Irish Boys Clothes: The 1950s

Brown, of all shades, was a very popular colour for our suits. (Excluding school uniforms which were never brown). Pattern suits were quite common but I couldn't honestly say that most were patterned. I did have a dark green patterned suit at about age 9. Towards the end of the 1950's and early 60s I would say that solid colours were more in vogue--patterned being deemed "old-fashioned"!!! Probably, the most popular colours were brown, dark blue and various grey shades.

I was still wearing my last short pants suit at age 13 and a half. It had been bought when I was much younger. I recall walking/running to Church on Sundays in my Confirmation "Sunday Best" suit which consisted of a light brown jacket with similarly coloured short trousers and fawn knee stockings. At this stage the shorts felt much smaller than when I was 12 and I was becoming somewhat self-conscious about so much bare leg being exposed. On sitting down in the seat, increasingly I found that my legs were feeling excruciatingly itchy from the woollen stockings and the only way to get relief was to roll them down. This, of course meant that more of my legs were exposed so it was a catch-22 situation. I couldn't understand why the itchyness was suddenly there. Funny thing, though, I don't ever recall even once asking my parents for "longs". I just accepted that wearing shorts was the norm and that my time would eventually come, which it did just before my 14th birthday. However, like many boys who got their first "longs" it didn't signal the end of wearing shorts altogether. For the next few months I alternated between longs and shorts until the shorts were just too little for me to wear anymore.

Some First Communicants wore all white suits with white knee stockings. In the uniform schools the boys wore new uniforms for Confirmation rather than suits.

My elementary (called primary here) school was non-uniform in my day but, subsequently, a uniform was introduced in the 1960s. I was nearly always wore a pullover--mainly brown or fawnish. But I know I had one grey pullover. With the pullover I wore a white shirt, brown or grey short trousers. I had a beautiful brown corduroy outfit for a few years which I loved to wear. It had short trousers which came to about 2 inches above the knee. The jacket was unusual in that you pulled it over your head like a pullover and then there was a zip (about 6 inches) to zip up to your neck. This was a very warm suit for winter wear and quite a few boys in my class had similar ones. It had one pocket on the outside front, on the right. In winter I always wore knee stockings sometimes with a patterned turnover top. In the shops they were known as turnover top socks (TOT). In summer ankle socks and brown sandals were usually worn instead of TOT's and shoes. In very wet weather we went to school in wellington boots ("wellies"). These were good for keeping us dry but our socks tended to slip down our feet into the boots and we had to keep pulling them up. For extra comfort we wore garters on the socks to keep them from slipping. One other point - I ALWAYS loved to wear a school cap--even playing football and hurling!!!

In secondary school I wore much the same as primary school during the first year, except the grey shorts were worn more often with grey socks. The secondary school I went to had a separate primary school which had a school uniform and most of the boys from that primary school wore that uniform in secondary as well, as long as it lasted. So, to keep somewhat in tune, grey was the colour to wear. (The secondary school did not have compulsory uniform though). I continued to wear the old school cap!! In my second year (at 14) I started wearing a long trouser suit to school, again a brown one!!! But, the cap became too small.

While I wore longs in my second year of secondary school, a lot of second year boys still wore shorts. Thee were even a few third year boys wearing shorts. I never ever heard a word being said to them about it in school but, of course, away from the school they might have been teased. It just wasn't all that unusual.

I commonly wear kneesocks for school and play. I always wore them in Winter, Spring and Autumn and even sometimes in Summer. I wore brown sandals in Summer and I loved wearing them. In fact, I really liked wearing TOT socks with my sandals when allowed to do so. They felt extremely comfortable.

I wasn't a cub or scout. There was no troop locally at that time. Both the cubs and scouts wore shorts, navy blue as far as I remember for one Organisation and, possibly khaki for the other. There wasn't just one scout assiociation as there is in the States.

There were never any formal weddings at our church with ring bearers. I can't recall ever seeing anything like that. I was in my twenties when I was at my first wedding!!! Hope I have given you some good info but let me know if you need more.
Mark

Christopher Wagner

histclo@lycosmail.com



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Last updated: April 25, 1998