Once the idea of school uniforms took hold, it was seized upon by the British as obsession. The many new public schools founded in Victorian England to meet the needs of administrators for an expanding empire followed the example of the established public schools. The new preparatory schools founded to prepare younger boys to enter the public schools also adopted uniforms. The new uniforms were a visible symbol as a way of establishing their social status. No where else in Europe or in America did distinctive uniforms for school boys become such a uniformily accepted principle. The British school uniform followed empire as new public schools were founded in the colonies which adopted the styles set by the established schools--no matter how unsuitable to tropical climates.