Figure 1.--Boys wore different clor suits in the 1900s, blue, brown, and grey shadses were common--often with patterns. Whatever the color of the suits, boys still commonly wore black long stockings.

Black stockings dominated the 1900s almost totally. HBC's catalog pages for sailor suits, shirt waists, suit coats, dress-up suits, and other garments show American boys nearly always wearing black long stockings. There are numerous examples of this on HBC. We note boys dressed up in their best suit, such as the boy here (figure 1). This included boys of all social classes. We note boys from rich families as well as working class boys. We see New York City newsboys in 1905 wearing long black stockings. We also notice boys of all ages wearing black stockings. A Seargent painting in 1902 shows the young Knowles brothers with black stockings. Our earliest example of the Dr. Parker style garter waist (referred to in 1902 simply as a combination belt and supporters) shows both the boy and girl models wearing black long stockings. We note the Moon family wearing black long stockings in 1907, even though it is a warm summer day. Another example is William Dougherty about 1905. White was very popular for younger boys and often girls and younger boys wore white long stockings. We note, however, that even when wearing white outfits, black long stockings were not uncommonly worn. A good example is Richard Crown about 1908. We even see boys wearing black stockings with white band uniforms.

Created: 1:00 AM 4/14/2006
Last updated: 1:00 AM 4/14/2006