Figure 1.--This lookscto us like a German family snapshot. We would guess that the children setting down, incluing the three boys wearing Lederhosen, are brothers and sisters. We are not sure about the boy in front wearing a sailor suit. Our contributor tells us thatvthis was not a family snap shot, but some shirt of kindergarten which would explain the unrelated boy in the sailor suit. There is no doubt in my mind that themiddle boy and girkl here are siblings--they look like twins. I'm less sure about the younger boys, but the similarity f their Lederhosen suggests that they are brthers. Image courtesy of the BP collection.

We note some families with all or most of the boys dressed in Lederhosen. This was at a time when mother mafe the clothing purchases with little or no input fom the children. Thus we see many families with identical or coordinated clothing. One German reader has written us me describing how during the 1960s he didn't like Lederhosen, but his brother did. Before the 60s, however, boys until into their teens had relatively limited input into their clothing. Thus we do see families with all or most of the boys wearing Lederhosen. This of course varied from family to family. Not all mothers believed in dressing the children alike, but quite a feww did. And Lederhosen were one of the choices. Different mothers had varying fashion attitudes. Three were also regional and demographic differences. There were also social-class differences affecting both tastes and family income levels. Lederhosen as they were leather were relatively expensive. These factors all affected family choices. We do not understand how these factors played out to be able to assess the families that we see with the children wearing Lederhosen.

Whole Family

Unlike sailor suits, Lederhosen were eidely seen as a male garment. Thus we rarely see all the children in a family dressed in Lederhosden. It was sometimes the case for all the boys to wear Lederhosen, but the forls wore dresses. This was virtuslly always the case before World War II. After the War we see a few examples of sisters wearing Lederhosen as well, but not very many. Changing conventions were a factor as we begin to see a few younger girkls wearing short pants. Thus we see a few mothers not only dressing all the boys in Lederhosen, but the girls as well, at least when they were relatively young. This never beca,e a major style, in part because by the 1970s when pants for girls became nore acceptable, the popularity of Lederhosen began to decline as more children wanted to wear jeans. We are not sure what the girls thought of this, but as the only family snapshots we have found show only little girls wearing Lederhosen with their brothers, we suspect that vthey were not wild about wearing Lederhosen.

Brothers

We note some families with all or most of the boys dressed in Lederhosen. This was at a time when mother mafe the clothing purchases with little or no input fom the children. Thus we see many familiescwith identical or coordinated clothing. Here a vsariety of factors caused variations in family practice. Age was one of them. We note examples of all the boiys in a family wearing Lederhosen, except the younger boys. After World War II, the preferences of the children became more important. One German reader has written us me describing how during the 1960s he didn't like Lederhosen, but his brother did. Before the 60s, however, boys until into their teens had relatively limited input into their clothing. Thus we do see families with all or most of the boys wearing Lederhosen. This of course varied from family to family. Not all mothers believed in dressing the children alike, but quite a feww did. And Lederhosen were one of the choices. Different mothers had varying fashion attitudes. Three were also regional and demographic differences. There were also social-class differences affecting both tastes and family income levels. Lederhosen as they were leather were relatively expensive. These factors all affected family choices. We do not understand how these factors played out to be able to assess the families that we see with the children wearing Lederhosen.

Sisters

Girls did not wear Lederhosen before the War because pants/trousers of any kind were not considered appropriate for girls. They always wore dresses. One of the few exceptions were the bloomers/rimpers worn by girls for gym at school. We also see BDM girls exercising in shorts. This probably also occurred at BSM summer camps. This presumably was a factor in cjanging conventions after the War. These were, however, rare exceptions in the 1930s. This changed slightly as conventions for girls clothing changed after the War. We gradually see girls wearing short pants, al least fo casual summer wear. We begin to see this by the 1960s, but girls still mostly wore dresses. We note a few images of entire families (brothers and susters) being dressed in Lederhosen. We stress that this was never very common, but we do note a few examples. After World War II, gender conventions began to shitt. We begin to see girls wearing short pants--event Lederhosen. This was never very common, but se see a few girlsd wearing Lederhosen in the 1970s. By this time families were smaller and we don't see Lederhosen being used for the entire family. And we note in the 1970s that catalogs began offering Lederhosen for girls. We are not entirely sure how common that was. We rarely see girls wearing Lederhosen in the actual phptographic record.

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Created: 6:47 PM 3/5/2008
Last updated: 9:26 PM 9/16/2009