Figure 1.--Here we see Argntine boys at the Parque Rivadavia is a park in Buenos Aires. The park was particularly popular with boys. On Sundays afternoon boys would gather there to exchange, sale or just look for comic magazines. The boy in front wears casual short pants. Many boys dressed up for the event. We see boys wearing both short and long pants. The snapshot is undated, but looks like the 1960s.

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 mid-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 short pants and knee socks, but we believe this tended to be boys from affluent families. An Argentine reader writes, " I used to wear short pants with knee socks until I was 12 yars old (1962). I grew up in a nice middle class suburbs of the City of Mendoza, all the way to the West of Buenos Aites, and further north from Bariloche. But for a while we lived in a small town in the middle of the Andes until I finished primary school (7th grade). It was wonderful time. I always called that village -- 'a place of snowed winters and barefooted summers'." 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.

Created: 12:56 AM 3/24/20187
Last updated: 12:56 AM 3/24/2018