What did you wear when you were a child?

A vest, a liberty bodice, a full length petticoat, then a kilt type skirt and a jumper. Knee length socks and Clarks shoes. If it was wet, wellies. I remember that raw red stripe at the back of my leg where the wellies rubbed it. The navy gabardine raincoat which whipped the front of my legs too. In the summer I wore sleeveless dresses or shorts. I had a pair of cord bell-bottoms when I was ten and then purple hot pants. That was in the 60s. In the 70s I branched out to jeans, sleeveless tops and shorts again with silk scarves round my neck. Then midi dresses with crochet sleeves became popular. Then I went to uni and wore jeans all the time.

Grran

Mainly, I wore my sister’s old clothes 😊
I used to wear long white socks which were always falling down. My mum would put rubber bands on them to keep them up. The same ones she put in my hair to make a ponytail

I was still doing that at secondary school :-) Rubber bands to hold long socks up. We also made our own garters out of elastic fabric cut to size and stitched the end together. They were a bit more comfortable than rubber bands.

Mainly, I wore my sister’s old clothes 😊
I used to wear long white socks which were always falling down. My mum would put rubber bands on them to keep them up. The same ones she put in my hair to make a ponytail

Love this thread :-) I think all children wore the same! Standard clarks shoes and gabardine macs :-) Some particular memories I have are - a red knitted "twinset". With a wool interlocked vest underneath (very itchy). I had eczema and had to move to cotton vests. All our jumpers and cardigans were hand knitted by my Mother or grandmother and 100% wool - they were warm! Party dresses - lovely frilly party dresses for childrens birthday parties, with frilly knickers under them - and special shoes - gold or silver. And a bow in our hair. My mother also made our cotton, floral printed summer dresses - usually shift dresses by the 60s. I had a kilt as well - held up by braces. Loved my kilt.

I was born mid 50's but I do remember wearing dresses, there are pictures of me in cute dresses with White sandals and short sock. My mum was a brilliant dressmaker and my Aunt a keen knitter so I was lucky I had quite a choice of clothes.

I do have a clear recollection of pestering my Mum to buy me Flip flops one summer, I must have been about 5 and wearing them made the inside of my big toe/2nd toe sore , but determined to stick to them, still a big fan of flip-flops.

Both my parents loved fashion, my sister and I always had fashionable clothes. Mum would turn her hand to any style (she was a Soft Furnishings and Dressmaker teacher at the local FE collage) she even made me a Leather Coat when I just started my Senior School, the envy of my Class. .

Not so much the clothes. I think mine were fairly normal for the late 40s early 50s. No, it was the fact my wretched mother insisted on forcing my fine and sparse hair up into a sausage on the top of my head! I was about 4 or 5 and probably looking far too old for such a hairstyle. Even at that age, I hated it,

By the 70s I was making clothes for my own little girls. I made long cotton party dresses when they became popular and velvet ones for winter. I liked dressing them alike and made things in threes but rarely in fours because the same dress was not suited to a two year old and a nine year old. Everything was handed down except shoes.

Just old enough to fall into the flares and tank tops era that was very popular until about 1978. There is a photo of me at home when I was 8, wearing a flowery shirt, flowery tie and brown flared pants. Also my hair is longer than most children's now.
By my teens, this fashion had died out, I just missed the punk era, and early eighties fashions, unless you were one of the few punks left or a rocker, tended to be very conservative.

Being the youngest of 6girls I wore hand me downs,when my widowed mum met my stepfather I finally got some new sandals I was roughly 10 .
I got a job on local market and loved saving and spending wages on new clothes .

Poppyred

I can still remember the smell of gabardine coats….happy times

Me too. Like wet dog, with overtones of sheep.

Here's another wet day memory, that strip of sore red skin at the back of my calves, rubbed by the top edge of my wellies. In winter, my chilblained toes were on fire inside the wellies.

My Mum bought me a dark green duffel coat from the Army and Navy store when I was starting college.

I remember those Army and Navy stores. Were great in the late 60's when maxi coats were in fashion.

butterandjam

Allira

We couldn't afford Clarks shoes, but I had Startrite sandals

They were more expensive than Clark's.

At the shoe shop our feet were x-rayed (wearin g the new shoes) to see if they fitted.

It's a miracle our irradiated generation survived to adulthood.

The Clark's shop was just by the bus stop. I used to usk if I could go in while we waited for the bus to 'look at my feet'!
The answer was usually no, but it was really interesting when you went in to be measured.

Allira

^We couldn't afford Clarks shoes, but I had Startrite sandals^

They were more expensive than Clark's.

At the shoe shop our feet were x-rayed (wearin g the new shoes) to see if they fitted.

It's a miracle our irradiated generation survived to adulthood.

I was a child in the 1940s, a teenager in the 50s. I always loved clothes, and thanks to my mother’s sewing ability was always well-dressed. I had pretty dresses, often smocked, and pinafore dresses over hand-knitted jumpers. Never trousers of any sort, not even shorts except at school for games.

I can remember exactly what I was wearing on Coronation Day in 1953 when I was 13, a cold day in early June. It was a dress of darkish green fine needlecord, with a gathered skirt and short puffed sleeves.

Another dress I remember very well was a party dress made of brightly coloured silk with narrow candy stripes. I was nine when I wore that. A great-aunt was matron of a children’s hospital, and received parcels of hard-to-obtain dress materials from America. I’m afraid she purloined the striped silk for me!

I very much disliked boyish clothes. Because I was tall for my age I sometimes had to play a boy in plays or ballet displays. How I hated that. Tall or not, I never felt or looked remotely like a boy!

In the 1950s many dresses had tight waists and full skirts. These suited me, but must have been a problem for anyone overweight. Not that I remember anyone being overweight.

LadyBridgerton

Witzend

Slightly OT, but my senior school uniform included a brown gabardine raincoat, of the bog standard school type. Not a very nice brown, either.

So we were all 😱 when someone else’s French exchange girl (who was exceedingly chic and smart) actually bought one exactly the same - and wore it!!

I had the Robert Hirst gaberdine, navy in our case, I was tall and it was 'bought to last ', so long, however my grammar school days coincided with the arrival of the mini skirt and I went through to the 6th form having it shortened!

Our gaberdine raincoatswere navy; I thought that was bad enough. 😁

Lovemylife

My mother made our dresses, usually from quite grown up fabrics that she’d been given from her dressmaker friend. My aunt made me a lovely party dress with a dinner plate collar. The only trousers I recall were a pair of ‘ski pants’ with a side zip and stirrups in olive green

Ski pants were fine for a while but then went baggy at the knees and looked awful.

Witzend

Slightly OT, but my senior school uniform included a brown gabardine raincoat, of the bog standard school type. Not a very nice brown, either.

So we were all 😱 when someone else’s French exchange girl (who was exceedingly chic and smart) actually bought one exactly the same - and wore it!!

I had the Robert Hirst gaberdine, navy in our case, I was tall and it was 'bought to last ', so long, however my grammar school days coincided with the arrival of the mini skirt and I went through to the 6th form having it shortened!

Does anybody remember the time when children's clothes were labelled with the chest and/or waist size and not the age?

I don't know when the change occurred but it still seems more sensible to me to label children's clothes according to size not age.

I was very small for my age so I would have had to wear clothes that were labelled for children who were much younger and this would have made me even more self conscious. On the other hand, my best friend who was tall and rather plump, would have had the opposite problem.

Another fifties child here.
So many memories brought back by these posts - especially the little rubber buttons on the liberty bodice.
Looking at photos of the time all the girls seemed to have very large bows in our hair.
Also a party dress which was pretty with a little bit of net hanging down.
For swimming a ruched swimming costume. Mine was a baby blue colour.

My mother made our dresses, usually from quite grown up fabrics that she’d been given from her dressmaker friend. My aunt made me a lovely party dress with a dinner plate collar. The only trousers I recall were a pair of ‘ski pants’ with a side zip and stirrups in olive green

I'm a fifties child and I remember wearing a lots of dresses usually with hand knitted cardigans ,white socks with shiny patent leather shoes .
Some dresses were made by a dressmaker who made dresses for my mother.
But my mother was very good at sewing and knitting . She made tutus for ballet shows and fancy dress costumes . Costume parties were popular.
I recall her buying my coats in London department stores .
Occasionally my dresses were bought there too .
We always wore light coloured very frilly dresses with pale pink ballet shoes for parties . I think that we all did ballet .
A girl once came to a party wearing a frilly navy dress and red ballet shoes and we were surprised .
Dresses were always worn for church .Not dressing properly was unthinkable.

When my clothes were outgrown they were sent to my cousin. If they didn't fit her or were outgrown they were passed on to another relative .
As I grew older some things were passed to a girl from a missionary family ,who went to our church.She was the same size as me and had very few clothes .
I don't think that anything was wasted .

But I liked playing with dogs and riding ponies it's so I preferred wearing jodhpurs . I also liked art and baking and they could be could be messy
My mother thought that I was either being a tomboy or just not well groomed !

60s into 70s child here. Lots of shifts made from material remnants in the sale in winter I recall, with hand knitted jumpers or cardigans underneath. No central heating and ice on the windows with puddles on the sill in the morning, until we got central heating when about 9 or 10. One good winter coat- and a cape at one stage when fashionable from C&A- and tights to keep your legs warm. I remember doing my brownies knitting badge and knitting my own gloves and hat practising fair isle stitch- orange and green wool, again sale remnants- my Mum loved a bargain! Once into my teens I used baby sitting money to buy many of my own clothes- bliss 🤗 and self expression. Parents bought school uniform and school shoes. I also in teens bought patterns to make my own dresses. Lots of old photos of fashion choices make me smile - 😅

nanna8

Similar. I wasn’t allowed to wear denim jeans at all. I remember wearing hooped petticoats in the later fifties with a lot of tulle for parties . Thought they were the bees knees.

I did have some jeans when I was about 12 but they weren't fashionable jeans.

Remember those paper nylon petticoats? You soaked them in the bath in sugar water to make them stiff! 😁

Similar. I wasn’t allowed to wear denim jeans at all. I remember wearing hooped petticoats in the later fifties with a lot of tulle for parties . Thought they were the bees knees.