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Underwear was still rather complicated in the 1920s, especially for tounger children. Children commonly wore waists, support garments, in addition to underwear. There were a variety of specialized underwear garments for children. In addition to the more compicated garments, we also see simpler styles for older boys. We aso see seaonal styles, waist unin suits that were dne with snglet tops. The pamts part tended to be dome like long shorts because knickers were so common. We know quite a bit about period underwear because it was so heavily advertized. Underwear was widely advertized in catalogs. We also notice extensive advertising in magazines. There were several important compaies. One was EZ Mills. They had an extensive product line. BVD underwear for boys done in adult style.
The E-Z Waist Co. was one of the principal companies manufacturing underwear in the United States during the 1920s. The company advertized in a number of different magazines. The ad here is a good example (figure 1). We are not sure, however, in which this advertisemnt appeared. I believe the company later changed its name to E-Z Mills, probbly has waists began going out of style.
Wards offered four styles of waists. These are worn under the shirt to support other garments such as pants and stockings. The waists are included on a page for girls underwear. The ad copy for one of the waists specifies for boys or girls, there is no reference to gender for the other three. They were available in sizes from 2 to 12 years. There is also a bloomer waist combination.
We also notice Dr. Parker waist offered by Montgomery Ward. Dr. Parker waists were an important type of garter waists, although often the term Dr. Parker's was not used. It is worth noticing that the model shown seems to be an older boy, perhaps 11 or 12, although it is hard to be sure of his age.
We note a BVD ad for boys' underwear--a summer-weight union suit for "youths" or teen-age boys in exactly the same style as that worn by their fathers. The advertisement makes this clear. It is another one in the series of father-son underwear ads. It appeared in The Youth's Companion (April 13, 1922, p. 209). It was reprinted in several later issues of the magazine. In the 1920s boys 12
or 13 and younger tended to wear waist union suits (with waist buttons and garter tabs for long stockings), but older boys wore underwear which was essentially a junior version of what their fathers wore.
We note an ad for the Nazareth Waist Union Suit in the Ladies' Home
Journal January 1922, p. 102. There were a whole series of such ads for waist suits by both competing companies--Nazareth and E-Z Mills. The advertisement reproduces the frequently shown image of the child's underwaist at top center with the heading "The Original Knit Waist for Boys and Girls". This was a familiar logo and appears on many Nazareth ads. Then we have the description of the waist's features. The waist union suit was similar to a regular union suit, but with features to support other garments such as pants and stockings.
The standard winter underwear worn by boys in 1922 was the union suit. This union suit was advertised in Good Housekeeping Magazine by Hanes, one of the principal makers of
men and boys' union suits. These union suits were made to fit boys from 2 years old to 16 years old. The model here has long sleeves and long legs, but such suits were also made with short sleeves and knee length legs. The suits for the youngest boys (from 2 to 4 years) were made
with three-button drop seats, whereas the suits for the older boys (from 6 6o 16) had the more adult style of a flap seat closed with a single button. They came in two different weights--medium and extra heavy--to suit boys who lived in colder and less chilly parts of the
country. But in 1922, before many homes had central heating, nearly all boys wore union suits during the autumn, winter, and early spring.
We note taped union suits being sold for boys as hot weather summer garments. This advertisement appeared in the Fort Wayne Sentinal for 20 July 1922, p. 3. It gets really sticky in Indiana during the summer time, and boys who had to wear long stockings during this period with above the knee knickers or with short trousers (for reassons of formality--school, church, special occasions) normally had to wear skeleton waists or underwaists over their usual underwear, which made an unwanted extra layer of underwear necessary. In the late 1910s and 1920s manufacturers invented a light-weight union suit for
boys with short legs and sleeveless arms that served as undershirt, underpants, and waist for long stockings in a single garment. These garments (usually called Waist Union Suits because they were taped for the support of additional garments such as trousers and hose supporters) were usually made of nainsook (like adult male BVDs) or of light-weight knitted cotton fabric that was more form-fitting.
This is a good example of the underwear that most boys and girls wore during the early 1920s in America in sizes from 2 to 16 years. These are the popular waist union suits that were made in styles that were sleeveless and with short legs as well as with long sleeves and ankle length legs and also with elbow sleeves and knee
length. Not illustrated (but described) are separate shirts and underpants for children from 1 to 12. This underwear is not gender specific and is equally suitable for boys and girls. The model illustrated is made of cotton, buttons down the front, has a drop seat in back which buttons to the waist in the rear, and has reinforcement
straps over the shoulders. Two reinforcement straps end in taped-on buttons for fastening trousers (shorts or knickers, or skirts) plus addional straps that run from the shoulders to the sides of the waist and end in metal pin-tubes for fastening hose supporters. Monnig's Clothing Store in Fort Worth, Texas store ad offered waist union suits from three manufacturers: E-Z, Minneapolis and Merode.
This advertisement for boys' summer underwear. It was placed by the Eisfeld Clthig Co. A retail establoshment fojunded by a German immigrant, E.M. Eisfeld. The ad appeared in the Burlington Hawk Eye, an Iowa newspaper, on June 20, 1922, p. 10. In the 1920s during the warmer months most boys up to about age 16 wore nainsook union suits similar in design to those their fathers wore but, in most cases, with additional waist features added, i.e., bone buttons taped on for attaching short trousers and garter tabs for attaching hose supporters since many boys wore long stockings even during the summer for formal occasions. The waist buttons and garter tabs (most likely pin tubes to hold the safety-pin tops of supporters) were anchored to reinforcement straps that ran over the shoulders and under the arms to relieve the strain of garters and trousers. The illustration shows a boy getting dressed in the morning in the bathroom. His union suit is sleeveless and has reinforcement straps over the shoulders and under the arms for trouser buttons and garter tabs. The text reads:
"The Right Way to Start the Day is in cool, comfortable underwear, It
makes all the difference in the world. Underwear, to be comfortable,
must fit. That's the kind we sell and we fit boys from 4 to 16 years
old. Athletic garments, knit and nainsook union suits with taped
buttons and garter tabs. 75 cents and 90 cents. Eisfeld Clothing
Co."
This was not a manufacturer, but a leading clothing store in Burlington, Iowa. Although knit waist union suits for boys up to 16 are also sold at the same store and mentioned in the text, only the nainsook summer model is shown,of course because it was a June ad.
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