Figure 1.--Canandian boys commonly wore knickers and longvstockings in the 1920s. As a result, stocking suppoters were required. Here we have the different kinds of supporters offered by Eaton's in the Fall-Winter catalog, |
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Canandian boys commonly wore knickers and longvstockings in the 1920s. As a result, stocking suppoters were required. Here we have the different kinds of supporters offered by Eaton's in the Fall-Winter catalog, p. 208.
T. Eaton's was a well known Toranto department store. Their catalogs provide a good indication of the styles popular in Canada at the time. This Canadian retailer began publishing mailorder catalogs in 1881, at least that is we begin noticing them. We have catalogs from the 1970s, although we do not know about the company's current status. The 1970s catalgs were full of clothes which look like American styles. Timothy Eaton, founder of the huge all-Canadian department store
chain bearing his name, was an Irish immigrant born on a tennant farm in northern Ireland. He was born in 1834 and followed his brothers to Canada in 1854. His brothers had opened a small dty goods store in St. Marys. Timothy Eaton began his business with a small dry goods business in Toronto during 1869. He built a giant retail store in Ontario’s capital city along with a country-wide mail-order business and a big new branch store in Winnipeg, by the time of his death in 1907. The Winnipeg branch was the first of many branches. Eaton Company business establishments eventually spread all across Canada when Timothy’s family successors extended the Eaton
empire. Timothy masterminded the company during the crucial period of its early development, spanning nearly 40 years. It was Timothy who implemented the concept of the "Department Store", in Canada, a concept which were already flourishing in London, Paris, and New York.
HBC has noted several images of Canadian boys wearing long stockings. This appears to have been quite similar to American patterns in the late 19th century. HBC has noted that some Canadian boys continued wearing long stockings in the 20th century when many American boys began wearing short socks and kneesocks. In particular Canadian boys appear to have worn longstockings for dress occasions. This appears to have been more prevalent among French Canadians than English Canadians. HBC has noted French boys wearing long stockings for dress wear as late as the early 1950s. Canadian boys appear to have priarily worn dark long stockings. Ages have varied over time. Quite old boys might wear long stockings at the turn-of-the 20th century, but by the 1940ss and 50s it was mostly boys up to 7 or 8 years, probablu about 10 years at the oldest.
The boys and girls wearing long stockings in the second half of the 19th Century held them up with various styles of stocking supporters. I believe that boys did not wear these supporters commonly in the first half of the 19th Century because kneepants were not nearly as common. Boys wearing long trousers did not commonly wear stocking supporters. It was not until the 1870s when kneepants became more commonly worn that stocking supporters became widely worn. Both boys and girls wore them. They were several different styles, including over the shoulder and waist styles. They were not very comfortable especially for boys involved in strenous outdoor activities. Notably Lord Baden Powell when he designed the first Boy Scout uniform chose kneesocks so cumbersome stocking supporters would not be necessary.
Eaton's offered several different options for stocking supporters.
The Eaton's ad copy read, "Hose supporters are attached to the waist, which gives comfort and support to the
wearer. White only. Sizes 2-4, 6-8, 10-12. Price 69 cents.
The Eaton's ad copy read, "Shoulder Garters for boys or girls. Made
from strong fresh elastic. Strong clasps and protected fasteners will
not tear the stockings. Shoulder straps and body parts are made of
non-elastic webbing. Color White. Sizes 3-5, 5-6, 9-12 years. Price 50
cents.
The Eaton's ad copy read, "Braces can be detached at waist without unfastening the garters. Made of fresh elastic and non-elastic webbing, good clasps. White only. Price 65 cents." N.B.
This is a boys' suspender waist. The suspenders are worn on top of the boy's shirt with buttonhole fasteners at the waist for buttons on the boy's knee pants or knickers. The supporters continue on the same
straps that hold up the trousers , extending underneath the trousers, and attach to the tops of the boys' long stockings.
The Eaton's ad copy read, "Have strong clasps at both ends. Babies', per pair 45 cents. Childrens', per pair 48 cents. Misses', per pair 50 cents. Women's, per pair 55 cents." This is an innovation we have not seen before--hose supporters that attach to underwaists, corset waists or corsets not by pinning
with safety pins but with clips that have teeth like the clips on men's
suspenders. No gender distinctions here since the shur-clips are for
use by everyone from babies to boys and girls to teenage girls
("Misses") to adult women. Notice that because of the hardware, these
shur-on supporters are more expensive than the more common pin-on
supporters shown on the same page.
The Eaton's ad copy read, "Well protected fasteners. Black only. Babies' per pair 20 cents
Children's, per pair 23 cents. Misses', per pair 25 cents.
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