Figure 1.--White became popular for dressy oufits worn by younger boys at the turn-of-the 20th century, This includes blouses and knee pants as we see here as well as tunic suits. This cabinet card portrait looks to have been taken in the 1900s. The studio was McKinstry in South Mancheste.

Most of the knee pants we notice were done in dark colors which of course made sence for active boys. The boy here is a good example (figure 1). White and light colors are just asking for laundry trouble. And until well into the 20th century, laundry meant a major work load for mother, although before modern laundry detergents, mothers could use bleach for white commons. The black-and-white photography available during the 19th and much of the 20th century do not provide color information, although white and black can often be destinguished. Catalog information show that the most important colors were black, brown, grey, and navy (dark) blue. Black and navy blue would look nearly identical in a photograph. Some catalogs have very detailed color information in the ad copy. A good example is the Work Brothers who offered suits and knee pants in 1893. We even have a few color catalog illustration by the turn-of-the 20th century. Often there were mixtures like grey blue. Of course black and white photography does not help much in assessing colors. We note white becoming popular around the turn-of-the 20th century and into the erarly-20th century. This was often just for knee pants and not a full suit with jackets. White was used for dress up occasions, primarily for younger boys. We see both fancy blouse and knee pants outfits as well as tunic suits.

Created: 1:18 AM 10/19/2009
Last updated: 8:45 PM 3/20/2014