Long Stocking Lengths: Variety--Long Length


Figure 1.--Here we see a Swedish boy wearing suspender shorts, long stockings, and school sandals. Note that the stockings here are well above the knee, but not long enough for the shorter-length shorts being worn. The photograph was taken in the summer of 1945 at a resort area on the Island of Gotland near Visby.

Long stockings began to be made substantially longer after World War I in the 1920s. Boys wearing them with short pants needed them to be made longer so they extended up beyond the hem of the boys' short pants. We note quite short pants and short skirts by the 1930s. Long stockings needed to be quite a bit longer to cover the legs. Knickers began to be made longer, but boys began to wear kneesocks with their knickers rather than long stockings.Sears catalog from the mid-1940s did not offer different lengths, only the longer length size. Sears in the mid-1940s mentioned some styles that were knit longer "... to cut down on strain at the knee". Long stockings declined substantially in many countries during the 1940s, but persisted in some European countries into the 1960s. The lengths we note in the 1940s-60s tended to be the longer-length stockings. Some were, however not long enough for the shorter-length shorts being worn.






HBC






Related Pages:
[Return to the main Main long stocking length variety page]
[Return to the main Main long stocking page]
[Knee socks] [White knee socks] [Long stockings]
[Striped socks] [White stockings] [Tights]



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Created: 6:38 PM 5/26/2005
Last updated: 6:38 PM 5/26/2005