Figure 1.--American boys in the early 20th century mostly wore knee pants and knickers, commonly with black long stockings. Click on the image for a fuller discussion. |
|
Black was an especially popular color in America for long stockings. This varied, however, chronolgically. They do not seem particularly common in the mid-19th century nor the mid-20th century. Black was, however, the most popular color of lock stockings in the late 19th. Some mothers chose stockings to match suit or dress colors, but gradually black stockings bece increasingly prevalet. This included dress, school, nd play outfits. They were almost universally worn at the turn of the 20th century. Many eary 20th century photographs of groups of children in and outside school show all or virtually all wearing black stockings. We see some children even wearing white outfits like white sailor suits with black long stockings. They were very commonly worn by both boys and girls. We are not sure why black stockings became so popular. It was color that boys did not object to as they did to white and that girls for soe reason did not see as dowdy.This began to change only after World War I. We still see black being commonly worn in the 20s, but by the 30s were mostly worn for formal occassions.
Related HBC 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. black long stocking color shade page]
[Return to the Main U.S. long stocking color shade page]
[Return to the Main U.S. long stocking color page]
[Return to the Main U.S. long stockings page]
[Return to the Main photo tininting page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]