Figure 1.--Here we see three unidentified English chikdrem They look to be about 8-13 years old. The boys wear sweaters styled like shirts. Notice how long thery are. Also notice that no buttons are visible, mean that they are pullover sweaters. A Rigby collar is possiblr. The portrait is undated, but we would estimate was taken in the late-1920s. The studio was Lewis Newman in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

We are not sure, however, how common sweaters were in the 19th century. As best ww can tell they did not exist as a consumer product. There were precursors. Knitted shirts/tunics appeared in Guernsey and Jersey (15th century). They were not They are not prominent in the photographic record, but that could be may be because mothers would children boys up in their best outfits for formal portraits. The modern sweater as we know it today was first adopted by athletes in America (1890s). These were youths and young men, not boys. As best we can tell the sweater became a major garment for children, especially boys, until the 20th century. Schools may have plated a role here because of the importance of athletics in British schools. And by the 1910s we begin to see boys wearing sweaters which were called jumpers for some reason. And the popularity quickly crossed the Atlantic--a still rare direction at the time. We do indeed see more images of boys wearing sweaters with the advent of amateur family photography and the snapshot after the turn-of-the 20th century. We note, for example, one unidentified boy photographed about 1905. Sweaters for young boys might have buttons at the shoulders to make it easier to help them dress and undress. After World War I (1914-18) their are countless images of English boys wearing sweaters. By the 1920s sweaters entered mainstream fashions. Some English boys during the 1920s began wearing sweaters, which tended to to be made longer than now, over their pants--usually short pants. Later the sweaters became shorter and were cut at the waist and even tucked inside the pants. The sweater was an important school garment, often dome in grey, perhaps with trim in the school colors. V-neck sweaters were popular to show the ties worn at schools.

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Created: 4:58 AM 10/12/2026
Last updated: 4:58 AM 10/12/2026