Figure 1.--We notice several schools adopting red sweaters in a range of shades. Unlike the grey sweaters, the colored sweaters like red one here, were normally not done with colored trim. A reader writes, "All the different color combinatins in school uniforms are interesting. The creme shorts in the image here are unusual but I suspect it is a prep school. The other clue is the broad band at the top of the socks. Most primary schools I knew had hoops or, at secondary school, bands in the school colours. I wouldn't have minded wearing the grey shirt the boy there is wearing but my Mum would have been appalled at the choice of two different shades of red for the jumper and the school tie. She always said that looked awful, but I didn't like wearing red anyway."

School uniform sweaters were mostly grey. Rather difficult to estimate, but I would say that more than half of British schools had grey sweaters. This has varied over time. Until the 1980s, we believe that the grey sweaters were even more common than is the case today. Black and white photography makes this a bit difficult to assess, but we believe that most of the sweaters in the black and white photographs before the 1970s were grey. I am less sure how this varied by type of school. Hopefully our British readers will be ablt provide some insight here. I'm not sure precisely why grey was so common. Many grey sweaters were done with added trim to add a little color. Even so there were also quite a number of schools with plain grey colors. While grey was the most common, there were several other colors used as well. We noticed at many prep schools that most chilsren, both boys and girls wore the same sweaters in the same colors. This was almost lways pull-overs. A few schools had cardigans for the girls. At one school the boys wore grey pull-overs and the girls light-blue cardigans. This does not seem to have been very common We are less sure about other types of scools.

Shades

School uniform sweaters were mostly grey. Rather difficult to estimate, but I would say that more than half of British schools had grey sweaters. This has varied over time. Until the 1980s, we believe that the grey sweaters wsere even more common than is the case today. Black and white photography makes this a bit difficult to assess, but we believe that most of the sweaters in the black and white photographs before the 1970s were grey. I am less sure how this varied by type of school. Hopefully our British readers will be able to provide some insight here. I'm not sure precisely why grey was so common. Many grey sweaters were done with added trim to add a little color. Even so there were also quite a number of schools wsith plain grey colors. While grey was the most common, there were several other colors used as well. We have not noted black, but white was used for cricket. These cricket sweaters unlike regular sweaters were often done with cable knit. And thy did not have trim in the school colors. We noticed a number of schools with blue seaters, done in different shades. Other colors included brown, green, maroon, and red done in a range of shades. . Almost always these were plain colored sweaters with out the trim used with grey sweaters. In recent years colored sweters became more common. We also noticed white sweaters, but these were for cricket rather than being a school sweater.

Gender

We noticed at many prep schools that most chilsren, both boys and girls wore the same sweaters in the same colors. This was almost lways pull-overs. A few schools had cardigans for the girls. At one school the boys wore grey pull-overs and the girls light-blue cardigans. This does not seem to have been very common We are less sure about other types of schools. A Britih reader writes, "Generally I think that HBC is correct. Most school jumpers were grey. For boys that is. I have told you that the girls at my primary school wore navy-blue cardigans. At other schools the boys wore grey jumpers - with or without trim - but the girls did wear various coloured cardigans related to the school colours. For instance my mate Michael wnt to a Catholic school. His sisters had royal blue cardigans whereas he had a grey jumper with trim. (I rarely saw him in school uniform but I remember that.) I think that grey for boys (shirts socks and shorts as well as jumpers) was partly to do with the practical reason of them not showing the dirt so much! Girls at my primary school always wore white blouses when they wore them with a grey skirt rather than a Summer frock. And of course the grey socks for boys and white for girls was almost universal (although some girls' secondary schools did have brown or grey socks but very few)."

Created: 2:10 AM 4/14/2006
Last updated: 10:03 PM 4/17/2006