Figure 1.--Here we see a backyard snap shot of an unidentified boy and girl. The photograph is in dated, but the boy's turned fown brim is characteristic of the 1910s. Notuice the girls huge flouncy hat.

Boys in the 1910s wore different types of headwear. We see noth hats and caps. Boys still wore hats in the 1910s. They were not as common as caps, but they were worn. Younger boys might wear briad-brimmed hats, but this was declining. Somewhat older boys might wear boaters, but this would be when dressing up or in some cases school. The boater is not a practical style for boys. We also notice a soft hat that would evolve into a sun hat or golf hat as it is commonly called today. Except for the sun hats, these hats were generlly seen as a formal style. Caps were now the the most commo. The peaked cap emerged in the 1910s as the standard cap for British school-age boys. It was a cap with a small peak and rounded crown. It was not universal. We still see flat caps, but it had become by far the the most common style for boys. It became an iconic symbol of English school boys. Boys wore then in and out of school. This was a reflection of the fact that boys unless they came from wealthy did not have large wardrobes. So many boys, especially working-class boys, only had one cap or for that matter one type of headwear for all occassions. Middle class boys would have larger wardrobes, but not like the wardrobes of modern boys. Photographs from the period show large numbers of boys wearing these school caps. Most boys except for the particularly affluent had fairly simple wardrobes and if they had headwear it was commonly a peaked cap. Thus while they came to be called school caps, they were not just worn to school.

Created: 2:53 AM 8/6/2020
Last updated: 2:53 AM 8/6/2020