Figure 1.--Norfolk suits were still popular for biys in the 1920s. The Hamilton Garment Company in New York offered a range of boys' clothing. This included several knickers suits, mostly with Norfolk styling. |
|
American mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. We have some information on popular 1925s styles from these catalogs. In addition to Sears and Wards, we have information from the Hamilton Garment Company, a New York store. Sears offered boys' sweaters, some quite heavy, in its Fall-Winter catalog some of which look dated while others seem rather modern. Sears offered a page with several different styles of knicker suits in corduroy and other materials. Norfolk styling was still evident. They came with extra pants. Long stockings were still quite common. The Sears knickers ad shows them being worn with long stockings rather than kneesocks. Sears also offered stocking supporters. We also note styles of summer underwear offered by Sears.
Boys throughout the 1920s wore flat caps.
Dress-like sleepers were made for small infants. Older infants might wear shorter skirt-like garments, perhaps only for the girls.
One of the most popular styles for todlers and pre-school children, both boys and girls, were rompers. The rompers were a sharp departure from earlier styles for young children which were often very elaborate an constrictive. Loose-fitting rompers were a much more casual approch to children's clothes. They were mostly made for pre-school children, but as they were made through age 6, some children may have worn rompers after they came home from school.
Boys wore a variety of coats in the fall and winter of 1922-23. Double breasted coats appear to have been very popular, including reefer jackets with sailor styling.
Sweaters were popular for cool Fall days as well as cold weater dress.
Sears offered heavy sweaters in its Fall-Winter 1925-26 catalog. Some of the sweaters look dated while others seem more modern. Various styles of sweaters are shown here. The prominence of roll-collar and "shawl collar" sweaters is notable, but cardigan and turtle-neck models are also available.
Sailor suits were still worn by American boys in the 1920s. They were most popular with younger boys, but HBC has noted them in sizes up to 19 years.
It was in the 1920s that our modern concept of cllared shirts became widely worn. The soft collar began to replace the Eton collar that had dominated oler boys' dresswear sine the 1890s.
Boys still commonly wore suits in the 1920s, even to school. It was not as common as in the 1910s, but was still common. Norfolk suits were very popular, mostly worn with knickers. Older teenagers no longer wore knicker suits, but they were still common for school age boys and younger teenagers.
he Hamilton Garment Company in New York offered a range of boys' clothing. This included several knickers suits, mostly with Norfolk styling (figure 1)..
Sears offered a page with several different styles of knicker suits in corduroy and other materials. Norfolk styling was still evident. They came with extra pants. Long stockings were still quite common.
American boys commonly wore knickers in 1925. Knickers were commonly made in suzes through 16, although after aboy age 15, long pants were more common. Many came with double seats. Younger boys might wear short pants, especially during the Winter. Knee pants were still available, but increasingly out of style.
American boys still commonly wore long stockings in 1925, espsecially during the fall and winter. We can observe this with boys wearing short pants and knickers. We assume that boys wearing long pznts did not, but these were mostly older boys. The Sears knickers ad shows them being worn with long stockings rather than kneesocks.
Kneesocks had begun to appear more commonly in catalogs, but long stockings were still the most common for winter wear. Three-quarter socks were more common during the summer--unless a boy went barefoot, still common in small towns and rural areas.
Many American boys and girls wore long stockings throughout the 1920s. This meant that stocking supporters were needed to hold them up. There were quite a varirty of available products to do so, incliding garters, garter waists, underwaists, union waists suits, waists, waist suits,and other garments. The terms used for the garments could be a little confusing. These garments had a range of purposes, including posture correction, but the primary purpose was to hold up long stockings. The number of such garments and the prevalence of the advertising is a good indicator of how common long stockings still were in 1925. We note mail-order catalogs, magazines, and newspapers which offered a variety of stocking supporters.
The 1920s clothing catalogs included a variety of garments and accessories besides the major categories. Many are important to note as in some cases as fashions changed or developed, they would disappear or become important styles in future generations. This is one of the valuable elements of these catalogs, allowing us to track changing fashions with sources of known dates.
Underwear was still rather complicated in the 1920s, primarily because of the popularity of button-on styling and because long stockings were still being worn. We notice several ads and catalog listings for different types of underwear.
Sears offered a page with several different styles of summer underwear in its 1925 Spring and Summer catalog, p. 189. The page gives a good overview of the under wear worn by boys during the Summer in the 1920s. Here we have quite a variety of boys' union suits and waist union suits. Most of the suits are for teenage boys whose sizes are determined by chest measurement. The boys in the illustration seem to be from about 12 to 16-17. The waist union suit is designed for both boys and girls and is sized by age--from 2 up to 13. This is the garment with reinforcement straps, waist buttons, and pin tubes for supporters. In 1925 one-piece underwear for boys ssems the standard, especially in summer. For winter wear, boys could wear separate undershirts and long drawers, but most boys wore union suits with long or short legs. Cotton briefs and broadcloth shorts did not become popular until the late 1930s and early 1940s.
This ad offered summer underwear ad for fathers, sons, and daughters. The manufacturer is Topkis Athletic Underwear. All the models are sleeveless summer union suits made of light fabric similar to nainsook. There are four models shown: 1. boys' or girls' waist union suits; 2. Men's union suits; 3. girls' bloomer union suits; and 4. boys' untaped athletic union suits. The ad appeared in the Ladies Home Journal for May 1925, page 72. The Topkis Brothers company was located in Wilmington, Delaware, with a general sales office at 95 Worth St. at Broadway, New York City.
American boys by the 1920s were no longer wearing nighshirts. We notice them wearing vrious types of pajamas. Many of the compnies manufacturing underwear also manufatured pajamas. We note advertiements in both magazines and mailm order cartalogs. The underwear adswere more common. Sometimes they were combined, but we see some ads for just pajamas as well. Footed pajamas were popular for boys winter sleepwear. At the time, central heating was not common and population in norther states was more commion than is the case today. We notice a magazine ad from Minnesota Mills for children's Bi-Knit sleeping garments. The ad pictures boys footed pajamas.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing catalog/magazine pages:
[Return to the American 1925 mail order catalog]
[Return to the Main American mail order 1920s page]
[Main photo/publishing page]
[Store catalogs]
[Fashion magazines]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits]
[Sailor hats]
[Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits]
[Rompers]
[Short pants]
[Knickers]
[Tunics]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
[Long stockings]
[Underwear]
[Sleepwear]