Figure 1.--Here we see a boy with his little suister. He is wearing a sailor-style shorts set. She wears a pert dress with baloon sleeves. The children look to be about 5-7 years old. The sailor outfit has self-belted button on shorts. In this case the boy's outfit could be worn for both play and casual dess up occasions. The portrai is undated, but looks like the 1930s or early-40s.

After World War I it becomes more common to see play clothes advertized. We see both dressy and casual shorts. The dressy shorts were made in a heavier material. The play shorts were mostly cotton, wash shorts. These shorts were mostly sold in sets, because the shirt top had to be made to button on to the shorts. If you bought them separately the buttons might or might not fit just where the button holes were. Casual shorts were readily available in the 1930s. And some of the play suits, especially the sailor styles might do for many occassiins which formerly required more formal dress. For small boys short sleeve shirt and short pants sold as sets that looked coordinated were popular. This included button-on shorts and self-belted shorts. The self-belted shorts were at first mostly button-on shorts. A good example is a McCalls one-piece and two-piece shorts set in 1930. We have also archived short sets offered in varius catalogs during the 1920-40s. Beginning in the 1940s we begin to see shorts sets that were not button-on shorts. An example is Sears money savers in 1941. By the end of the decade the button-on sets are no longer very common.

Created: 9:15 PM 11/13/2013
Last updated: 9:15 PM 11/13/2013