Figure 1.--These German boys, probably in the late 1940s, wear both long and short pants. The boy in shorts wears dark long stockings. Some of the other boys may also wear long stockings, but as they wear long pants, this is not known. Notice that the suspenders longs that the boys are wearing. These boys look to be about 6-8 uears old. A HBC reader notes that the stockings worn by the boy are lighter in color than his shorts. Maybe they are dark tan. By the 1940s, American boys were no longer commonly wearing shorts with long stickings, but the boys that did more commonly wore a light tan colored stockings--except for formal occassions.

HBC has noted that boys in several countries have worn long stockings with short pants. This was most common in northern countries (Europe, North America, and Asia) which have cold winter weather. It also occurred to a lesser extent in southern Europe where long stockings may have been used for dress occassions. This has varied chronologically and the pattern varies substntially country by country. Boys began wearing long stockings with short pants beginning in the 1910s when shorts began to be popular for boys. It was quite common in the years before World War II. Youger American boys until the 1940s might wear tights with short pants until the 1940s, primarily in the winter for warmth. This practice continued in some European countries until tights were introduced in the late 1950s and even later in Russia and Eastern Europe where tights appeared somewhat later. Agepatterns also varried among countries, but it was generally a style for younger boys--usually up to about 10 years of age, but we have noted boys as old as 11-13 wearing long stockings and shorts in some countries.

America

Hoisery styles changed after the turn of the century. White stockings appeared instead of just black or dark colored stockings. Short pants became increasiungly popular in the 1920s, especially in Europe. The early short pants came to the knee and during the 1910s were worn with both long stockings and knee socks. By the 1920s shorts began to be worn shorter and long stockings became much less common in Britain and America. The long stockings were still occasionally worn with shorts, especially during the winter in several European countries. Boys in much of Europe wore short pants even in the winter and the long stockings helped keep them warm in the copld winter. Long stockingds were also worn for formal occassions. A picture of the Kennedy family from about 1939 shows the family visiting the Pope in Rome. The youngest boy, Teddy, wears a short pants suit with long stockings. Apparently Rose though the long stockings were needed for the formal occasion. Shorts after the mid-1920s, however, in America and Britain were mostly worn with knee socks. Even inmerica, however. long stockings were still commonly available in the late 1940s.

Canada

Canadian boys have worn long stockings with both kneepants and knickers. Although less common, some younger boys wore them with short pants. Kneesocks appear to have been more common than long sdtockings, but long stockings were clearly worn with short pants. HBC believes this was more common with French-Canadian boys than with English-Canadian boys. Somee Canadian boys must also have worm long stockings with long pants--but this is more difficult to assess.

England

HBC has not noted English boys wearing long stockings after short pants and kneesocks became popular in the 1910s. The primary exception was that long stockings were sometimes worn for dress occassions like weddings. For such events they were usually white or black.

France

HBC has little information about French boys wearing long stockings with short pants. We do not think it was very common. There may have been some regional exceptions such as in Alscae where there is a strong German influence.

Germany

The most prominent country where long stockings were worn was Germany. A major factor was of course Germany's northern location and resulting cold climate. This was also in part because German boys mostly wore short pants all year round. Apparently German mothers were more concerned about their boys wearing short pants during the winter than British mothers. Photographs from the 1930s show entire classes of boys wearing shorts and long stockings during the winter months. The fashion continued in Germany after World War II although we have only limited informnation at this time as to how common it was. Preliminary reports suggest that long stockings were worn in the GFR (West Germany) through the 1950s. Tights appeared in the late 1950s and soon replaced long stockings. HBC believes that long stockings were also worn in the DDR and we believed were not relaced by tights until some years later.

Italy

HBC has no information available on the use of long stockings in Italy. HBC believes Italian boys wore long stockings, but as with many topics, HBC has virtually no information available on Italian boys clothing. Unfortunately HBC does not yet have an Italian contributor. We have noted some images of boys in the youth organization Balial wearing dark long stockings with their short pants uniforms.

Japan

We believe that long stockings were commonly worn during the winter by Japanese boys through the 1940s. HBC unfortunately has very limited information about pre-World War II Japan. Long stockings have sence been replaced by tights. We are not sure, however, just when this translation took place. In every country, long stockings were replaced by tights because they were so much more convenient and cumbersome stocking supporters were not needed. We know that tights proved popuoar in Japan, but at this time have very limited information on long stockings.

Korea

We believe that short pants were worn with long stickings in Korea, probably following the Japanese pattern.

Poland

Boys in Poland commonly wore short pants beginning in the 1920s. They generally wore them year round, even in the winter. It was common because many Polish boys wore short pants year round for some boys to wear long stockings with shorts during the colder weather. his continued even after World War II, although we do not know how common it was. We believe that some boys, probably in the 1970s also wore tights with shorts pants. Generally when tights became available, children stopped wearing long over-the-knee stockings.

Russia

Long stockings were initially worn with kneepans. When kneepants began to go out of style in the 1910s, boys began wearing long stockings with other pants. We have noted them being worn with short pants. We are less sure how common knickers were or to what extent they were worn with long stockings. We believe that to some extent long stockings were worn with ling trousers, but of course this is difficulkt to assess. Short panys were commonly worn with short pants in Germany and Poland. HBC had asumed that this would hav been less common, in Russia because of he climate. A Russian reader tells us that Russian boys also commonly ore short pnts with long stockings. It does seem that that shrt pants were less commoinly worn in Russia because of the relatively short summer and bitter winter weather.

Switzerland

HBC has limited information on Switzerland at this time. We believe that Swiss boys may have followed the prevailing pattern in Germany or France, depending on the area of Switzerland they lived in and their language afinity--but this requires further investigation. We have noted images of Catholic boys taking dressing up in short pants suits worn with long stockings for their First Communion.