Figure 1.--The snapshot of this unidentified Austrian boy was taken in 1963. Austrian boys still wore knee socks in the 1960s, but by the end of the decade they were becoming much less popular. |
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We do not have much information on the 19th century yet, especially the early-19th century. Our Austrian archive is much more limited than our German archive. As in Germany, long stockings seem to have been very common in the late-19th century. We Children in the early 20th children wearing three-quarter stockings and long stockings when the weather got cold. French fashions seem more of an influence in Austria than German, at least in Vienna. Even so long stockings were very common. Long stockings were not just worn in cold weather. Modesty and formality were other factors. After World War I, knee socks became popular and were widely worn into the 1960s. Both long stockings and kneesocks were worn in the post-War period. Long stockings had largely disappeared by the 1960s and knee socks were declining in popularity by the end of the decade. A factor here was the declining popularity of short pants, especially in the cooler months. Short pants became essentially summer leisure wear. And knee socks were not worn nearly as much in summer. Thus long stockings disappeared first and knee socks in the 1970s. This was in part because fewer Austrian boys were wearing short pantsWe have less information about tights, but assume trends were similar to West Germany. As long pants became more common, ankle socks increased in popularity, but of course this is a little more difficult to follow in the photographic record as the hosiery boys wore become more difficult to see.
We do not have much information on 19th century Austrian hosiery yet, especially the early-19th century. As far as we can tell, boys and men wore knee length hosiery in the 18th century with knee beeches. The socks were just long wnough to cover the leg below the knee. Hosiery did not get any longer in the early 19th century as boys began wearing long pants as did men a decade or two later. This ws the basic pattern throughout Europe. Our Austrian archive is much more limited than our German archive and we do not yet have information on the mid-19th century, but we believe Austrian trends were similar to German trends. As shortened-length pants for boys appeared we also see long stockings appearing to be worn with them. As in Germany, long stockings seem to have been very common in Austria during the late-19th century. Aad with the introduction of the CDV we begin to find portaits to follow trends in some detail. While both boys and girls wore them, their seem to have been some differing color and age differenes which varied over time.
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