Figure 1.--This is a Christmas tudio portrait of two unidentified brothers in 1933. The boys look to be about 6-9 years old. They are wearing matching outfits. They look like school outfits with grey shirts, flannel short pants, and school socks. The ties do not look like school ties.

English boys in the 1930s commonly wore short short pants or short trousers as they are referred to in Britain to about age 13. They wre virtually universal. They were worn for schhol, play, and dressing up. We see primarily flannel and to a lesser extent corduroy shorts during the school year. Some boys had cotton shorts for sumnmer wear. The shorts continued to be cut rather long. Some but not all were full cut rather baggy. Many boys did not have large wardrobes. Often there was a pair of shorts worn for best, meaning dress-up occssions and school. This was commonly the case for working-class boys, but even middle-class boys had much smaller wardrobes than is the case goday. Some private schools required short pants, but they were also commonly worn in state schools where there were no uniforms. Commonly and older pair of the same type of shorts were worn for play. Many boys wore them even longer until 15-16 years of age, but this varied from family to family. Shorts were usually worn with knee socks, although we see some ankle socks or no socks at all often with sandals during the summer. These trends can be seen in period clothing catalogs.

Created: 9:07 AM 8/6/2018
Last updated: 9:07 AM 8/6/2018