Figure 1.--Here we see the children at a rural school in Oregon aboiut 1010. The boys were in a city school mwould be wearing jnickers, but in rural schools we rarely see knickers.

Age was not the only factor affecting who wore knickers. Demographics were another factor. Rural areas were still largely isolated from natioinal life, including fashion. Knee pants and knickers were never as common in rural areas as in the city. This comes out very clearly in the school of the late-19th and early-20th century. A factor here is that overalls became commin at about the same time that boys changed from knee pants to knickers. Overalls were not widely worn by boys in the 1900s, but were widely worn by rural boys in the 1910s. So we see many boys coming to school in overalls, especially the younger boys. But very few of the rural boys not wearing overalls wore knickers to school. We see knickers in small town schools where some rural boys living close to town attended. But they are very rare in the one- and two-room schools located in rural areas. This would be the last decade of major rural isolation, in part because of of the automobile. There were decoded nut declkinng differences in the inter-war years, but by the 1930s, states began closing small rural schools and there were no longer major differences by the 1940s in how children dressed.

Navigate the Historic Boys ' Clothing Web chronol ogical pages:
[The 1900s] [The 1910s] [The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Jackets] [Long pants suits] [Blazers] [Kilts] [S ailor suits] [Short pants suits]
[Ring bearer/page costumes] [Eton suits]

Created: 1:39 AM 10/30/2020
Last edited: 1:40 AM 10/30/2020