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We have more frequently seen in Germany and Eastern Europe, We believe that this was a primarily German style that spread into Eastern Eyrope. It may have been originally inspired by Bavarian lederhosen and halters. While lederhosen were a regional style, H-bar shorts seem more widely worn throughout Germany. HBC has noted French boy wearing them and a major French retailer offered them in 2002. The modern French clothes involved seem to have been more botique fassioins than mass-market clothing. While American boys wore suspender
shorts, we have not noted then commonly wearing H-bar shorts. We have also not noted them in Britain. There are a numerous images of H-bar shorts archived on HBC. We will grdually link those images here.
We have not noted H-bar shorts being commonly worn in America.
We have noted Belgium boys wearing a kind of H-bar romper beachwear in 1952.
H-bar shorts are essentially a type of suspender shorts with a cross strap added to keep the suspender straps from slipping over the the shoulders. Like suspender shorts, we see fewer examples in England than in Continental countries, especially Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. Like suspender shorts, the purpose was to help younger boys wiuth narrow waists hold up their pants children. Whike we do not see many, like suspender shorts we do see some examples. After World War II both H-bar and suspender shorts began to go out of style. This was in part beczuse elaticized boxer shorts appeared. Suspender shorts continued to be made for younger boys' suits, but H-har shorts largedly disappeared.
We notice Finnish boys wearing H0bar short pants in the 1950s. We do not know how common this style was in Finland.
H-bar suspender shorts were being sold on-line in France during 2002 by Cyrillus. The shorts are made in sizes for boys 2 to 10 years old, but the suspenders are only included up to age 6. Cyrillus is owned by the same company as La Redoute, but is pitched a little more upscale. The ad reads was for "CULOTTE ANGLAISE" (English shorts), "100 % coton. A revers et � pinces. Ceinture � passants, avec
�lastique r�glable au dos. 2 poches biais. Bretelles en H jusqu'au 6 ans." This would translate as "100 % cotton. With cuffs ("revers" in French means lapels on a jacket and cuffs on trousers) and grips. Belt with loops, with adjustable elastic band with the 2 oblique back pockets. ("Poches biais" are pockets that are sewn on
obliquely or the fabric of which has a pattern that is
set at an angle with the rest of the garment.) H straps until the 6 years."
We have more frequently seen in Germany and Eastern Europe, We believe that this was a primarily German style that spread into Eastern Eyrope. It may have been originally inspired by Bavarian lederhosen and halters. While lederhosen were a regional style, H-bar shorts seem more widely worn throughout Germany. We notice quite a number of German boys wearing H-bar shorts. This style seems more popular in Germany than any other countries. Here we are not speaking of lederhosen, a kind of H-bar shorts. We are speaking of cloth shorts with the H-bar suspender straps. Several images of German boys weaing H-bar shorts are archived on HBC. We notice younger German boys in a Christmas image wearing H-bar shorts. A good example is the Herbert Heim family in 1939 with all the three boys wearing identical outfit. Another example at about the same time is Hans. We are precisely sure why H-bar shorts wereso popular in Germany. We wonder if it was because they looked like Lederhosen halters. Or is it because they more pratical than suspender shorts
without the cross bar. The straps of regular suspender shorts often fell off the shoulders. The cross bar held them securely in place.
We note some Dutch boys wearing H-bar shorts, but far fewer than in Germany. We note many similarities over time between Dutch boys' clothing and German styles. The popularity of H-bar shorts appears to be a significant difference. The Dutch sometimes call them Tyrol-shorts, presumably because of their similarity to lederhosen. With German images it is often difficult to tell if a boy is wearing Lederhosen with H-bar haltars. We believe that this was quite rare in the Netherlands. Many of the images we have noted show younger pre-school boys wearing them. We have, however, also noted some boys in primary schools wearing them. Here we do not note many boys at school wearing them, but we have seen some. One example is a public school in 1963.
Here we see kindergartners from an ethnic German school in a Romanian
town whose German name is Zeidenn during 1930 (figure 1). The Romanian name is Codlea, and theungarian name is Feketehalom. Place names can be tricky in that part of the world. Severa of the boys wear H-bar shorts. We also notice boys wearing suspender shorts and plain suspenders. We are not sure to what extent Romanian children also wore H-bar shorts.
A Swedish reader tells us, "I do remember these H-bar shorts from my childhood, but I can�t say they were very popular here in Sweden."
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