Figure 1.--The children here unidentified, but look to be bour 3-7 uears old. The children are all done ip in wshite, includinbg fancy white Fauntldroy blouses for the boys and a drss fio the girl. All three have white long stockings. The mount helps date th portraot to the 1900s decade. .

Boys wore long pants in the early-19th century. In fact long pantys skeletin suits wre the first mle long trousrs--but only worn by boys. There was no need for long stockings. This changed at mid-century when shortend length pants appeared, at first for younger boys. At first we mostly see younger boys (1850s-60). This changed as gradually black and other dark colors became standard (1870s). Little boys still in dresses might wear white stockings, but not older boys wearing Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits, and rgular suits.We se boys wearing white stockings in the early-70s, but not by the end of the decade. This continued for two decades as older boys began wearing mostly knee pants with dark long stockings (1880s-90s). Knee pants became basically universal for boys and were wornm with long stockings. Even boys in kilts did not wear white stockings. Even during the summer when boys wore light-weight white sailor suits, they were worn with dark stockings, never white long stockings. Knee pants and long stockings were somewhart less common in rural areas and among working-class children, but they were nearly universal in the cities. There were a variety of colors, but by far black was the most common. Navy blue may have also been worn, but it is impossible to differentiate between the two in the photographic record. One interesting fashion obsrvation is that boys did not commonly wear white long stockings when they became popular again round the turn-of-the 20th century. The exception here was youngr boys until about 8 years of age, a few years into ekementary (primary) school. White was not standard. As yoiu can see here, most boys wore black or other dark long stockings (figire 1). But we do see some youngr boys being dressing up with white long stockngs, often with all white outfits (1900s-10s). This might include the shoes. Many of the all white garmnts were tunic suits garment popular in the early-20th century, but also worn withfancy white Fauntleroy blouses.

Created: 12:28 AM 2/24/2022
Last updated: 12:28 AM 2/24/2022