Figure 1.--Lederhosen have been worn by German boys of all ages. Here we see a todler wearing a pair. He looks to be about 3 years old. The image is undated, but was probably taken in the 1950s.

HBC plans to assess what age boys wore lederhosen. Basically unlike many other garments, there were really no age conventions. Boys of all ages as well as adults wore them. But their popularity for certain age groups varied over time.This effort is complicated by the fact that many of the available images archieved by HBC do not indicate the age or ages of the individuals pictured. We can, however, make some basic assessments of the age involved. The photographic record does illustrate the wide age ranges of German boys wearing Lederhosen. We note virtually every age group except infants wearing Lederhosen. They were commonly worn to school as well as for play and casual wear. Some boys also used them for dressing up, probably mostly in Bavaria. There may have been age conventions associated with the various usages. These and other age conventions appear to have changed over time.

Age 3

The boy here wears Lederhosen as a play outfit (figure 1). He looks to be about 3 years old. The snapshot is undated, but was probably taken in the 1950s.

Age 5

We see many photographs of 5-year old German boys wearing Lederhosen. Many of the images we have found were taken after World War II. We see younger pre-school boys wearing them before the War, but the snapshots after the War seem more common. We think this is because after the War, Lederhosen became more common outside of Bavaria. Also. rising afflience mean thast more German families could afford them. Many of the images suggest that they were being worn as play garments. This began to change after the 1960s, when we begin to see boys wearing Lederhosen more as Tracht outfits. This was true of all ages of boys. By the 1970s, short pants were becoming less popular for school-age boys. Many boys wanted to wear jeamns. This did not affect pre-school boys.

Age 6

We see many boys wearing Lederhosen to school. They are a popular garment for First Day portraits. We know the boys were 6 years old in these portraits. It was very common to take a keepsake portrait on the first day of school. We notice both snap shots and formal studio portraits. Many are easy to identify because the children have gift cones. Other ages are more difficult to assess, but the gidt cones make it easy. This seems most common in the 1950s and 60s, but we notice boys wearing Lederhosen to school both before and after. Before World War II, Lederhosen were most pronounced in Bavaroa. After the War, they begin to become popular in other areas of Germany, especially in the 1950s.

Age 7

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Created: 2:16 AM 1/11/2006
Last updated: 3:13 AM 8/7/2010