Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentified American brothers. They look to be about 5-9 years old. They are wearing idebntical double breasted suits with knickers. They also both wear bowties. Even their patterned long stockings were identical. We do not see patterned long stockings very commonly, although patterned knee socks were very popular. This portrait is undated. We would date into the 1920s, in part because of the furniture and backdrop. A HBC reader thought it could be cfom the early-30s. Our reader cinfirms, "They are definitely long stockings, but they do seem quite unusual. I suppose they could be hand knitted, but they look like commerical products to me." HBC agrees. We doubt that mithers who bought rather elegant suits like this wouls knit stockings at home, but there is no way to be sure.

Long stockings continued to be very commonly worn in the 1920s. And there was a major change. We begin to see children wear long stockings in tan or beige shades. After the mid-20s, black and white became more of a color for formal wear. We think the fashion trend at play here was that it was becoming acceptable for children to wear short pants and skirts with bare legs. Tan and beige which were more like flesh tones mirrored this trend. Patterened long stockings were not part of this major hosiery shift. We see some American children, mostly boys. wearing long stockings in varied patterns during the 1920s, we think the late-1920s but here we can not yet be definitive. We have very few dated examples. It is clear that patterned long stockings were not very common. Or at least they do not seem to have been very widely worn. While we have found few examples of children wearing these stockings, but if the boys were wearing knickers it is sometimes very difficult to tell. This is rather curious and we are not sure what was behind the fashion fluctuatigons. The chronological trends are marked. We do not see patterened hosiery to any extent until the late-1920s. We see patterned lon stockings in mail order catalogs, but mostly in the late-1920s. This seems to follow our general assessment from the photographic record. We do not commonly see the stripes worn in the 19th century, but there were stripes among the patterns. . Rather we see many varied patterns. A good example are long stockings offered by Sears in 1928. Notice that Sears uses the term 'noveklty' suggesting that were in facr somrthing new and different. We also see argyle patterns. The appearance of patterned long stockings seems to mirror the appearance of patterned knee socks, presumably part of the samne fashion trend.

Created: 6:08 PM 11/15/2010
Last updated: 6:08 PM 11/15/2010