Long Stockings Worn with Short Pants


Figure 1.--This is an American Second Grade class photographed in 1933. The children would have been about 7 years old. Most of the boys are wearing short pants. One boy wears knickers.

Wearing long stockings with short pants is not a commonly known style. There are not a lot of historical photographs showing boys wearing shorts with long stockings. There are enough images, however, to demonstrate that it was an established convention during the winter or for formal events.

Chronology

Long stockings appeared in the 19th century and in the later half of the century commonly worn with short pants. Shorts did not appear as boys wear until the 1900s and did not begin to be widely worn until the 1910s. At first they were mostly worn with kneesocks. Hoswever from the beginning, younger boys wore them with long stockings during the winter. Shorts after the mid-1920s, however, in America and Britain were mostly worn with knee socks. Even in America, however, long stockings were still commonly available in the late 1940s. HBC is unsure how commonly long stockings were worn with shorts. The last photograph HBC has of a boy wearing long stockinfs with shorts is dated 1933. Long stockings may have been occsionally worn with shorts even into the 1940s. HBC knows that long stockings were sold in America during the 1940s. What is not known is if boys wore them with short pants. Clothing catalogs from the 1940s show them being worn with shorts, but this mat be because the stockings are better dusplayed with the boy in shorts as the stockings would obviously be covered if the boy was wearing long pants.

Styles

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.


Figure 2.--This boy wears long stockings with shorts. You can see both the lock stocvkings and the stocking supporter. Most of the other boys in shorts wear kneesocks.

Garments

HBC has only limited information on the clothes worn with long stockings. While we have been unable to find much written information, an examination of available images, however, offers some information. We hvee noted boys often earing suits. The ones we have noted have primarily been single breadsted suits. Yonger boys also wore them to school in a variety of short pants outfits, such as sailor suits or white shirts and ties. We have noted fewer photographs of boys in play shorts. This may have been in part the seasonality of long stockings. Mothers were more likely to insist on long stockings when boys were least likely to be wearing shorts for outdoors play. ome boys still worn short pants all year round in the 1920s, but this was becoming less common in the 1930s--especially in America.

Conventions

Long stockings appear to have been worn with short pants primarily for two reasons, warmth or formality.

Warmth

It may sound strange wearing long stockings with short pants for warmth. Short pants today are generally seen as casual summer wear. This was not the case in the first half of the 20th century. Shorts were then seen as boys' wear--whatever the season. Thus the long stockings were added to keep boys wearing shorts warm in the cold weather. Boys in much of Europe wore short pants even in the winter and the long stockings helped keep them warm in the cold winter. Knee socks were much more common, but long stockings were also worn.

Formality

Long stockings were also worn for formal occassions. They were seen as a style of formal dress, worn for particularly important occasions. 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. Apparentlty some mothers thought long stckings more appropriate for formal wear. Thus Rose Kenny dressed Teddy (1932- ) in long stockings with his short pants suit when they went to Vatican City to see the Pope.

Color

Most boys wearing long stockings with short pants wore light-colored tan or light-brown stockings. Actually black stockings had been the most common when long stockings were more commonly worn in the late 19th and early 20th century, but at the time boys mostly wore kneepants and knickers. When short pants became more common after World War I (1914-18) the tan and brown long stockings had become very common. Ther was one exception to this, for formal events black or white stockings might be worn.

Country Trends

HBC has noted that boys in several countries have worn long stockings with short pants. This was most common in northern countries (Europe, North America, and Asia) which have cold winter weather. It also occurred to a lesser extent in southern Europe where long stockings may have been used for dress occassions. This has varied chronologically and the pattern varies substntially country by country. Boys began wearing long stockings with short pants beginning in the 1910s when shorts began to be popular for boys. It was quite common in the years before World War II. Youger American boys until the 1940s might wear tights with short pants until the 1940s, primarily in the winter for warmth. This practice continued in some European countries until tights were introduced in the late 1950s and even later in Russia and Eastern Europe where tights appeared somewhat later. Agepatterns also varried among cointries, but it was generally a style for younger boys--usually up to about 10 years of age, but we have noted boys as old as 11-13 wearing long stockings and shorts in some countries.

Individual Boys

We will post here someindividuals whose clothes had been alaized in detail.

American brothers: About 1925

Ted Kennedy: 1939








HBC






Related Pages:
[Return to the Main long stockings page] [Return to the Main hoisery page]
[Knee socks] [White knee socks] [Striped socks] [White stockings] [Tights]




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Created: February 25, 2000
Last updated: September 20, 2003