Figure 1.--White hosiery for boys was popuilar in the 1860s, but we also see it un the early-70s. Here we see a CDV of an unidentified Birmingham boy. While the oortrait us undated, the phtiograoher refers to a periz awaeded in 1870, meaning that the portrait would have been taken in the early-70s. The studio was Attwood in Birmingham.

We have very little unfirmation on hosiery during the early-19th century. The oprobklem of course is that we do not have photograohy. Some art works suggests that white stockings were common. We see them being worn with the skeleton suits that were popular at the time. Skeleton suits were worn with long pants so we don't get to see much of the hosiery. But because of the strap shoes we do see that the hosiery was sometimes white. We do not ger=t tosee much of the hosiery in the first half of the 19tyh centyury because long pnts were so oprevalent. We do begion to see white hosiery at mid-century, but the images are relatively rare. Only with the advent of the CDV do we see any nunber of images (1860s). At the same time we begin go see shortened-length pants becoming prevalent. As a result, unlike the 1850s we begin to see more of hosiery than in the early-19th century. And we see many boys wearing white long stockings. This contunued into the early-70s, but declined somewhat after that. Shorter-cut pants, both knee pants and knickers became increasingly popular in the late-19h century. Thus unlike the early-19h century, we know a great deal about hosiery during this period.

Created: 12:12 AM 10/11/2023
Last updated: 12:13 AM 10/11/2023