Figure 1.--This photograph shows a small Estonian school reportedly in 1937 just before World War II when Estinia was still an independent country. The boys seem to be wearing long short pants with long stockings. Most of the girls wear pinafores. A reader writes, "The boys in this 1937 photo all seem to be wearing black long stockings rather than brown, tan, or beige stockings, which had by 1937 become the dominant color in Germany, Russia, and most other countries. This could be interpreted, I suppose, as an evidence of greater conservatism in Estonia. And yet we see the beige long stockings being worn by Estonian boy scouts in 1934. So the use of only black stockings in this school photograph seems a bit unusual. Any thoughts as to why black seems to have been preferred here?" Good question. The 1937 datemay well be eronious. The boy's shoes also do not look correct for 1937. The early 1920s may be a more correct date.

School uniforms were worn during the Tsarist era. Boys in secondary schools wore cadet uniforms. We have little information about Estonian schools after independence during the inter-war era, but we notice many girls wearing pinafores. We note boys without school uniforms right after World War II (figure 1). We note boys wearing short pants including suspender shorts. One boy wears a sailor suit. There seem some rather old boys at the back, perhaps their education was delayed by World War II. Many boys have short, cropped hair. Presumably as the country began to recover from the War, the standard Soviet school uniform became more common and by the 1950s required. Children throughout the Soviet Union wore the same uniform. Boys wore a military-styleSince independence, Estonian school children no longer wear uniforms.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Smocks] [Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer] [School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Return to the Main Estonian school page]
[Return to the Main Estonian page]
[Return to the Main European national school page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Satellite sites] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 7:58 PM 5/29/2006
Last updated: 5:21 PM 8/4/2006