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Lederhosen means leather pants, it means nothing about length. They are made in two lengths, short pants and below the knee knickers length. A European source reports that he has noted accounts that knickers came first and shorts were derived from them as a daily wear alternative at work, but he doubts those accounts He believes that shorts have been worn all along, possibly depending in part on the area. We are not sure about this. Knickers length pants would be more in keeping with the lmee breeches worn in the 18th century which is probably when Lederhosen first appeared. Late in the 19th century shorts were deemed indecent by the increasingly proper Victorians. The Catholic Church forbade Bavarian farmers to wear them in processions. A HBC reader postulates, "This in my opinion suggests that shorts were part of the ‘Sunday best’ attire in times before." Attitudes toward shorts change in the early 20th century. One major influence were the youth groups that were becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe. Baden Powell had adopted shorts for the new Scout movement. Germany's Wandervogel also wore shorts--often cord shorts. Many Wandervogel boys also wore lederhosen. We do not notice knickers-length Lederhosen prominately in the historical record until the 1960s. They are made in two lengths, short pants and below the knee knickers length. While these are the two basic typesof Lederhosen, the short pants type come in many different lengths. Here there seem to be two factors involved.
We are not yet sure which Lederhosen length came first. A European source reports that he has noted accounts that knickers came first and shorts were derived from them as a daily wear alternative at work, but he doubts those accounts He believes that shorts have been worn all along, possibly depending in part on the area. We are not sure about this. Knickers length pants would be more in keeping with the lmee breeches worn in the 18th century which is may be when Lederhosen first appeared. Late in the 19th century shorts were deemed indecent by the increasingly proper Victorians. The Catholic Church forbade Bavarian farmers to wear them in processions. A HBC reader postulates, "This in my opinion suggests that shorts were part of the ‘Sunday best’ attire in times before." Attitudes toward shorts change in the early 20th century. One major influence were the youth groups that were becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe. Baden Powell had adopted shorts for the new Scout movement. Germany's Wandervogel also wore shorts--often cord shorts. Many Wandervogel boys also wore lederhosen. We do not notice knickers-length Lederhosen prominately in the historical record until the 1960s.
Lederhosen means leather pants, it means nothing about length. They are made in two basic lengths, short pants and below the knee knickers length. The knickers length not only extended below the knee, but had closures of some kind, such as buttons. Some shorts pants Lederhosen were quite long, but had no closures. While these are the two basic types of Lederhosen, the short pants type come in many different lerngths. Here there seem to be two factors involved. First was the popular fashions of the day. We notice knee-length Lederhosen in the 19th and early 20th century whern short pants were either not commonly worn or very long. We begin to see shorter cut Lederhosen in the 1930s when boys began to wear shoerter-cut shorts. This was much more the case in the 1940s. And in subsequent decades the length of Lederhosen followed the popular length in which other short pants were worn. The second factor is age. Lederhosen are not cheap. Mothers commonly brought a large size. The halters commonly worn with them could hold them up. They had a cuff like arrangment that could be turned down as the boy got taller. As Lederhosen were vurtually indestrutable, boys commonly wore them for years. Thus older boys with Lederhosen bought a few years earlier would be wearing pants much shorter than when they were first purchased.
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