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We have only limited information on the countries in which pinafores were worn to school. This of course varied chronologially. We have noted large numbers of images from America, Australia, Canada, England, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Scotland showing girls wearing pinafores to school in the late 19th and early 20th century. We believe that they were common in may other countries as well, but have no information on other countries at this time. We have even less information about boys wearing pinafores to school. The few images we have are from England and are all rural village schools. There are so few images involved that we are not sure if this was only a fashion at village schools or if pinafores werea lso worn in city schools. Most show pinafores and are smocks being worn by very young boys. A few images appaer to show a few older boys wearing them as well.
American girls commonly wore pinafores during the late 19th and early 20th century. Asin England, they were often worn to school to protect the girls' clothing
Australia was a British colony and pinafores were worn by Australian girls much as they were worn in England.
We have very little information on Canada. Readers of Ann of Green Gables, however, will be familiar with the fact that pinafores appear to have been commonly worn by Canadian girls.
We have a early 20th century photograph of Dominican school girls wearing mostly light-colored dresses. They do not appear to be wearing pinafores. We do not knoiw to what extenbt pinafores were worn in Latin American countries. We have generally in HBC very limited information on Latin America. Hopefully our Latin American readers will provide us some insights here.
Numerous English photographs show girls wearing pinafores to school in the late 19th and early 20th century. Large numbers of images English children lined up in front of schools with all the girls wearing pinafores. This seems particularly common in the late 19th century, althougjh we do not yet have a precise chronology. Other images show only some of the girls wearing pinafores. Most commonly they were white pinafores ith frills at the shoulders, but we have also noted pinafores with patterns as well as colored pinafores.
We have little information about boys wearing pinafores to school. The few images we have are from England and are all rural village schools. There are so few images involved that we are not sure if this was only a fashion at village schools or if pinafores were also worn in city schools. Most show pinafores and are smocks being worn by very young boys. A few images appaer to show a few older boys wearing them as well.
French girls often wore inafores to school, over dresses or even smocks. We have, however, relatively limited information at this time.
We have limited information here. We believe German girls did ear pinafores to school, but we are not sure about how common this was. We do not believe that German boys wore pinafore to school, but do not that some German boys wore pinfores at home. They were very basic styles, not the fancier styles will frills that girls wear. The reason German irls wore them was the same as in other countries, to protect clothes agains dirt. In Germany there have never been school uniform like in England. Pinafores were, however, very popular for girls to wear at school. A German reader tells us that some especially prestigious schools has particularly trendy pinafores. Other schools had rules about fancy pinafores and insisted on plain pinafores to discourage vanity on the part of the girls. Conventions seemed to have vaied widely in Germany and our information is still uite limited. We notice some German images with girls wearing plain pinafores and some with bo pinaforeas at all.
We believe that Italian girls commonly wore pinafores to school. We have, however, very limited information at this time.
Here we have only limited information. Pinafors were not very common at Japanese schools, but we do notice them. We see colored pinafores being worn at some Japanese schools. So far we have only noticed them being worn by kindergarten children for lunch or activities like art. We are not sure what the Japanese term is for uniform.
New Zealand was a British colony and pinafores were worn by Australian girls much as they were worn in England.
We note girls of all ages wearing pinafores both in primary and secondary school. The pinafores we had seen were primarily fancy white ones. Perhaps school groups were more likely to be photographed on special days when the children were wearing their parade uniforms. A Russian reader explains, "White was used for special occasions like celebrations ect. - includio school class photos, thats why you think that white pianfore was common." The pinafores we had seen were primarily fancy white ones, but a Russian reqader has sent us images of black pinadores. We note girls of all ages wearing them, both in primary and secondary school. We notice many Soviet-era class photographs in which all or nearly all the girls wear pinafores. We notice differences in the styling, some were fancier than the others. The white ones seem to be very fancy and many of the black ones as well. Apparently the girls were allowed a degree of individual difference in the pinafores. A Russian reader tell us that this was not the case. Apparently our limited archive of Soiviet images has mislead us. Our Russian reader tells us, "In Soviet schools and pioneer camps there were two types of school uniform and Young Pioneers uniform casual ("povsednevnaya forma") and parade ("paradnaya forma"). Parade meany formal or dress uniform. For parade uniform girls wore white pianfores (for casual - black ones). For parade uniform both boys and girls were required to wear white (only) shirts & blouses, socks, knee-socks, stockings or tights. For casual uniform children could use any color of shirts and blouses and hosiery." We are not sure if there were any differences as to wearing these pinafore for the difference age groups. The pinafores disappeared in the late-1980s, not because there was a change of regulations, but because large numbers of the older secondary school girls refused to wear them.
We believe that Scottish girls in the late 19th and early 20th centuries commonly wore pinafores to school, just like English girls. At this time we know of no significant differences between English and Cottish pinafores or conventions concerning their wear. We have noted a 19th century painting that could be a rural Scottish school, but weare not sure.
We are not sure to what extent Swiss girls wore pinafores to school and if there were any differences in the French and German communities. We do not that many children wore school smocks and one of the styles was a pinafore-smock. These were worn by both boys and girls.
Welsh girls commonly wore pinafores over their dresses in the 19th century. Younger pre-school boys also for a time also might wear pinafores. As far as we can tell, this was common among all social classes. One might think that it would have been lower income parents most concerned with a protective garnment like a pinafore, but there does not seem to have been any class dustinction. And the pinafore as not distunctive to Wales. The pinafore was common throughout Europe and America in the 19th century. We do not have full information on the 19th century. Britain lagged behind many countries in building a state education system. Even after the invention of photography (1839), school photography was not feasible until the albumen process made it possible to make multiple copies of the same image. Thus we do not have many school images until the CDV became popular (1860s). And when these photographic images appear at mid-century, pinafores appear to be very common. Available images show pinafores, usually white, to be be very common. The Welsh village school image here about 1870 is a good example. We are not sure if they were more common in Wales than England. Pinafores continued to be widely won in Wakes until after the turn-of-the 20th century. This meant the primary schools. We are not sure about the secondary schools. Only a few British children in the 19th century continued their education on to secondary schools, and even fewer girls. But teen age girls commonly wore pinafores in the 19th century even when not attending school.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1840s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits]
[Short pants suits]
[Socks]
[Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer]
[School sandals]
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