Figure 1.-- We note an article on children's fashions in a 1959 issue Woman's Day magazine. It included a spread of images. This one shows a boy wearing a white shirt, red bow tie, navy blue self-belted short pants, matching kneesocks, and black leather shoes. It seems to depict his birthday party. We notice that magazine articles on children fashions tend to depict short pants more commonly than they wre actually worn. We suspect this in part represents how mothers would have liked to dress their sons. The boy with his big sister looks to be about 6 years old.

Jeans or other long pants were worn by most elementary (primary) school boys. This was a major differnce with Europe. Jeans were worn cowboy style (at least movie cowboy style) with big cuffs, so that had to be bought long.Short pants were not common at school. Kindergartners and some 1st graders might wear shorts, but in elemntary school shorts were not often seen even anong the younger boys. You can see this in the photographic record, espevially after the raely-50s. Shorts were a little more common in the South, but most boys wore long pants to school. Many highschools still did not permit jeans. Most highschool boys wore slacks. Khaki slacks were common. Short pants were becoming casual, summer wear. But even in the summer many American boys wore jeans and other long pants. Shorts tended to be more common at summer camp than for general wear. Scouts usually wore long pants, but would wear shorts at camp. Younger boys might wear boxer or camp short pants during the summer. Older boys who wore shorts as casual wear would wear longer cut 'walk" or 'walking shorts' shorts. Some younger boys still wore short pants when dressed up, sometines with kneesocks, but this was becoming less common. Short pants suits for school age were becoming less common, but some boys still wore short pants when dressing up with, often with a white shirt and tie (often a bow tie), vest, or sweater.

Carnegie Hi-Society Sets

The Maxon Shirt Company in Greenvill, South Carolina placed an ad in April 1959 issue of Parents' Magazine for Carnegie Hi-Society sets, short-slleved checked shirts and walk shorts illustrated on the previous page. The shorts had a belt that matched the shirt. The ad showed a boy calling home from camp, "Hi mom ...." The ad copy read, "Join America's fashionable young moderns. No inituation ... no membership card ... All you need is a hankering to beca well-dressed boy. And that's what you will be evet time you don a CARNEGIE 'HI' SOCIETY outfit of coordinated sihrt and walking shorts. Tailored from finest Wash and Wear cottons. At better Boys Shops and Departments." Of course few boys at camp were all that interested in veing a 'fashionable young modern'. It is interesting that this outfit was pictured as being worn by a teenager, but at camp and not at home. He is certainly a better dressed boy than anyone I ever saw at camp.

Woman's Day Magazine Article

We note an article on children's fashions in a 1959 issue Woman's Day magazine. It included a spread of images. One shows a boy wearing a white shirt, red bow tie, navy blue self-belted short pants, matching kneesocks, and black leather shoes. It seems to depict his birthday party. We notice that magazine articles on children fashions tend to depict short pants more commonly than they were actually worn. We suspect this in part represents how mothers would have liked to dress their sons. The boy with his big sister looks to be about 6 years old. Birthday celebrations were also changing. Many were still dress up affairs in the 1950s, but in the 60s became mostly casual dress.

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Created: 4:29 AM 7/31/2017
Last updated: 4:29 AM 7/31/2017