U.S. Long Stockings: Color Chronology--the 19th Century


Figure 1.--This inexpensive tintype photograph shows an American boy probably in the 1870s. He wears striped stockings with a dress. Unfortunately because of the blavk and white photography of the day we do not know what color they were, but they were clearly not black. Note thsat mother appears to have cuffed the stockings at the knee. Pants and skirts were wornnast lengths wekk below the knee. Thus long stockings did not have to be very long.

Our history of the changing color preference in American long stockings really becomes detailed in the 1890s. For periods before this our information is more spotty. In the 19th century we find children wearing various shades of long stockings--white, dark, and patterned (especially striped in the latter category). But by the 1890s when knee pants became the standard wear for boys from about 5 or 6 to about 17 or 18, black long stockings became nearly universal. Other colors were occasionally seen, but black was the standard color and is shown in almost all illustrations of boys' clothing.

Early 19th Century

Boys in the early 19th century wore mostly long pants. This included both fashionable boys wearing skeleton suits and boys from more modest inmcome families. We do not think long stockings were common in thius era. Many poor boys of course wore no stockings at all.

The 1850s

Younger boys in the 1850s began wearing juvenile suits with bloomer knickers and long stockings in the 1850s. We are not yet sure about the color of the long stockings.

The 1860s

We note younger boys, primarily in the cities, beginning to wear kneepants in the 1860s. They were generally cut long to calf level. We are not yet sure as to the color of loing stockings. Given the long-length of the kneepants, the stockings did not have to be very long. We are not sure as to the color. We note some striped stocvklings. We also notice lot of younger children wearing white stockings. A good example is an unidentified Boston boy. We notice boys wearing long stockings with dresses and pantalettes. An example is the Haight children. (They are English, but are one of the few colorized images we have from the period.) We are not sure when the portrait was taken, but would guess the 1860s or early 70s. A colorized portrait shows one of the boys wearing light blue patterened long stockings. We are not possitive about the accuracy of these colorized images, but suspect they are a reasonable indication.

The 1870s

Assessing long stocking colors is difficult in the 1870s. The black and white photography provides few clues and clothing catalogs which often specify colors are not common. We notice younger boys wearing white stockings with dresses, especially white long stockings. Kneepants and long stockings became increasingly popular in the 1870s. We note both dark colored stockings and striped stockings. We are not sure about the actual colors of the striped socks or the age and color conventions. The black stockings that were common later are not nearly as common in the 1870s. Note for example an Ohio boy in the late 1860s or 1870s who wears light-colored long stockings with stripes. We note one fashion magazine in 1878 showing a boy wearing light-colored stiockings.

The 1880s

We note both striped stockings and solid-colored stockings in the 1880s. We mostly see the striped stockings in the 1870s and ealy-80s. We believe that most stockings were done in muted colors, primarily because these were the colors of boys' suits. A good example is Carl Schrader in 1885. There are some indications, however, that stockings were also done in colors like red and blue. A good example is a Steinwandle Shoes advertisement showing dark red and blue long stockings. We are not sure, however, how common such colors were. It is difficult to assess color in old photographs, but it seems to us that often stockings matched the suits rather than being black. While we can not tell about the color, it often is possible to tell if the stockings were black. And some portraits show stockings that are notibly lighter than what we would expect if the stockings were black. A good exmple is two unidentified brothers vacatoning in Provincetown (1885). Black was very common at the turn of the 20th century, but this seems to be much less the case in the 1880s. We first seeblavk long stockings being ommnly worn with Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. A good example is Ralph Hunter Cummins (1883). Another example are the Agnew children in the 1880s. It is difficult to assess color in mny of these old portraits, but the stockings seem to match the suit rather than being black. Also note the baby has dark stockings rather than white to match the dress. Some colorized items show that boys wore stockings that matched their suits. A good example is an unidentified boy, probably in the 1880s.

The 1890s

Black long stockings were the standard hosiery for American boys in the 1890s. They were common for girls as well. Many portraits from the 1890s show children wearing black long stockings. This included boys of all ages wearing all kinds of different outfits. A good example of a younger boy is the Sanborn boy wearing a Fauntleroy suit about 1890. It is difficult to be entirely sure that the stockings are black rather than dark colors such as brown. Here fading with washing is a problem, although one would guess that mother would set out a rather new pair of stockings for a portrait. Adding to the complications here is that many images archived on HBC are not dated. We can roughly assess the date of a portrait, but this is of course not as good as an actual confirmed date. A good example here are two Indianapolis brothers who we believed had their portraits taken in the 1890s. HBC's catalog pages for this decade show only black stockings being worn by boys with knee pants. This includes sailor suits, Faunterloy suits, and various other garments as well. Black long stockings might even be worn with white outfits such as sailor suits. We note the Lowe brothers who we believed had their portrait taken in 1893 wearing light-colored sailor suits with black long stockings. We note an 1897 advertisement for stocking supporters shows the models wearing only black long stockings. Whie black was the most common color for long stockings, it was not the only color. We notice the oldest Whitney boy, for example, wearing a different color od stockings. He is the boy on the left and he wears stockings that are not the standard black--apparently brown or dark tan. We can't identify the color with certainty because of the black abd white photogeaphy of the day.








HBC






Related Hosiery Pages:
[Return to the main Hoisery page]
[Knee socks] [White knee socks] [Long stockings]
[Striped socks] [White stockings] [Tights]



Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main U.S. long stocking color chronology page]
[Return to the Main U.S. long stockings page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]




Created: 12:10 AM 12/24/2004
Last updated: 5:15 PM 9/3/2016