Figure 1.--This unidentified English boy wears sweater with knee pants, long stockings, and strap shoes. Long stockings were common in the 19th century, although not as universal as in America, They rapidly declied after the turn-of-the 20th cenntury. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1905. The studio was Wright in Wimbledon.

Knee pants were one of the styles of shortened-length pants thay appeared for younger boys in the mid-19th century. This was a trend we first see in Western Europe and then America. We are not entirely sure about the orugins. We note English boys in the second half of he 19th century wearing both knee pants and knickers. Only slowly did older boys begin wearing them. This was different from America where the primary type of shortened-length pants were knee pants in the second half of the 19th century. We do not see many knickers in America until the 20th century. England seems to have gone in the opposite direction. We see boys mostly wearing first knee pants after the turn-of the 209th. A good examole is Crespal Gordon Stoddart about 1900. Knee pants were gradually transitioned to short pants during the 1910s. By the 1920s short pants were standard, although for some reason they were commonly called knickers for a while.

Created: 1:25 AM 8/17/2021
Last updated: 2:42 AM 8/25/2021