Figure 1.--Here we see three boys, proba ly brothers, playing after school in their back garden. They are wearing their school sandals , but without socks. That was a common conventon for play and summer vacation. The snapshot is dated 1940 on the back, but looks like the 1960s to us.

English boys wore both ankle socks and knee socks with sandals. This caried both chronologically and seasonally. Sandals became common in the 1920s, both for schoo ans summer wear. Knee socks were common for schoolwear. And we begin to see ankle socks more commonly for summer wear in the 1930s. We also see boys wearing sandals without hosiery. This was mostly during the summer for play and vacation wear. We see few school images of the boys not wearing hosiery. This was azlottle nore common for girls. After World War II we see ankle socks becoming more common, although knee socks were fairly standard at school, almost always grey socks. Both sandals and knee socks declined in popularity during the post-War period, especially after the 1950s. In the late-20th century we see some schools adopting ankle socks as part of the school unidorm during the summer, most in southern England.

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Created: 5:27 AM 4/22/2010
Last updated: 5:27 AM 4/22/2010