Figure 1.--This caninet card First Communion portrait shiows an unidebtified boy weerug a doubkle-breasted knee pants suit. Notice the bhombergbhat. He may be German American. The portait was probably taken in theearly- or late-1890s decade. Thevdealker suggested the 1890s, but the white border and mount color suggest the 1900s decade. The studio was Rodalinski in South Bend, Indiana. Sound Bend was both a universuity and industrial town course is where Notre Dame Universitn is located. It was also thev home of the Studebaker Corporation, gary, Indiana, a majorb steel producer is close. It is surrounded by farm country. .

American boys commonly wore either straight-leg knee pants or knickers suits in the early-20th century. We thus see this in First Communion outfits at the time. Neither short or long pants suits ewere common. These did no appear until after World War I in the 1920s. Generally speaking knee pants were more common in the 1900s decade and knickers in the 1910s. The Indiana boy nhere werars a good example of 1900s decade knee pants suit (figure 1). This change occurred very suddenly about 1908 and only in America. We do not see a simiar change in Europe. It is quite noticeable in the photographic record. We have no idea why and who was resonsible. This continues to be a mystery which we encountered soon after we began working on the HBC website. The dark knickers suit seen here is a good example of 1910s First Communion outfits (1910s). This convention did not entirely hold for First Communion outfits, primarily because of the age of the boys involved. Younger boys might continue to wear strait-leg knee pants during the 1910s into the early-20s. We thus see many boys wearing knicker suits for First Communion in the 1910s, but for First Communion boys also wore knee pants into the early 20s. They were we believe seen as more formal. It is thus somewhat difficult to date these old photographs when there is no date on the photograph. Often the knee pants Fist Communion outfits in the 1910s were not suits, but blouse outfits, neaning boys wore just blouses without suit jackets. They always wore long stockings with these blouse outfits just as they did with suits. The primary difference was that often the long stockings were white rather than black which was usually the case with suits.

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: 3:46 AM 4/17/2022
Last edited: 3:46 AM 4/17/2022