Figure 1.--This photograph with an American boy and his sister appears to have been taken in the 1870s wears horizontal stripped stockings with a white party dress. He appears to be holding a cane, although it is a very small size--perhaps it is something else. Click on the image for a discussion concerning the signicance of the cane.

Most American boys still in dresses appear to have worn them with solid-colored stokings. White was common and in the 19th century boys commonly changed to darker colored stickings when they were breeched. There were some boys, however, who wore their dresses with long stripped stockings. While HBC has only limited informatiion at this time, we believe that this was a minority of boys in dresses who wore the stripped stockings. As with the stripped stocking style itself, this appears to have been most popular from the late 1860s to the 1880s. Stripeed stockings with dresses or kneepants are much less common in the 1890s. I'm not sure if there were genfer connotations. Girls did wear stripped stockings, but I don't think it was a common as with the boys. This may have been different for the young boys still in dresses and girls of a comparable age. More reserch is needed here. This appears to have been especially popular in America. French boys in dresses more commonly wore three-quarter length socks.