Figure 1.--This advertisement for Kazoo Boys' Suspender Waists is very valuable for HBC purposes because it illustrates older boys' attitudes toward the underwaists that they had had to wear at younger ages and that they were growing out of. Nearly all boys 16 years or younger wore knee pants or above-the-knee knickers in 1919 with which they wore long stockings, usually black. Younger boys wore underwaists with garter tabs to which the necessary hose supporters were attached. Here a boy wearing an underwaist instead of a suspenderwaist is getting into a fight.

This advertisement for Kazoo Boys' Suspender Waists is very valuable for HBC purposes because it illustrates older boys' attitudes toward the underwaists that they had had to wear at younger ages and that they were growing out of. (HBC already has another ad for the same garment but this one is much more pointed about the masculine appeal.) Nearly all boys 16 years or younger wore knee pants or above-the-knee knickers in 1919 with which they wore long stockings, usually black. Younger boys wore underwaists with garter tabs to which the necessary hose supporters were attached. Usually these underwaists were sleeveless bodices that buttoned down the front (as illustrated in this Kazoo ad by the boy on the right who is being ridiculed in the gym locker room because his mother has not yet bought him the more grown-up Kazoo style waist--a combination of trousers suspenders and hose supporters in one garment).

Harris Suspender Company

Kazoo was a brand name for the Harris Suspender Company. The company headquarters was located in New York. The purpose of a suspender waist was to hold up long stockings. We are unsure where the idea for the Kazoo brand name came from. A kazoo is a type child's mouth organ, but were are not sure if it came before or after the Kazoo suspender waist brand. An example is a Kazoo suspender waist 1916 advertisement. The corporate history of the Harris Suspender Co. is complicated

Ladies Home Journal

This ad appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, July 1919, (p. 61). Similar ads appeared in Good Housekeeping. The July date would be when boys were out of school for their Summer vacation and have plenty of time to get into trouble. As the oldest still publishing, most respected women's service magazine in the country, The Ladies' Home Journal has always focused on issues of crucial importance to millions of women. Since its first issue in December 1883. This long history make The Ladies Home Journal and invaluable source of information on American fashion trends. Its covered an incredibly wide range of topics beyond just fashion, from the latest medical research and consumer news to parenting know-how, workplace survival, good skincare, nutrition facts and much, much more. It was The Ladies Home Journal who sucessfully merged the elements and produced the right formula, becoming the top ladies magazine in America. The Ladies' Home Journal both empowered women and applauded their growing power. We also notice patterns offered in the magazine.

Suspender Waists

So-called “suspender waists” were invented at the turn of the 20th century and were popular mainly with boys who wore knee pants and needed a way of supporting their long stockings—almost always black. Although some models of the suspender waist (such as Kazoo) were manufactured in styles that could be worn also by girls, the main wearers of these waists were boys. They were called “suspender waists” because they combined trousers suspenders with hose supporters and had leather suspender attachments for holding up knee pants in addition to hose supporters for long stockings. The style did not last very long and was most popular during the 1910s. N.B. Suspender waists are not to be confused with the older style of garter waists (such as the Dr. Parker waist) which also had suspender-like straps over the shoulders, a waist belt (sometimes with waist buttons for outer clothing), and hose supporters. With true suspender waists only the garter part of the waist can be classified as underwear because the shoulder straps would be visible (like ordinary modern suspenders) on top of a shirt. HBC does not have a specific suspoender waist page yet, but some related information is on over-the-shoulder long stocking suporters.

Underwaists

Underwaists were another type of support garment. Underwaists (sometimes called panty-waists) were worn by younger boys and girls to support additional underwear (such as bloomers or panties) or outer clothing (such as trousers or skirts). These bodices tended to be worn by boys only until about age 10, although some models came in ages for boys as old as 12. Some models were specifically for girls and others for boys, but the great majority of styles could be worn by both boys and girls. They tended to be made of elastic knitted fabric (and therefore rather form-fitting) or of cambric material and a bit looser. They nearly always were equipped with reinforcement straps, waist buttons, and garter tabs for attaching hose supporters. The popularity of underwaists declined in the later 1930s and early 1940s although they were still available, usually in the preferred knitted style, up until about 1945. When long stockings stopped being worn by school children, the main function of the underwaist ceased to exist.

Conventions

The ad here is valuable because it illustrates the typical boy's detestation of underwaists or "pantywaists" which older boys longed to get out of as quickly as their mothers would let them. Underwaists/pantywaists were made in sizes up to about 12 or 13 years of age. A few boys and many girls continued to wear them into their teen years because they had to have some means of holding up knee pants or above-the-knee knickers and of supporting the black long stockings that were almost universally worn with them. The pants buttoned onto the underwaist and hose supporters were also attached to the waist, usually at the sides, sometimes by buttons and sometimes by safety pins. The Kazoo Suspender waist was originally invented to give boys, especially older boys, an alternative to the underwaist or pantywaist, which they considered feminine and girlish because their sisters wore them also. This ad appeals to the guilt of mothers who continue to dress their older boys in pantywaists and urges them to buy a more grown-up and masculine garment for their sons. Notice that the ad shows two boys fighting because one of them has called the other a "Sissy"; the insult derives from the fact that the boy's mother still dresses him in pantywaists as a means of supporting his stockings. This ad very clearly shows how the derogatory term "pantywaist" became a slang term for a "sissy" boy. Younger boys (up to about the age of ten) probably didn't mind wearing the underwaist so much, because almost all younger boys wore them also. But when puberty set in, boys desperately wanted to wear a support garment that was different from what they had worn as little boys and that they associated with girls of their own age. An interesting bit of American cultural history here. A reader writes, "This is another ad selling to the obvious. Boys not wanting to wear things that were deemed girlish. Waists must have been deemed girlish." Yes that is the point that the ad makes. I'm not sure to what extent this was the case, but suspect it may have been an accurate depiction.

Age

These suspender waists are advertised for boys between the ages of 4 and 18. During the first two decades of the 20th century, some boys still had not graduated to long trousers even in their senior year in highschool when they would have turned 18. Suspender waists were manufactured mainly for boys, although Kazoo also sold other models (without the trouser attachment) for girls. But masculinity is the issue here. Boys over the age of about 10 considered underwaists (or pantywaists as they were sometimes called) "feminine" garments, the word used in the ad, and the sooner they could get rid of them, the better for their boyish egos.

Posture Support

Notice that the appeal to mothers is that no sewing on of loose buttons is involved and that the Kazoo also helps keep a boy's shoulders erect by acting as a kind of shoulder brace.

Kazoo Ad Copy

The ad copy reads, "Mothers! You're to Blame [for the fighting shown above]. "Sissy" is a fighting word with manly boys. Don't rig "son" out in girlish garments [i.e. underwaists/ pantywaists]. Get Him Kazoo, A Support for Pants and Hose, Ages 4 to 18. It's the only sure way for a boy to keep his pants neat, his hose smooth, his shoulders erect. One Kazoo purchase saves the price of several frail underwaists--banishes mending, tubbing, button sewing [because the suspender waist has no buttons and doesn't need to be washed]. At Boys' Clothing and Furnishing Depts., or write us. 75 c. and $1.00 (in Canada 20 c. more). Send for our "reason why" booklet I "For Real Boys." Harris Suspender Co., 694 Broadway, at 4th St., New York."

Construction

The diagram of the Kazoo Suspender waist cleverly frames the advertising text showing both the trousers attachments at the top (with button holes on the keepers of the suspenders) and the hose supporters at the bottom with "rustless buckles" for adjustment of length and rustproof "castoffs" (the metal loop that goes over the rubber button of the garter clasp).

Reder Comment

A reader writes, "Yes, the Kazoo appeal to mothers not to make sissies of their boys by continuing to dress them in underwaists as older boys does seem to have been rather ephemeral. I think the last Kazoo ad of any kind was 1920, one year later than the rather specialized Kazoo ads that emphasized masculinity. And in the early 1920s, Suspender Waists died out almost completely. Underwaists for younger boys continued to be worn up through the mid-1940s. The Dr. Parker-style garter waist seems to have displaced the Kazoo. I'm not exactly sure why this happened, but one reason may have been that teenage boys abandoned short pants and knickers at an earlier age in the 1920s (and later) than had been the case in the 1900s and 1910s. Kazoos were made for boys as old as 18 because up to about 1920 some boys still didn't start wearing long trousers until they had reached 19 years--after they had graduated from high school. The garter waists that replaced the Kazoo were made for boys and girls as old as 14 in some cases, but many garter waists were available only for children of 12 years of age at the oldest. At least for boys, long trousers started to be worn earlier--around 14 or 15--and by 1945, at the end of World War II, knickers and short pants for older boys were almost completely gone. In the later 1940s garter waists were made for boys and girls up to ten years of age but not older. So, even in cases when long stockings continued to be worn by boys after the war, the children were younger than in the pre-war period."

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Created: 2:29 AM 7/22/2005
Last updated: 2:00 AM 7/23/2005