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English school uniform garments -- shirts and shirt-like grments
English School Shirt-like Tops: Elements
Figure 1.--This caninet card shows an English school class in the early-1900s. The boys look about 7 years old. It may be a state primary, but we are not sure. The boys seem to have brought chairs out from the school for the prtrait, There was no uniform, but we see several popular collar types. Most of the boys have various types of Eton or sailor collars. One boy has what look like a scalloped colar and another a soft collar. One boy has a large Fauntleroy collar. Another boy wears a turtle-neck sweater. They all seem to be earing knee pants or knickers with long stovkings, but it is little difficult to tell.
There are several important elemnts to shirts and shirt-like garments. These include the collar, sleeves, cuffs, and the length, specially the shirt tails are the lack of them. The most vissible element in the photographic record is the collar, both attached and detachable collars. The other elements are less vissible in the photographic record, especially in the 19th century when boys did not commonly wear or even less commonly have their portrait taken in just a shirt without jackets and vests. It is sometimes possible to see something of the sleeves because the cuffs might show. All shirts had long-sleeves in the 19th century. Girls had dresses with short sleeves, but shirts had long sleeves. We do not see boys commonly wearing short-sleeved shirts at school until the late-190th century. Shirt lengths are even more difficult to assess. Althogh it is reasonable to surmise that if a boys is wearing a belt, that he is wearing a shirt with shirt-tails. British boys always wore their shirts tucked in at the waist. This did not change until the appearnce of polo shirts as a school garment in the late-20th century.
Emgland has helped to set some school shirt styles. This seems to have been especially true of the more formal styles. The Eton collar was an English creation. The Eton collar was commonly worn for years during the late 19th and early 30th century. It was worn by boys a wide variety of schools. This was not a short, but rather a shirt waist worn with a detachable Eton collar. It does not look to have been a very comfortable style, but it was certainly widely worn. School uniform shirts after the demise of Eton collars were always standard pointed collars. Although the size of the collars have varied slightly with the times, we have never noted styles like button-downs or tabs.The standard school boy shirt after Eton collars disappeared during the 1930s were grey straight collared shirts. English school boys for years wore a classic grey shirt, a practical color for a boys as it did not show dirt like a white shirt. We are not sure when boys began wearing grey shirts, but they were already wide spread by the 1930s. English school boys in the 1950s wore two basic styles of shirts, mostly long sleeves. The most common were the Rugby style where the buttons only went half way down the shirt. The other style was the regular shirt which buttoned all the way. Both styles were usually grey except for special occasions. There was a third less common shirt, the Aertex shirt, which was usualy grey with an open weave material. It was generally short sleeved and worn in the summer. The material in the 1950s was mainly of a wool mixture (Viyella), making for a warm, rather heavy shirt. Whilst the Vyella shirts are still available, at about L30 per shirt, they cost mist more than the more common L5 cotton shirts moat boys now wear. The Rugby stle declined in popularity during the 1970s. Grey shirts are still comonly worn, but not as universally as in the 1950s. They are still very common in preparatory schools and to aleeser extent for the older boys in public schools. Grey shirts are not very common in state secondary schools where sweat shirts are replacing traditional blazers. In recent years we have noted English boys wearing a variety of more informal shirts such as polo shirts. In some cases these informal shirts were worn seasonally.
English school boys have mostly worn long sleeve shirts. This did not change until the late-20th century. It is relatively easy to assess shirt collars because they s giw over jackets, vests, and sweaters. The other elements are less vissible in the photographic record, especially in the 19th century when boys did not commonly wear or even less commonly have their portrait taken in just a shirt without jackets and vests. It is sometimes possible to see something of the sleeves because the cuffs might show. All shirts had long-sleeves in the 19th century. Girls had dresses with short sleeves, but boys' shirts for some reason all had long sleeves. And we mostly see long-sleeve shirts in the 20th century. Again it is difficult to tell becuse so many boys wore jackets or sweaters. Of course it is likely that the shirts worn with jackets and sweaters are long-sleeve shirts. This began to change in the 20th century, but only after the mid-20th century. We do not see boys wearing short-sleeved shirts at school until the late-20th century. Even then we mostly see long sleves. We note both short-sleeved shirts and more casual styles like polo shirts. rts. This did not change until the late-20th century. It is relatively easy to assess shirt collars because they show over jackets, vests, and sweaters. The other elements are less vissible in the photographic record, especially in the 19th century when boys did not commonly wear or even less commonly have their portrait taken in just a shirt without jackets and vests. It is sometimes possible to see something of the sleeves because the cuffs might show. All shirts had long-sleeves in the 19th century. Girls had dresses with short sleeves, but boys' shirts for some reason all had long sleeves. And we mostly see long-sleeve shirts in the 20th century. Again it is difficult to tell becuse so many boys wore jackets or sweaters. Of course it is likely that the shirts worn with jackets and sweaters are long-sleeve shirts. This began to change in the 20th century, but only after the mid-20th century. We do not see boys wearing short-sleeved shirts at school until the late-20th century. Even then we mostly see long sleves. We note both short-sleeved shirts and more casual styles like polo shirts.
