Figure 1.-- This boy is unidentified, but looks to be from an affluent family. It looks to us like an Anerican boy during the 1930s, probably the early-30s. He has leather leggings that cover much of his shoes.

A Canadian reder tells us that Shirley Temple by popularising short skirts for little girls helped to revive leggings for a time. He writes, "This film icon brought a radical change in children's fashion. The main aspect beyond the curls was the lenght of dress for girls which probably affected the the lenght of short pants for younger boys as well. This presented a problem during the winter. The problem was how to keep little legs warm in winter. And Shirley almost always wore ankle socks. Long stockings were still worn at the time, but Shirley never wore them. Increasingly Ameeican began to see hose suspenders and long stockings as ugly and old fashioned. Shirley's dresses were often very short. This didn't make a difference in California or some regions located in south United States, bit in colder regions it was necessary to civerva child's legs, either with knee socks or long stockings. Knee socks were common in Britain where it rarely gets really cold. But in countries with colder climates (Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Poland, the Baltics, Russia, the northern United States, Canada, and Japan), long stockings were still worn. Another option was cloth or leather leather gaiters/leggings instead of long stockings. Children could wear them outside when the weather was bad. This was largely the children from well-to-do families." We are not sure just to what extent Shirley initiated as to followed on going fashion trends. It is, however, surly the case that anything Shirley wore, both her clothing and hair styles, becme enormously popular in America. Little curls commonly wore short skirts. Younger boys in the 1930s also began wearing shorter cut short pants. Some children wore long stockings, but never Shirley. This may have led to the declining importance of long stockings in America during the 30s. One alternative to long stockings was leggings. This may have also helped to popularize snowsuits. We also continue to see novely postcards in Europe showing winter scenes with children in leggings.

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Created: 8:47 PM 8/7/2010
Last updated: 8:47 PM 8/7/2010