Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified American teenager wearing a Norfolk knickers suit with the standard black long stockings. Note the virtually requied flat cap which seems to mtch the suit. The boy looks to be about 15 years old. The smap shot is undated, but looks like the 1910s to us. He looks to be living in a rural area somewhere in the Mid-West.

American teenagers at age 15 commonly wore knee pants and knicker suits in the 1900s and 1910s, mostly knee pants suits in the 1900s and knicker suits in the 1910s. This was the age, however, that you begin to see more boys wearing long pants suits, even during this early period. There were differences from family to family, but knee pants and knickes were very common, especially in urban areas. We probanly see more boys at 13 and 14 years of age wearing knicker suits. By age 15 years we see a more even split. A good example is Otmar Voegele wearing a Norfolk knickers suit, we think about 1915. And by the 1910s probably more boys wearing long pants suit, especially by the 1920s. This is a little complicate to assess with any oprecission, but we believe that this assessment is not off more than a year at worst. We are less sure about knickers in geeral. After World War I in the 1920s, some boys still wore knicker suits, but the older boys, incluing 15 year olds were a destinct minority. And by the 1930s we no longer see 15 year olds wearing knicker suits to any extent. There my have been some in the early-30s, but the photographic record suggests it was not very common and probably virtually non-existent by the late-30s. There may be some isolated exceptions such as Senate pages or private schools, but believe this is the general patern. And after te early-40s we no longr see many boys of any age wearing knickers. These trends can be followed by the various mail order catalogs. We believe, however, that the size offered often lagged somewhat behind popular conventions, especially at times when the conventions were changing. Companies adjusted stock to the orders received and thus it takes a little time for the store purchasing units to adjust. The huge number of available snapshots and portraits in the photographic record are probably a better reflection of the popular age conventions.

Created: 2:46 AM 9/7/2012
Last updated: 2:55 AM 4/19/2013