Figure 1.--It is a little difficult to tell, but several of the 2-13-year old 8th graders t St. Stanislaus in Meridean, Conndcticut wore knicker suits for their graduation in 1933.. .

When knee pants first appeared in the mid-19th century, teenagers, even younger teenagers did not wear them. This did not begin to change until the 1880s, but even then it was rare for teenagers to wear knee pants. Only in the 1890s, espcially the 1890s did knee pants suddenly become standard for younger teenagers. We even see older teens wearing them, although this varied from family to family and demofraphically as well as social class. And when knickers repalced knee pants (1910s), the same conventions simply transferred to teenagers. We see younger teenagers commonly wearing knickers in the 1910s. This was essentially the same age range as the boys wearing knee pants in the 1900s, perhaps a slight drop in age. Most 13-year olds wore knickers in the 1910s, but the proportion began to decline in the 1920s. The age af buying long pants began to be accepted as about 13-14 years of age in the 1920s. We see some boys with suits that had both knickers and long pants. It is not entirely clear to us what was worn when. This varied from family to family. Some families postoponed wearing long pants a bit, but 13-14 years of age became a widely accepted transitional age. This was to a large extent because 13 was the age boys made the transition from elementary (primary) school to secondary school (junior high school) or began working. This varied chronologically. Beginning about age 13-years, some parents began thinking that boys this age should graduate to long pants. We are not ure if this was a change in parental thinking ir more complaining from the boys. This was not to common in the 1920s, but became more common in the 30s. Another factor here was when boys stopped wearing long stockings. Some boys objected to the long stockings more than the knickers. A major shirt in the 30s was that virtually all 13 year-old shifted from long stockings to knee socks when wearing knickers. This was highly desirable for the boys because it meant that they no longer had to wear stocking supporters. We suspect that the brightly patterened knee socks were a concession to the boys so that fewer would insist on wearing long pants. We nte that many 13 year-olds were wearing long pants by te 1930s. We note the 12-13 year-old 8th graders at St. Stanislaus School are wearing both long pants and knickers in 1933. Most boys at theb schoop seem to be wearing long pants, but we see quite a few boys wearing knicker suits. Some schools adopted regulations on this, but in America many schools just left it up to the parents.

Created: 4:52 AM 3/21/2014
Last updated: 4:52 AM 3/21/2014