Figure 1.-- Here is a painting by Swedish artist Carl Larsson of his daughter Lisbeth Larsson (born 1891) getting dressed in her bedroom. It would have been painted about 1900. It is a little complicated. I don't fully understand the garments shown. Our readers have helped explain this. Don't be confused by the pillow the girl is holding. Many of the garments for younger boys and girls I think would have been similar.

We know very little about Swedish underwear at this time. We suspect that trends in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia were very similar to those in Germany. A German reader confirms this. Younger children at the turn of the 20th century would have worn very similar styles.

Underpants

A German reader tells us, "I have seen these "bottom-bare underpants" several times in Germany with girls. It seems they simply stuffed this longer shirt in it to protect and warm the backside. The stocking supporters must be somewhere underneath because she is wearing long black stockings."

Leibchen

This is a very revealing illustration of the Leibchen or underwaist, a more or less unisex undergarment worn by both boys and girls from the late 19th century until at least the 1950s in northern Europe. The girl wears a short-sleeved undershirt of "vest" (to use British terminology) on top which the sleeveless Leibchen is worn. Around the Leibchen at waist level are large-sized buttons for the attachment of outer clothing, presumably a skirt or knee pants. But there are also lower-placed buttons for buttoning on underdrawers, in the present case with lace edging around the legs. These drawers can be unbuttoned in back for use of the toilet without unbuttoning the front buttons. Some sort of voluminous undergarment blouses out when the back section of the drawers is unbuttoned. What I referred to above as an undershirt or "vest" may in fact be a one-piece garment with a lower section consisting of either an underskirt (like a slip) or perhaps "hemdehosen" (the German term for "union suit" or, in British terminology, "combinations"). Boys of course would probably not wear a slip (unless they were still unbreeched) but rather a union suit, although the union suit was worn by both boys and girls. The girl's black stockings are held up by garters (supporters) attached to the Leibchen underneath the drawers, probably at the sides, so the means of attachment (probably buttons) are concealed from us in the painting. It isn't clear from the painting whether the Leibchen buttons down the back or down the front. At first I thought it might be a back-buttoning garment because of a button on the left, but, on closer inspection, I notice that this is a button from a button-on pillow case and not part of the girl's garment at all. The scene obviously takes place in a bedroom. Leibchens (the German plural of course would omit the final "s") were made in both back-buttoning and front-buttoning styles, but there was a tendency to use back-buttoning for girls and for younger children and to use front-buttoning Leibchens for boys of ten years or older. The basic design of the Leibchen (like its counterpart in America, the underwaist) changed very little over a period of about 50 years. There were minor modifications, of course. As time went on, the waist buttons tended to get smaller and the garter straps began in later years to come with metal loop-and-button clips (like American hose supporters) instead of just button-holes for fastening the Wascheknopf or white button sewn onto the stocking top.

Getting Dressed

The girl is in the process of getting dressed in the morning or getting undressed at night. We can't be sure, in other words, whether she has already unbuttoned the back of her drawers or has yet to button them. Nevertheless, this is a very valuable piece of evidence of how Swedish children's underwear functioned at the turn of the 20th century.

Gender Trends

I think the boy's underwear would be almost identical to the girl's with the possible exception of the garment underneath the Leibchen, and I doubt if the boy's drawers (if he wore drawers at all) would have lace trim.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer]
[School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]

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Created: 4:20 AM 10/30/2005
Last updated: 5:54 PM 10/30/2005