Figure 1.--Here we see a postcard backl portait with unidentified children. They look to ve 4-8 years old. The boy wears an Eton-type collat, but with rounded tips. He has a short pants suit and knee socks. Notice the high-top shoes. The childre were : Gav, Vela, and Bav. The studio was Lambert Weston & Son with studios in Dover, Folkestone, and London (Brompton Square. ).

Short pants suits did not appear commonly until the 1910s, at least we do not see many examples in the photograohic record until the 1910s. Here we see a good example (1916). And knee pants suit seem more common than short pants suit. Most boys wore shortened-lenth-pants of some kind into their teens. Boys who left school often began wearing long pants. Boys in school tended to wear short oants longer. It is, however, a little difficult to tell because early shorts were so long. They were the same length as knee pants. It is diffucult to tell in many photographs if a boy is wearing short pants or knee pants. The difference was not the length, but the three-button decorative trim at the hem. We are not sure if there was a preceived difference at the time. We think shorts were still largely called knee pants. England was a little different than many other countries because long stockings were much less common than many other countries. We see boy wearing knee socks or turning down their long stockings, it is often difficult to tell from the photographs. And we are not entirelyh sure what the length of the long stockings were. Notice the boy on the previous page. He wears turn-over-top cuffed knee socks. If the turn-over top were streached out, it would extended over the boys knee and look like long stockings. Girls seem to have comtinued wearing long stockings longer than boys. We do not see boys wearing short pants suits with ankle socks in the 10s.

Created: 4:50 AM 8/6/2020
Last updated: 4:50 AM 8/6/2020