Figure 1.-- The 1930 vintage Leibchen here is referred to as a "Bubenleibchen" (boy's bodice) and is made of a closely woven cotton mesh material with linen reinforcement straps running over the shoulders and horisontally around the middle. |
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The 1930 vintage Leibchen here is referred to as a "Bubenleibchen" (boy's bodice) and is made of a closely woven cotton mesh material with linen reinforcement straps running over the shoulders and horisontally around the middle. This Leibchen has two buttonholes in the shoulder straps so as to allow for the boy's growth. It buttons down the back and has
a button in front for the attachment of underpants or short pants. By 1930 German boys were wearing shorts rather than knee pants. There are two tabs with buttons at each side for the garter straps. Probably this style of Leibchen was worn only by boys younger than 12. Older boys supported their long stockings with garter belts somewhat like those their mothers wore but usually white or grey rather than pink and without adornment. It is also useful to note the German boy in a Hitler Youth uniform holding a baby lion at the zoo. He is wearing knee socks in the photo, but you can see the button hole at the end of an unused garter strap under his short pants--an indication that he was probably wearing long stockings earlier in the day.
Most Leibchen by the 1930s had four supporters, not just two like some of the Leibchen of earlier periods, and this meant that stockings could be held up more evenly all around the leg and not, as before, with a low point on the inner thigh, which boys sometimes complained about. Also commercial fasteners with rubber buttons and metal loops on the supporters made life easier, because they didn't pull off with wear like the old-fashioned Waschknopfe or "laundry buttons" sewn onto the tops of long stockings, causing children to substitute cheap coins (Pfennings) to take the place of the lostbuttons.
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