Figure 1.--This snapshot looks to be a backyard party of some kind. Notice that some of the children are munching on goodies. The two boys are wearing white shirts, dark short pants, and white knee socks. We are not sure about the date. The dealer thought the early-1950s. We are not sure iyt is not the late-1930s.

We have some limited information as to the color of knee socks. Grey appars to have been the most common color. This is conforned by the few color images we have. The available photographic records suggests that is the case. Cored socjs, however would have shown up as grey. We do not see many black knee socks even though black long stockings had been common. We also see white knee socks. They were generally worn for speciually occasions when the boys dressed up.

Black

We can make out black and white knee socks. Unlike long stockings, black knee socks were not common. We notice a few boys wearing black knee socks, but mostly with suits. We can generally detect bkack, but note that navy blue woulkd have shown up as black.

Grey

We think grey knee socks were by far the most common. The knee socks look grey in the photographic record, but of course colored socks come out a different shades of grey in black and white photography. There are a few color photographs and grey does appear to be a common color for knee socks in the 1930s. We note two unidentified Berlin boys in the 1930s. Grey knee socks apear to have beenthe most common

White

White knee socks were more common than black knee socks. We note white knee socks and they had a dressy image. We also see white knee socks being worn with sailor suits and for dressy occassions like First Communion. Several boy choirs had uniforms with white knee socks. White knee socks had a dressy immage, but we do not just see them worn with suits. Some boys wore white knee socks to school. And we see boys wearing white knee socks for smart casual events as suits began to decline in popularity.

Bright Colors

We do not think boys commonly wore brightly colored knee socks, but our infornation here is very limited. We do see some boys wearing red knee socks with Lederhosen after World War II. In some cases this was wityh redchecked shirts. We are less sure about other colors.