Figure 1.--This German school portrait is unidentified. We do not know where it was taken, but we might guess East Prussia, in part because almost all of the boys are wearing long stockings. The photograph is undate, but we woulkd guess it was taken about 1930. The students look to be the older boys at the school, probaly around 12-13 years of age. Most wear longish short pants with long stockings. A good view of the school is in the background.

We notice children of all ages wearing long stockings to school, although they were less commom for older teenagers. They were primarily worn by primary-age children, but many younger teenagers also wore them to school. Here this varied from country to country and with different time patterns. Long stockings were widely worn to school because much of the school year is during the cold and cool-weather months. Children in most northern countries both boys and girls began wearing long stockings at quite an early age, before they began school. They were thus very commonly worn by the children beginning school at about 6 years of age. We see this throughout northern Europe and North America as well as Japan. Long stockings were very common in American schools during the late-19th and early-20th century. This included some older teenagers at the turn of the century. This became less common after World War I, although primary-age boys and even some younger teenagers wore them in the 1920s, but less commonly in the 30s. The pattern was a little different in Europe. Older German boys tended to wear long pants until the 1910s. We see long stockings being commonly wormn with short pants by primary boys and younger teenagers in Germany throughout the inter-War era. The same pattern was similar throughout northern Europe.

Navigate the Relate Boys Historical Clothing School Uniform Garment Pages
[Return to the Main school long stockings page]
[Return to the Main school hosiery type page]
[Main garment page]
[Blazers] [Bookbag] [Caps] [Coats] [Kilts] [Pants] [Shirts]
[Shoes] [Smocks [Suits] [Seaters] [Ties]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Country Pages
[Main School Uniform Page]
[Main National School Uniform Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Poland] [Singapore] [Scotland]
[Singapore] [United States]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossary] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 10:39 PM 3/13/2011
Last updated: 10:39 PM 3/13/2011