Although the wearing of shorts (short trousers) in summer seems natural today, in the not so distant past it was not considered decent or desirable for women or men to reveal their legs in such brief garments. When men’s sports became more energetic in the 19th century, the demands of physical activity inspired the development of light, knee-length cotton drawers and these were common for events such as athletics by the late-Victorian era. By the early 1900s other sportsmen such as footballers and competitive cyclists were wearing drawers or shorts; during the 1910s, these grew shorter, rising to well above the knee. Old-fashioned ideas concerning the exposure of women’s legs prevailed for longer, although the munitionettes’ football teams formed during World War One adopted shorts of varying styles, some daring female players appearing very modern and masculine in their team kit.

The design of uniforms has often had a progressive influence on dress and during WW1, in about 1916, British Army soldiers began to be officially issued with shorts as part of the cooler khaki drill uniform devised for troops serving in the tropics. By then children’s school uniform was also developing apace and as boys’ traditional Victorian and Edwardian woollen knickerbockers became increasingly outmoded, so grey flannel shorts entered the school-age boy’s wardrobe, becoming a familiar element of school uniform from the 1920s onwards.

Despite these advances, and notwithstanding the efforts of the Men’s Dress Reform Party formed in 1929 to promote more comfortable, practical dress for men, including shorts, it was not until well into the 1930s that shorts became widely accepted among adult civilians. By the turn of the 1930s acquiring a suntan was becoming fashionable for the first time, encouraging more exposure of the limbs, and this dovetailed with a growing vogue for healthy outdoor exercise and activities such as rambling, camping and cycling. These modern developments finally prompted the adoption of both male and female shorts as a popular item in the weekend and summer holiday wardrobe.

In the print edition
Read Jayne Shrimpton’s guide to unusual Victorian photos in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, out in newsagents now or available online at discoveryourancestors.co.uk