Figure 1.--Many Swiss children used simple or had hoc means to keep up their long stockings. Some haf round rubber garters. Some childre had Leibchen or Strapsleibchen. This boy in 1945 has a Strapsleibchen to hold up his stockings. We do not see many boys with these Strapsleibchen, but this may be because they did not have such long button tabs and are thus covered up bu the short pants.

Many Swiss children used simple or had hoc means to keep up their long stockings. Some haf round rubber garters. Some childre had Leibchen or Strapsleibchen. This unidentified boy in 1945 has a Strapsleibchen to hold up his stockings. We do not see many boys with these Strapsleibchen, but this may be because they did not have such long button tabs and are thus covered up bu the short pants. A reader tells us, "The straps seem to have an additional button at the bottom. The top button, I think, is on the stocking top and shows through, i.e., it covers the button hole. The bottom button (if that is what it is) is a bit hard to explain. It is possible, I suppose, that the stocking had a button-hole in the top, and could fasten onto this bottom button, but I doubt this very much. Buttons were usually on the stockings, and button holes on the stockings would cause runs and be difficult for mother to sew. One other possibility is that the garter straps with graduated button-holes, evenly spaced for size adjustment, had buttons at both ends, and were there simply to supply the necessary buttons for sewing onto long stockings. But this is a pretty wild guess. In any case, the extra buttonholes on the garter strap are not supposed to be visible. The boy is probably quite oblivious to this extra flap." Another reafer writes, "It is possible that the holes came graduated so that it fit for various sizes and that you chose the holes that fit. In this case for some reason the holes chosen did not include the bottom hole, maybe the boy dressed himself and he found the hole he used easier to work. This too is only a guess."

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Created: 5:18 AM 6/4/2010
Last updated: 8:55 PM 6/4/2010