheable collar and is strongly asociate with schoolwear. The Eton collar was an English creation. The Eton collar was commonly worn for years during the late 19th and early 20th century. It was worn by boys a wide variety of schools. This was not a short, but rather a shirt waist worn with a detachable Eton collar. It does not look to have been a very comfortable style, but it was certainly widely worn. School uniform shirts after the demise of Eton collars were always standard pointed collars. Although the size of the collars have varied slightly with the times, we have never noted styles like button-downs or tabs.The standard school boy shirt after Eton collars disappeared during the 1930s were grey straight collared shirts. English school boys for years wore a classic grey shirt, a practical color for a boys as it did not show dirt like a white shirt. I'm not sure when bots began wearing grey shirts, but they were already wide spread by the 1930s. English school boys in the 1950s wore two basic styles of shirts, mostly long sleeves. The most common were the Rugby style where the buttons only went half way down the shirt. The other style was the regular shirt which buttoned all the way. Both styles were usually grey except for special occasions. There was a third less common shirt, the Aertex shirt, which was usualy grey with an open weave material. It was generally short sleeved and worn in the summer. The material in the 1950s was mainly of a wool mixture (Viyella), making for a warm, rather heavy shirt. Whilst the Vyella shirts are still available, at about L30 per shirt, they cost mist more than the more common L5 cotton shirts moat boys now wear. The Rugby stle declined in popularity during the 1970s. Grey shirts are still comonly worn, but not as universally as in the 1950s. They are still very common in preparatory schools and to aleeser extent for the older boys in public schools. Grey shirts are not very common in state secondary schools where sweat shirts are replacing traditional blazers. In recent years we have noted English boys wearing a variety of more informal shirts such as polo shirts. In some cases these informal shirts were worn seasonally.

Detachable Collars

The Eton collar was the best known detacheable collar and is strongly asociate with schoolwear. The gleaming white Eton collar as the name clearly indicates was an English creation. Boys at Eton College began wearing it in the early-19th century before the invention of photography. We do not have many images, however, until the appearance of the CDV in the 1860s. There wee variations in sizes and shapes, but the basic Eton collar was a school stapel for several decades. Boys at private schools were expected to wear them. They were required at some schools although this varied over time. And this set the fashion so we see middle-class and working-class boys of varying ages wearing them as well at state schools. Not all boys wore them, but many did even when optoomnal. The Eton collar was commonly worn for decades during the late-19th and early-20th century. It was worn by boys a wide variety of schoolsm but was especially pronounced. The Eton collar was not a a primary short, but rather a detacable collar worn with a shirt waist, meaning a shirt with no collar. It does not look to have been a very comfortable style. The large stiff collar, in fact, looks decidedly uncomfortable. Even so it was certainly widely worn for half a century.

Attached Collar

School uniform shirts after the demise of Eton collars were always standard pointed collars. Although the size of the collars have varied slightly with the times, we have never noted styles like button-downs or tabs. The standard school boy shirt after Eton collars disappeared during the 1930s were grey straight collared shirts. English school boys for years wore a classic grey shirt, a practical color for a boys as it did not show dirt like a white shirt. I'm not sure when bots began wearing grey shirts, but they were already wide spread by the 1930s. English school boys in the 1950s wore two basic styles of shirts, mostly long sleeves. The most common were the Rugby style where the buttons only went half way down the shirt. The other style was the regular shirt which buttoned all the way. Both styles were usually grey except for special occasions. There was a third less common shirt, the Aertex shirt, which was usualy grey with an open weave material. It was generally short sleeved and worn in the summer. The material in the 1950s was mainly of a wool mixture (Viyella), making for a warm, rather heavy shirt. Whilst the Vyella shirts are still available, at about L30 per shirt, they cost mist more than the more common L5 cotton shirts moat boys now wear. The Rugby stle declined in popularity during the 1970s. Grey shirts are still comonly worn, but not as universally as in the 1950s. They are still very common in preparatory schools and to aleeser extent for the older boys in public schools. Grey shirts are not very common in state secondary schools where sweat shirts are replacing traditional blazers. In recent years we have noted English boys wearing a variety of more informal shirts such as polo shirts. In some cases these informal shirts were worn seasonally.

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Created: 5:24 AM 5/28/2008
Last updated: 8:09 AM 8/18/2014