Figure 1.--I remember as a boy in America getting in trouble when I put on why socks with a suit. Apparently many boys wore white socks (mostly knee socks) with suits, even dark suits wotn for formal occassions. Here you can see many of the boys were wearing white knee sicks with dark long pnts. Put your cursor on the image to see more examples.

We can of course only observe the hosiery of the boys wearing short trouseres or kneepants with any certaity. this somewhat complicated the topic of hosiery as quite a few boys wore long pants suits. Some boys wore dark long stockings, especially in the 1920s. We do not notice boys wearing white long stockings, but we do notice white knee socks. White knee socks were more commonly worn by French boys than English boys, but they were considered dressy, not every day wear. I'm not sure just when the style of wearing white knee socks began. We do, however, notice quite a few boys wearing white knee socks with their First Communion suits by the 1920s. Some boys also wore black kneesocks. Interestingly there does not seem to be any realtionship between hosiery and the suit type. We see boys wearing white knee socks with both sailor suits as well as three-piece suits. We also notice boys wearing black long stockings, interesting because except for these formal occassions, long stockings were not very common in France. We do not notice many boys searing white long stockings, but they were worn by many girls. A French reader writes, "French children at the time commonly wore white knee socks on Sunday and for other formal occassions, commonly with short pants. The boys in the photograph here appear to be wearing white knee socks with what was probably their first long psnts suits. They presumably did not have white ankle socks. During the week days, they probably wore rather colored knee socks or perhaps colored ankle socks which began to appear in the 1930s. The dark socks were easier to wash. This is still the case today. I am certain that the boys are wearing knee socks, especially the ones with white hosiery. The long stockings that were so common in Germany were by the 1920s rare in France, especially for boys. Some girls wore them."

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages:
[The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s] [The 1960s] [The 1970s]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Short pants suits] [Blazers] [Jackets] [Kilts]
[Sailor suits] [Sailor hats]
[Ring bearer/page costumes] [Shortalls]

Created: 5:05 AM 10/8/2011
Last edited: 5:06 AM 10/8/2011