Figure 1.--Hee we see two unidentified American brothers, we think about 1870. It is a studio tin-type. The boys look to be about 6-11 years old. They both wear similar cut-away jackets with butonaires. Notice the younger boy's ankle-length knee pants. We think this must be a First Communion portrait, one of the earlier examples we have found. What we are not sure about is whose First Communiion. Perhaps it was both because the older boy missed it when he was younger. A factor in the small number of First Communion portraits may be that there were not many Catholics in America before the 1870s, except for the Irish. Of course it may be older boy's Confirmation, but vhe looks a bit young.

Early knee pants appeared while long pants were standard for boys, even for younger boys. They were at first very long, often cut at calf level, at first even longer. Not at all what one might call knee pants. We call them knee pants only because as they became more common in the late-80s and began to be worn by older boys, The boy on the previous page is a good example. Here we see another example (figure 1). Ankle lennth knee pants were not the standard length very long. Very quickly this became calf level. These longish knee pants were common in the 1860s annd early-70s. At first they often look more like out-grown long pants, not far above the ankles. Perhaps some were. The boy here is a good examaple. And notice that the pants look brand new, not like hardly worn, grown out-of pants. You kind of wonder what was on the minds of fashion designers. The shorter length was barely notable. Actually we have no idea who it was who came up with the idea of shorter-length pants for boys. Which seems strange as it wouild be a major factor in boys pants for decades. It must gave been a European import, but we are not sure if it came from Britain or France. While these ankle length cuts were most common when knee pants began to be worn, we see a few as late as the early-90s.

Created: 4:30 AM 7/25/2013
Last updated: 12:42 AM 3/6/2024