Figure 1.--We have no information associated with this class portrait. The children look to be about 13-years old. Presumably this is the 8th grade in a big city 8-year elementary (primary) school. The photograph is undated, but we would gues was taken in he late-1930s, primrily because many of the boys are wearing long pants. Also notice the ankle socks rather than knee socks.

American boys still commonly wore knickers during the 1930s, but unlike the 1910s and 20s, the popularity varied sigbificantly during the decade. We notice photographs showing many boys wearing knickers during the decade. A good example is an air show about 1930. Most of the boys viewing the Ford tri-motor wear knickers. We would guess these boys are mostly from middle-class families. Knickers might nt have been quite so common among working-class boys. School portraits show they were common at school, although much more during the early-30s than the late part of the decade. We have archived numerous school scenes during the 1930s. Here one should not confuse prevalenmce with popularity. As best we can tell, knickers were not very popular with boys in the 30s. They were more popular than short pants, but most boys old enough to have strong preferences wanted to wear long pants. This is a little difficult to follow precisely because so much of the photographic recoris not dated. Generally the more long pants e see the lter in the decade the photograph was taken. There are, however, variations from family to family ad school to school. And along with fewer knickers we see more and more boys wearing ankle sovks with knickers by the end of the decade.

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: 3:33 PM 1/10/2018
Last edited: 3:33 PM 1/10/2018