Figure 1.--This German boy with bangs in the 1920s wears a sailor blue sailor suit with contrasting long white stckings for his first day at school. Also note the goodie cone and book and lunch satchel. The boy's bangs ad sailor suit, and perhaps his white stickings as well, suggest to us that this boy came from a prosperous middle-class family.

This German boy with bangs in the 1920s wears a sailor blue sailor suit with contrasting long white stckings for his first day at school. Also note the goodie cone and book and lunch satchel. The boy's bangs ad sailor suit, and perhaps his white stickings as well, suggest to us that this boy came from a prosperous middle-class family. A reader writes, "Two questions: (1) Aren't these stockings ribbed rather than flat weave? They look ribbed to me, but perhaps this is just an imperfection in the scanning? (2) Couldn't these stockings be beige rather than white? They seem to be darker than the white trim on the sailor suit. You may be correct in calling them white. I'm just inquiring, since beige is so much more usual for schoolboys in Germany than white." Our writer may be correct, the stockings may well be ribbed, although it is a bit difficult to tell. About the color of te sockings. I thought at first that they were white, but they do seem to be a little off color. They may well be beige, but if so they are certainly as very light shade of beige. The fact that they appear to be ribbed suggests tht they may be beige because I don';t believe I hsve ever see white ribbed stckings. He is also correct that white stockings do nt seem to have been very common for boys, although for some reason we do see German boys wearing white kneesocks.

Created: 7:14 PM 1/25/2007
Last updated: 7:14 PM 1/25/2007