Figure 1.--Knee pants were very common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. American boys usually wore them with long stockings. We do not see many bots wearing knee pants with socks unntil the1910s when they were going out of style.

We note American boys wearing long stockings with many different types of pants or trousers. Long stockings were widely worn in America for nearly a century, from about 1860-1940. They were very common for both boys and girls and worn with skirted garments as well. Long stockings were especially common with knee pants and bloomer knickers, but we also see them being worn with regular knickers and short pants. They were not very common with long trousers, but some bouys did wear long trousers and some of them may have wirn long stocking. here we are not entirely sure. While the photographic recor clearly shows boys wearing long stockings in shortened-length trousers, there is no way to tell for the boys wearing long trousers. The conventions in America were somewhat different than in Europe. We see many European boys wearing socks. While not unknown in America, long stockings were much more common even for very young boys. Almost all American boys in the late-19th century and early 20th century wore long stockings. The major exception was boys going barefoot during the summer. We see some American boys wearing socks dyring the summer in the early 20th century, but this was very rare in the 19th century.

Knee Pants

Boys in the late 19th century wore long stockings that went above the knee with knee length pants. By the 1870s most boys were wearing kneepants and they were almost always worn with long stockings. The stockings were mostly black in the late 19th century or some dark color. A fashion of horizontal striped stockings was fashionable in the 1860s-70s. Younger boys might go barefoot during the summer for play, but all boys wore long stockings when dressing up. The length of the stockings varied. Some were thigh high while others only came just over the knee. The longer stockings were held up by a suspender waists worn by the boys. Short pants were not worn until after the turn of the cenury. In the winter the long stockings helped keep them warm, but the boys also wore long stockings in the summer. Boys at the time did not wear shorts in summer and longs in winter. Instead they wore knee pants all year round.

Bloomer Knickers

Bloomer knickers were commonly worn by American boys beginning in the mid-19th century. Younger boys wore them with a variety of fancy suits. Almost all boys wore them with long stockings. We see boys wearing dresss with socks, but not suits and bloomer knickers. Often there are exceptions with such trends, but we can not recall one exception with hundreds of portraits we have archived. Knee pamts were more common by the late 19th century. At the turn of the 20th century we see boys commonly wearing tunics and bloomer knickes. Boys wearing bloomer knickers with tunic suits and other outfits commonly wore long stockings. Tunic suits were by far the principal outfit worn with bloomer knickers. They wre also worn with straight-leg knee pants, but bloomer knickers were much more common. A good example is the Hubbard brothers in 1917. Boys did not always wear long stockings with bloomer knickers. We also see boys wearing three-quarter socks, especially during the warm weather. Long stockings, however were very common, and were even worn during the summer by some boys. Long stockings were only in part seasonal. Conventions varied from family to family. Also formality was afactor. Thus long stockings were commonly worn for more formal occassions. We notice many European boys wearing bloomer knickers with socks, but this seems somewhat less common in America.

Figure 3.--Knickers in the 1910s and 20s often were made to be buckled above the knee. Older boys often preferred to rebuckle their knickers below the knee.

Knickers

Boys usually continued wearing wore dark stoclngs with the knickers that for the most part replaced kneepanrs during the 1910s. Knickers became increasingly popular and by the 1920s were increasingly worn with knee socks. Many knickers suits in the 1910s and 20s were made to be worn buckled above the knee. These knickers were mostly worn with long above the knee stockings, although some boys wore them with knee socks. Early in the 1920s, kneesocks relaced longstockings for boys wearing knickers.

Figure 4.--This American boy wears a short pants sailor suit with tan long stockings. The portrait looks to have been taken in the lae 20s or early 30s.

Short Pants

Hoisery styles changed after the turn of the century. White stockings appeared instead of just black or dark colored stockings. Short pants became increasiungly popular in the 1920s, especially in Europe. The early short pants came to the knee and during the 1910s were worn with both long stockings and knee socks. By the 1920s shorts began to be worn shorter and long stockings became much less common in Britain and America. The long stockings were still occasionally worn with shorts, especially during the winter in several European countries. Boys in much of Europe wore short pants even in the winter and the long stockings helped keep them warm in the copld winter. Long stockingds were also worn for formal occassions. A picture of the Kennedy family from about 1939 shows the family visiting the Pope in Rome. The youngest boy, Teddy, wears a short pants suit with long stockings. Apparently Rose though the long stockings were needed for the formal occasion. Shorts after the mid-1920s, however, in America and Britain were mostly worn with knee socks. Even inmerica, however. long stockings were still commonly available in the late 1940s.

Created: 12:50 AM 12/12/2007
Last updated: 12:50 AM 12/12/2007