Figure 1.--This German portrait of three brothers is undated, but we believe that it was taken in the 1870s. The boys wear long pants, even the youngest boy, with three different styles of jackets. Image courtesy of Album1900.

German boys in the mid-19th century generally wore long panys suits. Many fashionable suits had pants and jackets in matching rather than contrasting colors. Long pants suits were still common in the 1870s, but gradually kneepants and knicker suits became increasibgly common. These shorter cut pants were quite common in the late 19th century. Long pants suits were also worn, but HBC is unsure how common they were. We're not sure when knicker suits first appeared. German boys still commonly weore kneepants suits in the early 20th century. After World War I (1914-18), short pants suits became increasingly common--although older boys might wear knicker suits. Suits became worn less in the 1930s after the NAZI take over. After World War II, Gemany was in a terrible state and few families had much money for clothing. Many German boys continued wearing their suits after they had rather grown out of them. Many boys srill wore short pants suits in the 1950s, often with sports shirts or with an open collar. By the 1960s, boys were increasingly wearing long pants suits, although suits were being wrn less than before as German boys increasingly turned to more casual fashions.

Chronology

German boys in the mid-19th century generally wore long pants suits. Many fashionable suits had pants and jackets in matching rather than contrasting colors. Long pants suits were still common in the 1870s, but gradually kneepants and knicker suits became increasibgly common. These shorter cut pants were quite common in the late 19th century. Long pants suits were also worn, but HBC is unsure how common they were. We're not sure when knicker suits first appeared. German boys still commonly weore kneepants suits in the early 20th century. After World War I (1914-18), short pants suits became increasingly common--although older boys might wear knicker suits. Suits became worn less in the 1930s after the NAZI take over. After World War II, Gemany was in a terrible state and few families had much money for clothing. Many German boys continued wearing their suits after they had rather grown out of them. Many boys still wore short pants suits in the 1950s, often with sports shirts or with an open collar. By the 1960s, boys were increasingly wearing long pants suits, although suits were being wrn less than before as German boys increasingly turned to more casual fashions. Many boys now get their first suits at age 14 for their confirmation. Catholic boys might get a suit even earlier for their First Communions.

Pants Types

We have noted several different types of pants German boys wore with suits over time. German boys have worn all the various pants styles. The popularity varied chronologically as well as a variety of other factors such as social class. We are unsure at this time concerning trends and conventions associated with this the different types of pants. We have, however, begun to collect images to develop these and other topics. Long trousers seem the most common in the 19th century, but by the end of the century we see many boys wearing different types of shortened length trousers, both knee pabts and bloomer knickers. This continued in the early 20yj century. After World War I boys began commonly wearing short pants suits. Older boys might wear knickers. Short pants suits were common into the 1950s, but generally went out of style in the 1960s as short pants became increasingly seen as casual summer wear and boys tended to wear suits less commonly.

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Created: October 9, 2002
Last updated: 1:09 AM 6/14/2007