Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait of a small, unidentified English girls' school was taken the 1890s. Many of the girls wear pinafores, very common at the time. There seem to be two boys at the school, both in the front role. . This was not all that uncommon. We noticed a few girls at boys' prep schools, usually the day=ughters of staff mmbers. Or in schools set in the country side of local farmers. This is probably the case here. One of the children tht look like boys wears a pinafore the other a smock. Now the child wearing a pinnie may be a girl with short hair, but the child wearing a smock is surky a boy.
Skirted garments are another importnt class of school garments. Several skirted garments were worn to school, of course mostly by girls. Protective garments were common in the 19th century. Many wore pinaforws over their dresses, but in England smocks were not very common. Until the late-20th century, girls almost exclisively wire dresses to school. We note some boys wearing skirted garments, especially during the 19th century. The principal skirted garment worn by boys was the tunic which many boys wore to school, especially in the early- and mid-19th century. This is, however, difficult to assess because of the relatively limited number of period images. Only after the mod-19th century when the advent of photography do we find enough images to assess trends with skirted garmnents. Some schools even used the tunic as a uniform. This was a historical garment, which continued to be worn into the 20th century as a uniform at the hospital schools.
Dresses
Younger English boys commonly wore dresses in the 19th century. This included soine biys above schoo starting age, basically 6 years old. We do not, however, see boiys wearing dresses to school. The boys still wearng dresses at age 6 years were appraently well-to-do boys bewing school at home. We do not see boys wearing dresses to schoos, poerhaps pre-schools like kindergarten, but not regukar schools. As far as we can tell, English boys were always breeched before beginning school.
Tunics were an early school garment. The tunic was a medieval garment that continued to be worn at the new grammar schools established during Tudor times. Some schools had tunics as a school uniform (16th century). The tunic was still a popular garment during the 19th century and was worn to school by many younger boys. Some schools like the Hospital schools used them as part of the uniform. They were also worn by individuals and not as part of a uniform. We think tunics may have been more common for the younger boys at private schools like public (private boarding) and by mid-century at the new preparatory schools than at state schools. We have to depend primarily on paintings for this period whoch inveitably provided a skewed impressioin as well-to-do boys were most likely to be painted. And of course, Britain did not make a major state school system until the later-19th century. Our information, however, is limited. Information on the 19th century is limited, especially the early- and mid-19th century when tunics were most common. Photography was not developed until 1839. And unlike America there are very few images available in the early formats like Daguerreotypes from the (1840s-50s). Only with the CDV do we begin to see some large numbers of photographic portraits (1860s). We see tunics in CDVs (1860s), but very few by the end of the century. The only excptiin is the hospital schools that cintuinued whoch continued to use them as part of the school uniform.
Kilts were worn by some British boys to school, but rarely English boys. Many Scottish and even a few Irish schools employed the kilt as part of a school uniform. A few made it required wear. Because of the cost it was at most Scottish schools usually only required on special occasions and Sundays. At some Scottish schools, usually private schools, boys were allowed the option of wearing kilts instead of long or short pants. We note some English boys wearing kilts as a kind of dress garment during the Victorian era, but as far as we know they did not wear them to school. And we see Scottish biys in primary schools wearing kilts when there was no school uniform. This was nmistly in the highlands. This was not the case in England. Kilts were not common in England, but they were not unknown. We see quite a few portraits of boys wering kilt suits and to a lesser ectent Highland kilts. These would be boys from the higher income groups, nit wirking class boys. And it would be mostly the Highland outfits that had bright plaid kilts. The kilt suit outfits would be done in flat fabrics or very muted plaids. While we see quite a few poetrits of these kilt outfits, we see virtually no exaamoles of boys wearing these garments to school.
There are countless illustrations in children's books of English boys and girls wearing gayly colored smocks. Most of these illustrations beginning with Kate Greenaway appear highly imaginative. We simply have no evidence yet to confirm that boy commonly wore smocks to school in the late 18 and early 19th century. (Of course tht does not mean that they definitively did not.) We have noted boy at home wearing smocks during the late 19th and early 20th century--generally boys from affluent families. We know more about this period as there are many photographic school portraits. English schools for the most part, however, not require smocks. State schools did not require iunifoms. Boys rarely appear in these images wearing smocks. Private schools did require uniforms, but we do not know of a school requiing the boyhs to wear smocks. A few private schools did use smocks for the pre-prep boys. One choir school, St. Mary of the Angles Song School, used smocks as the everyday uniform.
The pinafore was very commonly worn to school by girls in the 19th and very early-20th century. We do not have a lot of chronological information. We do not know if pinafores were worn in the 18th century, but we believe that they appeared bybthe late-18th century. As best we can tell, pinafores were worn througout the 19th century, although we have very little informtion on the early-19th century. This was before England began building a state education system. We have more infomtion after mid-century when we begin to find photographic images. Available school portaits show many girls wraring pinafore. Often almost all the girls are wearing pinafores. The poinafore was worn as a protective garment. Two important factors were at play here. First clothes were expensive in the 19th century. A much larger percentg of family income went for clothes than is the case today. Second, laundry was a much more labor intensive undertaking than today. Mothers had to devote an entire day for the family laundry and it was a very labor intensive task, Thus pinafores served a very useful purpse, lowering the laundry needs byprotecting clothes. While the pinafore was a protective garment, we not only see plain , utilitarian pinafores, but also fabcy pinafores with frilly lace abd ruffles. We also note some pre-school boys wearing pinafores. And they were apparently worn at some work house schools by both boys and girls as an inexpensive and utilitarian garment.
