Figure 1.--Most prep schools through the 1970s required biys to wear short trousers. Many state primary schools had similar rules. Many of these boys did not like to wear casual shorts when they got older. This began to change when fewer schools required boys to wear shorts.

English boys began to changee their attitudes in the 1960s. The trend could be observed by the klate 19590s, but was more noticeable in the 1960s. By the end of the decade the Scouts had adopted a new long pants uniform. Schools began changing their uniforms. Often grammar schools required the junior boys to wear short trousers. Many abolished this requirement. Most grammar schools were replaced with comprehensives and these schools did not require shorts, although the primary schools that adopted unifornms in the 1960s often did require shorts. Public schools generally followed this trend. While many prep schools continued to require shorts, even this bastion of traditiion generally allowed boys to wear longs by the 1980s. While a few schools persistd in requiring shorts, by the 1990s even Wolf Cubs and preparatory schools were mostly allowing boys to wear longs. Quite a range of factors explain the changing attitudes behind the declining popularity of short trousers in England. A variety of factors explain why the attitudes of English parents and boys changed about short trousers in the second half of the 20th century. HBC can only speculate about the relative importance of these different factors.

Strenous Boys Wear

The image of short trousers as verile outdoor attire for strenous activites was diluted over the years as shorts came to be commonly worn by little boys for all occasions--including dressy formal wear. This image was further compromised when girls also began wearing shorts. As economic conditions improved and boys began acquiring larger wardrobes, more specialized shorts became available. Many boys had no objection to wearing sport shorts suvh as those styled for football (soccer), but began to object to wearing more formal or school shorts which they saw as suitable only for younger boys.

School Requirements

Shorts were not at first worn to school because they were required. When they became a stipulated part of school uniform, I think this was not a case of coercion, but schools simply fitting in with what boys preferred in the main to wear. State primary schools did not at first reqwuire them, they were simply the clothes commonly worn by the boys. In many cases private schools did begin requiring as part of a uniform--but this primarily reflected common contemporary fashion. But once they'd become associated with clothinig rules and boyhood....they were no longer so desirable. Once the establishment embraces anyting, rebellious youth no longer want to know.

Fashion Influences

Boys have no problem wearing shorts until other boys point at them and suggest that wearing shorts is babyish. In fact, fashion pressures aside, many boys prefer shorts. One English source reports that it was common in the 1930s and 40s for boys to eventually be FORCED into long trousers. This was certainly true in the case of one of the source's uncles, who refused to put on long trousers, and eventually was made to do so when he was nearly 15.

Chronological Factors

After World War II, a number of factors affected English boys' fashions over time.

The 1960s

The Boy Scouts' decision to adopt a short pants uuniform was of course a reflection of the trend toward long pants in England. It was also an important influemce. Large numbers of British boys participated in Scouting. Once they no longer had to wear short trousers for Scouts, they became even more reluctant to wear them in other settings such as school.

The 1970s

The style of short trousers changed in the 1970s to shorter lengths as were common on the continent. Older boys objected to these shorter shorts and thre as a result was a notable shift in the ages of boys wearijg shorts. Many grammar schools at this time dropped the requirement that younger boys wear shorts. None of the new comprehensive schools that appeared in the 1970s required the younger boys to wear shorts with their school uniform. As schools stopped requiring boys to wear short trousers, boys attitudes to shorts began to change. More boys began to want to wear casual shorts in the warm weather.

The 1980s

Popular boys styles by the later 1980s became losse fitting, baggy shorts. many boys increasingly objected to the trim fitting grey school shorts that were worn at the time. As the rest of the rag trade became baggy in the late 80s and 90s, boys who weremade to feel conscious of their shorts felt EXTREMELY conscious of them. Also about 1984 the government withdrew uniform allowances to help poorer parents of primary school pupils buy uniforms; at the same time, the government withdraw the power of primary schools to insist on a particular uniform; they were allowed only to insist on a colour scheme. A minority of schools took the view that they could still specify shorts and some continue to do so today. More and more boys, as fewer schools required them to wear shorts, wanted to wear casual shorts during the summer. As a result shorts became popular wear in warm weather. A good example is an English boy apparently wearing shorts after school. A British reader writes, "Once we got long trousers when we were 12 or 13, we never wore shorts if we could help it, but a bit later (the 1980s) boys didn't mind wearing shorts so much (they weren't compulsory at school). They weren't proper "tailored" school shorts. The boy in the photograph here wears terylene/viscose school shorts like ours were (figure 1). The 1980s boy in the above link wears shorts of a shiny nylon material."

The 1990s

Even the Cubs in the 1990s stopped requiring boys to wear short trousers. While this again was a reflection of ongoing trends, in meant that large numbers of boys stopped weraring shorts. Grey Cub shorts were by the 1990s the only formal shorts that many English boys wore.

Personal Experiences

Josh

As someone who wore shorts all year round till I was about 8, and who has photos of me and my brothers playing in the snow in shorts, I can tell you now....legs don't feel the cold as much as other parts of the body. I can remember only one occasion when I felt VERY cold walking home from school and my mother let me wear long trousers till a particularly wintery spell was over (only a few days.) Interestingly, one school I know of has come uner severe pressure from a minority of parents to allow boys to wear long trousers. It responded by saying that if the weather was cold, there was nothing to stop them wearing track-suit bottoms over their shorts on the wy to school and at playtime. the result? Out of about 300 boys, one or two can be seen wearing track-suit bottoms on the way to school and at playtime. The rest aren't bothered. And the same boys who sometimes say shorts are too cold for winter, have no problem playing football in just shorts and football short!

Created: October 13, 2000
Last updated: 4:07 AM 6/13/2005