1950s and 60s leisure wear. Was school uniform worn socially?

No, never. I’d change out of my uniform as soon as I got home. Maybe in your photo the boy was wearing his new uniform to show to family. I had to do this but refused to have my photo taken as I felt so uncomfortable in it.

I wore short dresses, not uniform. In the summer I wore shorts. Uniform was for school only

We never did. However I sometimes saw people in bits of school uniforms when on holiday, perhaps for boys, shorts and plimsolls and girls maybe a school skirt with their own top.

Stoker48

I’ve just been looking at some old photos from 1950s /60s.
I know my dad didn’t really have “ leisure clothes”, he just wore his less good suit with no tie.
I have photos of us as a family, almost knee deep in wet sand, cockle picking on the beach. He still had his suit on. He just rolled up his trousers.
Jeans or shorts didn’t seem a wearable choice then.
My question is though, did some children wear their school uniform at the weekends etc if they were, for instance, going out visiting?
I have a photo with a boy aged about 9 sitting in a relaxed family group having tea in the garden but he’s wearing his full school uniform, including school cap, long grey socks and school shoes.
Thank you

I wonder if he went to a boarding or private school and when he was home, he was 'Taken round the relatives' so thwy could see the boy in his uniform ? That's the only reason I can think of, unless he had got off school early for a doctor's visit or something .

Never ever wore uniform out of school. 100 lines from a prefect if you were seen without your Panama or beret. I can’t imagine what would have happened if they had seen you in school uniform, at a dance or the cinema for example.

I didn't wear school uniform in primary school but when I went to secondary school I did . It was incredibly expensive and because I was a "scholarship" girl my parents didn't want me to look as if I didn't belong there (which I didn't). So, they bought me everything new. It was a huge sacrifice for them which I really didn't appreciate at the time. Most of the girls had come up from prep and there was a busy secondhand market as we grew out of our uniform so a new uniform was really not necessary. I always changed as soon as I got home and as everything was bought for me to "grow into" my uniform, over the years got very shabby but the first thing I did on getting home was to change into old house clothes. I still do it to this day! My own children did the same although it was because they couldn't wait to get into something more comfortable!

I didn’t change when I got home from school unless I was going out. I think I only had three lots of clothes: uniform, Sunday best and other. Mostly my sister’s hand-me-downs until I was 14 as by then we were both the same size. I got my first ever new coat! Before long we we wearing adult clothes, as there was no such thing as teenage fashion. I have a photo of us when we were about 16/17, looking identical in summer raincoats, carrying handbags, like the previous Queen.

School blazer was the only jacket I had until I was ten, when I went to one where the uniform was a plain grey lumberjacket, and a blazer for the summer. At secondary (boarding) school the uniform was tweed sports jacket and optional blazer, with ghastly brown herringbone suit for Sundays. Grey flannels throughout. So essentially, uniform was all I had to wear, and all I needed - term time and holidays.

I think I wore my school gabardine coat out of school as I didn’t have another coat until one day I was bought a camel coat which I was very proud of.
My everyday clothes were much the same as my mother’s. Usually a jumper knitted by her and a skirt.
Stoker48 mentioned her Dad on the beach in a suit. Mine also wore a suit on the beach, complete with tie as my mother insisted on that. How ridiculous that would look today. I think he did also wear grey flannels and a tweed jacket, always with leather shoes.

I was talking to my daughter today about city gents on the train back in the 50s/60s all clad in the same uniform of suit, bowler hat, briefcase and umbrella. Gen X and younger”Gens”who also work in the city now wear trainers and carry rucksacks. I’m sure they’re more comfortable too.

Yes, and unfortunately there is photographic evidence, which confused my offspring.

I was “made” to take off my uniform as soon as I got home and hang it up.

It was never ever worn for anything g other than school.

I was born in 1958, my “leisure” clothes many came from wonderful Woolworths, many trousers, t-shirts and shorts (my choices) and then once or twice a year I was taken (forced) to go to a posh dress shop to purchase a dress or two (choices of my mother) to wear with white knee socks for “best”!

Always Clark’s shoes for school and best and canvas shoes for “leisure”

Winter outer clothes were expensive so my school winter coat, whether woollen coat or gaberdine mac was the only winter outer garment I had and I wore it whenever I went outside, rgardless of whether I was in school uniform or not.

I had my first non-school winter coat for my 13th birthday, a lovely scarlet 3/4 jacket. I loved that coat and wore it on all occasions. I was still wearing it when I first went to university. I wore it until it was completely worn out; fraying and worn.

I never wore my school uniform out of school.

However, I have photos of a group of us at college, the girls wearing dresses and the boys wearing suits and ties - loosely.

It must have been fashionable in the Sixties.
These were not the boys in the photo!

No, we wore our ordinary clothes at junior school, and always changed out of our uniforms when we got home from secondary school, into trousers and jumpers, or dresses in the summer. I got my first pair of jeans, which were Sea Dogs, when I was 12, I saved up for them, and I’ve never been out of jeans since then.

I had to be very careful with my grammar school uniform as it was so expensive. If my Dad had not won £100 on the Labour tote I would not have had a uniform full stop.

Luckily I was quite petite so my uniform lasted me right through school. I had to hang it up every day after school.
I always had part time jobs from about age 13 so I was able to save up and buy non school clothes.

I went to the grammar school in 1958 and basically my uniform was the only smart outfit I'd got. I've got photographs of me with my mother at the zoo and I'm wearing my school uniform, right down to the panama hat. Later she got a part time job so there was a bit of spare money for clothes for me.

I made a lot of my own clothes from the age of 14 - fabric from the market and using my Mum's trusty Singer hand sewing machine.

Hi Stoker 48, hope you are well.
My Dad also wore a suit all the time. He was a painter and decorator but even wore one to work! I too have photos of him on the beach in a suit with his trouser legs rolled up. One even has him with a knotted handkerchief on his head!
I can’t imagine that I would have ever worn my school uniform outside of school as I hated it with a passion. It consisted on a brown gym slip (up until the 4th year then we could wear a pleated skirt) a brown blazer and beret. The beret only lasted the first term as some girls from another school threw it into a tree. My Mum never believed me! The very worse thing was the romper suit that we had to wear for PE , it was a shapeless brown thing made out of school knicker material! Oh how I would have loved the shorts and top worn by my DGD these days.

Ordinary clothes at junior school, but a very expensive uniform at my girls’ Grammar School, which was a special French dye and only available at 2 retailers, one in Durham, the other in Newcastle. There’s a uniform shop at both my DGSs schools, but nothing like that back in the ‘60’s. I changed out of uniform as soon as I got home and woe betide any girl who removed her felt hat, before she got inside - somehow it always got back to the headmistress!

I remember a girl in my Sunday school class wearing her new school uniform to Church for several Sundays, then trying to adapt it with different jumpers and blouses. Years later I learned that she had the step mother from hell who resented every penny spent on her and said the school uniform had cost so much she didn't need any other new clothes. We had no idea.

I was at a private school with a very stiff uniform. Couldn't wait to get out of it. And I still have nightmares about the straw boater which we just had to wear at all time when outside the school premises.

School uniform (strict) from 4/17 for me but never outside school Straight off when I got home

I couldn’t wait to get out of uniform and had trousers and hand knitted jumpers to wear. I also had one outfit at a time for church on Sunday.
There is a photo of DH in his early teens attending a family funeral in his school uniform otherwise he wore the trousers with a jumper.

Never.! We all enjoyed being in non-school clothes.Blouse Tie and skirt and thick stockings in the winter and a horrible hat.
Off with that tie ;off with that hat.