Figure 1.--Here we see a variety of single and double-breasted suits offered in 1969 with both long and short pants. We do not know the name of the catalog.

British school uniform styles are very influential. Schoolwear often was an important part of many English mailorder caralohs. This is because many English schools required uniforms and thus a substanyial part of a child's clothing purchases involved school uniform items. This was a little complicated. English school wear included many traditional styles such as grey shirts for everyday schoolwear. One noticeable shift in the late 1960s was the increasing popularity of continetal short pants, cut much shorter than the shorts previously worn by British boys. Many schools had very specific items such as ties, jumpers (sweaters), and knee sovks in the right-colored trim. This as a result required local purchases. Other items such as overcoats, grey or white shirts, and grey shorts were fairly standard and thus could be purchases through mail order catalogs. Some schools were more flexible about items that did not match perfectly than others.

Unidentified Catalogr

English mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. English mail order catalogs and newspaper ads provide great detail on fashion trends. Schoolwear was an important part of many catalogs. We note a Trutex Schoolwear add from 1969. Trutex was one of the primary manufacyurers of schoolwear in Britain.

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Created: 4:13 PM 2/4/2009
Last updated: 3:04 AM 8/8/2009