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We have found some catalogs pages and advertisements as well as patterns which we can not attribute to specific years. We can, however with a substantial level of accuracy attribute them to decades. Thus we are adding these images here as garments that seem to date from the 1920s, but which we can not with definitive enter into a particular year. We are fairly sure, however, about the decade.
We notice a range of outfit for younger boys. They are notably more simple than what was common before World War I in the late-19th and early-20th century. This includes todlers (1-3 years), pre-school sizes (4-5 years), and early primary sizes (6-8 years). Many outfits crossed over the three age groups, such as todlers and pre-schoolers or pre-schoolers and early primary years. One item for todlers is a pattern for rompers from the Ladies Home Journal. We see a Tom Sawyer ad for a sailor tunic. It is undated, but was surely published in the 1920s, probably the early-20s. Another item is a McCalls pattern for a Little Boy's Suit which looks like a pre-school outfit. The style of the pattern illustration suggests the early-20s. The term suit referred to the fact the top and bottom matched or was coordinated and not that it was a formal outfit.
Here is a page from 1920s Arnold Constable catalog showing inclemet weather gear for younger children, including leggings. snow pants of knit wool, and rainwear. Arnold Constable & Company was a New York department store chain. It was the oldest department store in America and one of the mot prestigious store participating in the carriage trade.
American boys primarily wore blouses in the 19th century. Shirts were no common for boys. Although primarily seen as a girl's garment today, girls did not commendably wear blouses on the 19th century. Girls wore dresses. Although there wee not a lot of other garment to choose from, there was a great variety of dresses. Blouses and skirts were rarely seen. Blouses in contrast were very common for boys. This did nor change until the 20th century, primarily after World War I in the 1920s. Blouses were still commonly worn by boys in the early 1920s, but this had begun to change by the end of the decade. What was happening was attitudes toward long stockings were shifting. American children in the 19th and early-20th century wore long stockings. And the garments for holding them up (stocking supporters) involved below the waist attachment. This they wore blouses which ended at he waist or just below the waist. In general shirts had long tails to tuck in and made it impossible to attach the long stockings. Children in the 1920s began to change from long stockings to socks, at first knee socks. Socks did not need stocking supporters to hold them up. And elastic help hold up the knee socks. We see this change in catalogs and with boys tops rapidly shifting from blouse to shirts. At the same time see see blouses and shirts being offered for girls and not just dresses.
Another Tom Sawyer ad shows two boys wearing blouses and knickers. We also do not have the date for this ad, but like the ad here would have been published about 1920.
We notice an undated McCalls pattern for men and boys one-piece pajamas. They look rather like the 1920s to us. They do not seem to have been very popular. Fashion magazines still made references to European styles, usually either Britain or France (figure 1).
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