American Boyhood Clothes: 1940s-50s

Your work on HBC is certainly extensive. I'd never before considered how so many influences affect clothing choices. As an instructor in social sciences, I think you have a book waiting to be written. Some of your ideas found in HBC I've applied in my classes.

The time span I suggested in this discussion (late 1950's to early 1960's) is most familiar to me. It's a matter of opinion, of course, but this era was also something of a last gasp for traditional styles for the young and the not so young.

Many contributors share my wish that classic styles for our young would make a return. Generally, styles never quite return exactly to those of a by-gone era, but instead resemble them with a modern version - fabrics, cut, innovations.

We American contributors recall that the dressier styles for boys - Eton suits, short pants suits - were never so common here as in the U.K. and in continental Europe. Our more casual culture and life style, as you note, explains in part why these styles, and since the 1930's approximately, shorts for boys, were not well received. One book I have about the Boy Scouts of America states that beginning about 1920 its National Organization encouraged the trops to select shorts, rather than knickers, but its suggestion was "met with great merriment", according to records. The book goes on to say that boys scouts once "risked mocking whistles" and had to defend themselves against young toughs by travelling in groups and settling matters with their fists.

Fortunately, the dark ages are over. As you write, shorts shorts ceased to be thought of as the dressed up look and became the casual look. As i put it, shorts once may have meant "sissy", now it means "cool", in more ways than one, guess. Ironically, longs seem to be "nerdy" for our young today.

Those of us who'd like for the cool styles to become more traditional might take heart. More and more public schools are opting for a rather classical school uniform (I can't help wondering if dissensters are parents, or students (most of whom seem to like the new look); surprisingly, the increasing popularity of soccer, with uniforms that at least are more coordinated and neater than today's casual fashions; and the norm that each generation tends to rebel against the styles and standards of the previous generation may make the generation following GEN X and its slackers the most neatly dressed generation within memory.


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Created: June 12, 1998 Last updated: March 13, 2002