Figure 1.--Here an unidentified German boy and girl are waklking down a raolroad line in 1968. Note the girl wears pants, that was something thart was not common, even in the 1950s. Bith children wear tights with short pants. Tights replaced long stockings in the 1960s. The boy wears patterned tights, the girl plain black tights.

After World War II some boys appeared to have begun wearing tights rather than long stockings, which were no longer worn. HBC has, however, little information on this. A HBC contributor notes that he has found no proof that tights were in general use during the immediate post-war years. He reports that the first tights that he has had noted were produced in Germany during 1949. Production was, however, limited to that year. There was still little demand for tights in Germany. Significant production did not begin for another 10 years. The time apparently wasn´t yet right for introducing this „new“ article to the market. Suddently in 1959 most of all manufactureres of hosiery added tights to their production. HBC is not sure why production began at this time. Tights were being produced for girls in America with new synthetiv fisbers. These new fibers may have been the key factor in Germany. Our German source reports that was in part a matter of the elastic material needed for producing them by machine. The key development was a fabric called "helanca", which was introduced around 1955 and which was used first to make elastic stockings, later tights. The first tights were children's tights. The same style and colors were worn by both and girls. It was end of uncomfortable long stockings, which had been worn up to this time generally worn by girls and boys. Boys even wore long stockings under short pants which were still widely worn by German boys during the 1950s and 60s. These had been fixed on special shirts worn over underwear. Around 1965 first boy´s tights appeared - which had a fly in front, in general use they came from around 1968/69. They goes pretty well with the fashion of wearing knee-length leather trousers in Germany. At that time they had the advantage that they could not slip down like knee- or over the knee long stockings. A HBC contributor reports that, "It was the time I was growing up and I wore these tights myself. A lot of boys wore them at this time. Often they were very colourful to go with the knickers and patterned right over the knees or had been cable knitted. The material was wool with elastic fabrics. Also you could find boystights with zipper in front, but tights with a fly were more common and more comfortable. Younger boys were often dressed in tights with short pants or lederhosen. This was a continuation of earlier practices of having boys wear long stockings with short pants during the winter.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Cloth and textiles] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 10:23 PM 9/5/2010
Last updated: 10:23 PM 9/5/2010