Lassie Come Home: Costuming


Figure 1.--Here we see a sceen at the village school. The boys are leaving at the ens of the school day. The interesting feature are all the boys caps on a their pegs. Here I am not sure about the accuracy. I think pegs like that were common. Each boy would have had a designated peg so they didn't get mixed up. What we are unsure about is the cap styles. They all look to be flat caps. We think at least some of the boys would have worn the traditiinal peaked school cap.

Joe's clothing seems typical for the 1930s. He went to a village primary school. There would not have been a uniform. Many British school boys wore peaked hats, I'm not sure how common flat caps were for school children at the time. Of course tends in Yorkshire villages could have been different than in London. That may also explain his rather old fashioned looking boot-like shoes. A HBC reader from Lancaster (close to Yorkshire) writes, "Flat caps would have been worn by a child in the towns and countryside. You can see this in old Pathe newsreel footage of football matches and freeze frame a crowd scene. The shoes worn are not outdated, but modern footwear for pre World War II working class families. Lots of boys and girls wore clogs then. Leather shoes with leather soles and heals were coming into use and eventually replacing clogs. Joe's parents had clothed Joe in fashionable clothings. They would have bought the best they could afford. Nodoubt from the Co-operative Retail Society Store. Known as the Coop. They would have collected discount stamps on their purchases. This was called the dividend or divy and was a perk of being a member. You became a member by paying a membership fee. This you got back." Roddy's costume in the film is a short pants suit as a boy from a modest family might have worn to school. Note that it is not an affluently tailored expensive suit, but rather common looking. There is no fancy school tie or school badge on the pocket. His knee socks don't appear to have garters or elastic tops to hold them up, and his shoes are definately every day, non-dressy shoes. Even so, just the mere look of the suit with it's suggested formality, give him a well dressed "proper gentleman" look to an American viewer.

Village School

The scenes inside the school look reasonably accurate. We note a scene with the children leaving school. The outside of the school looks to us more like an American than an English village school. The costuming generally seems more reasonably accurate. Joe's clothing seems typical for the 1930s. He went to a village primary school. There would not have been a uniform. Boys did, however, before World war II commonly wear suits to school. HBC has begun to compile details about clothing in individual English schools. As far as we kknow, however, have not added any Yorkshire village schools to our archive.

Clothing Items

Quite a range of different clothes were depicted in the film. It is thus a wonderful inventory of English boys clothing during the 1930s, the period depicted in thge film. This was in part influenced by the fact that the film was set in Yorkshire, although filmed in America. On the whole the costuming in the film seems basically accurate, although we have some questions about some aspects of the costuming.

Caps

Here we see a sceen at the village school (figure 1). The boys are leaving at the ens of the school day. The interesting feature are all the boys caps on a their pegs. Here I am not sure about the accuracy. I think pegs like that were common. Each boy would have had a designated peg so they didn't get mixed up. What we are unsure about is the cap styles. They all look to be flat caps. We think at least some of the boys would have worn the traditiinal peaked school cap. We are not saying that flat caps were not worn or even widely worn, we do wonder, however, if it accurate that none of the boys would have worn the traditional school cap. Many British school boys wore peaked hats, I'm not sure how common flat caps were for school children at the time. Of course tends in Yorkshire villages could have been different than in London. A HBC reader from Lancaster (close to Yorkshire) writes, "Flat caps would have been worn by a child in the towns and countryside. You can see this in old Pathe newsreel footage of football matches and freeze frame a crowd scene."

Shirt and tie

Joe as best we recall, always wears a tie. We see him not only wearing a tie at school, but also at home. Even when biking with Elizabeth he is wearing a tie. Boys did more commonly wear a tie in the 1930s. We are not sure they wore ties when biking, but here since he was laying with the rich girl he may have dressed up. This might also explain the white shirt when biking. Normally he wore a grey shirt. These grey shirts were very common at the time. Grey was cinsidered a much more practical color for schoolwear as it did not show the dirt like a white shirt.

Sweater

Sweaters were and still are popular garments in England. We note Joe wearing a maroon sweater with his suit. I think that this an accurate depiction. English readers might call it a jersey. A reader writes, "Note the hole in Joe's red jersey. This isn't very realistic. No decent Yorkshire mum - no matter how poor would have let her boy go to school with a hole in his jersey!"

Suits

Joe's costume in the film is a short pants suit as a boy from a modest family might have worn to school. Note that it is not an affluently tailored expensive suit, but rather common looking. There is no fancy school tie or school badge on the pocket. Even so, just the mere look of the suit with it's suggested formality, give him a well dressed "proper gentleman" look to an American viewer.

Suspenders

Joe wore suspenders to keep his pants up. In the birthday scene Joe can be seen wearing suspenders, which he would have called braces. They look to be thick leather ones. Joe does not seem to have had a belt. Although in one scene he is shown riding his bike with a young Elizabeth Taylor and he is not wearing his suspenders. So he must have had a belt as well. I think this is reasonably accurate. Suspenders were quite common. I'm not so sure how common belts were.

Pants

Joe wore short pants in the film, or as he would have called them, short trousers. They appear to have been wool shorts with a pattern as they were suit pants. He wears the same shorts both during the Winter and Summer, no matter what the weather. He does not seem to have a pair of leisure shorts. Boys commonly wore the shorts from older suits for play. I think this may have been common in the 1920s, but trends were beginning to change by the 1930s. Perhaps this was less common in more conservative Yorkshire.

Hosiery

Joe and all the other boys wear kneesocks, in both the winter and summer scenes. Joe's knee socks were wollen grey turn-over-top socks. They are store-brought socks. We imagine that in Yorkshore thast many boys wouls have worn socks knitted by mother or granny. They would not have had elastised tops so he must have worn garters to keep them up. Except when riding the bike, his socks always appear to be fully pulled up. The garter round the top on the inside and the sock top is folded over so it can't be seen.

Shoes

His shoes are definately every day, non-dressy shoes, rather old fashioned looking boot-like shoes. Our reader also writes, "The shoes worn are not outdated, but modern footwear for pre World War II working class families. Lots of boys and girls wore clogs then. Leather shoes with leather soles and heals were coming into use and eventually replacing clogs. Joe's parents had clothed Joe in fashionable clothings. They would have bought the best they could afford."

Overcoats

The boys, but not the girls, are shown wearing heavy wool full-length overcoats during the Winter scenes. We do note that gaberdine overcoats were common at many private schools. We are not at all sure that heavy wool overcoats were commonly worn by English school boys, especially boys in state schools. Nor do we know if overcoats were more common in Yorkshire than in other areas. Here a variety of factors are involved. Overcoats are a relatively expensive garment. Also the English climate is not that severe that wool overcoats are needed for warmth. A greater problem is rain.

Nightshirts

Joe slept in a nightshirt. Boys in America by the 1930s were sleeping in pajamas. I'm less so about Britain. My guess is that pajamas were also becoming common by the 30s, but Yorkshire being more traditional, it is likely that nughtshirts persisted longer there than in areas to the south.

Coop Store

Our reader adds, "Nodoubt from the Co-operative Retail Society Store. Known as the Coop. They would have collected discount stamps on their purchases. This was called the dividend or divy and was a perk of being a member. You became a member by paying a membership fee. This you got back."

Yorkshire

Setting the film in Yorkshire is apparently important in assessing the clothing in the film. A British reader writes about clothing in Yorkshire, "I would agree that flat caps were still seen as a "Northern" thing when I was growing up in London during the 1960s. Also trends and clothing in Yorkshire were different too compared to London. I noticed this when I borrowed my cousin's clothes (he lived in Richmond, Yorkshire). This is probably because clothes were bought and manufactured locally - this would be even more true in the 30s I'd say. Even the check shorts I mentioned in my personal account stood out in London because they were more of a "Northern Style". By the 70s mass-produced clothing was starting to make boyswear more standard throughout the country - although there were still regional variations. That's a Londoner's view, but my Grandfather would not have accepted your saying that Lancaster is "close to Yorkshire". It's true geographically but they are deadly rivals. When it comes to cricket the counties are still fighting the Wars of the Roses. The climate is slighty different too - Yorshire and Lancashire being seperated by the Pennines. Lancashire gets more rain and is generally damper. It is for this that Lancashire was famous for cotton (moisture in the air keeps the thread from snapping during spinning) whereas Yorkshire grew rich on wool. This must have effected styles too before World War II. Both counties had extensive coal mines - nearly all now shut."







HBC






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Created: 6:36 AM 2/26/2005
Last updated: 8:30 PM 3/8/2005