Figure 1.-- We do not notice Argentine boys wearing long stockings very commonly. This may be because Italian and Spanish fashion influences influences were very strong and socks were more common in those countries. We do note girls wearing white stockings. Boys did wear stockings, especially for formal occassions, mostly dark stockings. The Argentine boy here wore long stockongs in 1957 for his First Communion.

HBC at this time is only begining to obtain information on the garments worn by Argenine boys. We note Argentine boys wearing a wide ranges of shirts and blouses based on styles set in primarily in Europe and to a lesser extent the United States. Unless the studio is identified there is no way of telling the fashiona are Argentine. Argentina has a largely European population and the climate is similar to North America/Europe. Many Latin American countries have tropical or semi-tropicaThus we see Argentuine children wearing European styles more than many other Latin American countries. Thus European clothing was often not appropriate. This was not the case of Argentina which has a more temperate climate. And by the early-20th century, Argentina was poised to make the transition for an under-developed to a developed country. Argentina in particular benefitted from World War I, creating markets for its products. This mean that Argentines for a time had the same same buying power as Europeans and Americans. Buenos Aires for a time was seen as a very fashionable world capital. And because of the affkuence there is a very substanial pgotograohic record, larger than any other Latin American country. There are some countries which can be easily identified by the garmenrs photographiv record. Argentina is not one of them. There were significant social class differences. Argentine children generally followed the same styles and conventions as in Western Europe. Spain and Italy seem particularly important influences. Younger boys wore dresses. We do not note many boys wearing smocks except for school wear. Tunics seem to have been popular at the turn of the 20th century. We note that sailor suits, middy blouses, and knee pants suits. Suit style seem to have followed European styles. Boys seemed to have mostly worn socks rather than stockings. We do, however, note boys wearing long stockings for forml occassions. After World War I knee pants disappeared and Argentine boys began wearing short pants. After World War II long pants become more commom.

Headwear

We hace not found many images of Argentine boys wearing headwear. A factor here is that we do not have maby 19th century portraits when headwear was most common. Wecgo have arowing 20yh century archive, but have not noticed many caos and hats.

Skirted Garments

Younger European boys commonly wore wore skirted garments like their susters. We see this through the 19th century. This same convedntion was prevaklenbgt in North America. We have much less information on Latin America and a very limited photogrphic archive and thus cannot confirm that the same convention was prevalent in Latin America. We believe it was, at least for the elite and middle-class. The working claas we are not at all sure about. In Latin Amnerica this was primrily composed of Ameri-Indians nd Africans. Argenyina was a littke different wih no significant Africa component and a smaller Amer-Indian admixture. There was also s large European immigration flow (late-19thabd early-20th century). Our limited Argentine archive makes it impossible to confirm this. We do note the Sarmiento boys wearing tunic suits (1855).

Juvenile Outfits

We notice younger Argentine boys wearing a range of juvenile styles. Here our information is so far limited to the 20th century. They seem to be most popular among affluent Argentine families. The fshion influence seems to be promarily European. These were a variety of popular Eyropean styles. Some Argentine boys wore romper outfits. we are not sure about the chronlogy. We do not know when rompers first appeared in Argentina, but note boys wearing rompers in the 1950s. We suspect this is the European influence, perhaps Italian but many of the styles also look French. Argentina had a substantial Italian population. We are not sure how common rompers were. We don't see many in the photographic record. They seem to have been mostly worn by todlers. As far as we can tell, they were a boy's garment, but our information is still extremely limited. A variety of short pants outfits seem much more common. Somewhat older boys might wear blouses and button-on shorts with a kind of French look. Suspender shorts seem less common, but we are still working on the topic of toddler styles and our information is still limited.

Shirts and Blouses

We do not have much information on Argentine shirts and shirt-like gaments. We see Argentine boys wearing shirts and blouses just like boys in Europe and America. And we see the same styles and convntions as those countries. We see all the same styles, both blouses and shirts and detachable and detached collars. The styles, chronologies, and conventions seem virtually identical. We do not know of any unique Argentine styles. We do not have a lot if unformation on shirt-like garmnts, but hope to learn more as we expabd this section.

Suits

As far as we can tell, Argentine boys suits generally followed European trends. We do not yet have mnuch information on Argentine boys' suits in the 19th century. We have found some infortmation on the 20th century. We notice boys wearing both single and double breasted jackets in the early 20th century, but single-breasted blazers became more common in the later half of the century. British and European styles seem more important than American styles. Knee pants and short pants were very common for boys. Until about 1930, long stockings were common, especially for older boys. Gradually knee socks became more popular Knickers were less common. Long pants suits became more common after mid-century, although suits were becoming less common by the 1970s. We are not yet sure about the social class conventions.

Pants

We note Argentine boys wearing all the different types of pants. We do not have any information on the 18th century, but presumably boys wore knee beeeches. We have no information on the early-19th century, but we suspect boys began wearing long pants as part of skeleton suits as ws the casein Europe. We do not have any Argentine paintings in our archive of these early period. Wih the advent of photography we have some informstion beginning in the mid-19th century, althoughh our 19th century archive is limited. We see boys wearing knee pants, bloomer knickers, and long pants. We also see knickers, but they were much less common than in America. By the 20th century we have a more extensive photographic record. We still see knee pants, knickers, and long pants. We begin to see short pants in the early-20th century. Thy were common in the mod-20th century. There were, howevr, social-class conventions. They seem styled much like the shorts worn in Europe. This continued after World War II. We see boys dressed like English boys with sjort pants and knee socks, but we believe this tended to be boys from affluent families. Some schools had English-looking uniforms. We see long pants and American style becoming increasingly important including jeans, especially by the 1970s. And pants as well as other garments seem tohave fewer social class destinctions.

Hosiery

Argentine children have worn a wide range of hosiery over time. We see long stockings, knee socks, three-quarter socks, and ankle socks as well as other trends. Long stockings were not as common as in northern Europe and North America, probably because of the important Itsalian and Spanish influence in Argentina. We do see Argentine children wearing knee socks, We also note some children not wearing socks. three-qurter socks very commonly. The popularity of the different types of hosiery have varied over time, to an extent following basically European fashion trends. There were also gender and age conventions which varied over time.

Footwear

We do not yet have much information on Argentinr boys foowea in the 19th century. We see a lot of boys wearing hightop shoes in the early 20th century. We begin to see low-cut shoes in the 1920s and they were common by the 3s. We see a few boys wearing closed-toe sandals, but they were not very common. We most see mostly leather shoes into the 1960s. Sneakers began to bcome popular in the 1970s.

Created: 3:05 AM 7/12/2007
Last updated: 112:58 AM 6/24/2021