Figure 1.--

Short pants are basically a 20th century phenomenon. We see knee pants in the 19th century, but they were very long, at first well below the knee. We do not see short pants in America until the 20th century. And they did not have the corative knee hem buttons. Thus we do not see suspender shorts until the 20th century, primarily the 1920s. We do not other forms of suspender pants as well. Boys most commonly wore button on pants in the lart-19th and early 20th century. They buttoned on to blouses, waists, or stocking supporters. We do see older boys and adult wearing suspenders, but not suspender pants, meaning attached not elaruvized straps. We are not entirely sure about the chronology yet, especially the 1910s. We definitely see American boys wearing suspender pants in the 1920s. Suspender pants were worn through the 1950s. This began to change in the 1950s, however, as play shorts with eleastisized waists became popular. Suspender shprts declined througout the rest of the century. But were still done for short pants suits won by younger boy--mostly the junior Eton suits. They were also done to be worn with blouses for dressy occassions, but this was for biys from well-to-do families and primrily special occassions, not everyday wear.

The 1920s

Short pants emerged as an important style for younger boys in the 1920s, not nearly as imoprtant as in Europe, but an important pants type, especially for younger boys. Knickers were muvh more common, especially for school age bots (beyond abour 3rd grade), but shorts were commonly worn by youngerr boys, shots and knickers to a substantial degree replaced the knee pants that has dominated boyswear for decades. We have not noted many American boys comonly wearing suspender shorts in the 1920s. We do note boys wearing suspenders, but not shorts pants with attached suspender straps in the same material as the pants as were wore in Europe. We have found a pair of vintage suspender pants that look to have been worn in the 1920s, but we cannot confirm the date. We think the 1920s was likely. One complication are the junior Eton suits that appeared in the 1920s. We believe that many of these suits were made with suspender shorts, nut as the photographs usually show the boys wearing their jackets. This is impossible to determin.

Figure 3.-- This portrait of an unidentified American boy is undated, but we suspect it was taken in the 1930s. We believe it was part of a suit, partly because of the material, but here he is not wearing the jacket. Notice that the straps button on the inside of the waistline. There also appear to be belt loops for mothers that wanted to introduce a belt.

The 1930s

We begin to see more suspender shorts in America during the 1930s. This was because short pants were more common and casual clothing were becoming more widely worn. We see more images of boys not wearing suit jackets even whn dressing up. We think many of the boys wearing suspender shorts were wearing the pants that came with junior Eton suits, but without the jackets. Otherwise they were were not one of the more popular style of shorts. Some boys in the 1930s also wore standard short pants suits. These shorts were not normally susspender shorts while the Junior Eton suit pants commonly were. We are not sure to what extent suspender shorts were sold separately. The suspender shorts are usully the most dressy shorts a boy were because they commonly came from a suit. As a result the immages in the photographic record shows the boys wearing them mostly in formal or smart casual occassions where nice clothes were expected. These sets became an American castalog fixture. We do see short sets (colsred shirts and shortsin coordinated ciolors) which were not for dressy occassionm but xuitvl fir dor smt casyal wear. We see quite a few younger boys wearing suspender shorts in the 1930s, not as commonly in Europe, but they were not rare. Most of the images show them being worn by pre-school and younger primary school boys. They were commonly worn by younger boys for dressy occsions. They were less common for outdoor play. As far as we can tell the boys we see wearing suspender shorts in the 1930s are wearing proper suspernder shorts (meaning susoender straps in the came material as the shorts) and not the clip on susperbders that appeared in the 1940s.

Figure 4.--This boy in nice back yard wera Worlf Wr II hlmey almost certainly dating the smapshot to the 1940s. Notice how he is dressed up with a bowtie and white shirt. American boys wearing suspendershoryts are vcommonly dressed up.

The 1940s

The 1940s began with the War years in Europe and then then the Jaonese carrier attck brought the United States into the War. This mnt the end of the Dpression with the economy went from high employment to a labor shortage. Consumers for the first time in decade were flush with cash, although after Pearl Harbor the economy was mobilized for war meaning consumer products were no longer widely avilable as American became the gret Arsenl of Democracy. This would not change until V-J Day ending the the War (September 1945), Aswith Workd War I, World War II meant an increasing trend toward informality. And we see fwer boys wearing suspnder shots in par because fwer boys were dressing up in suits. this was a trend we begn seeing in World War I and was inceasingly apparent in the 1949s in part because of World War II. For the first time we begin seeing boys wearing upender shorts with casual xhirts like T-shirts. Quite a numbr if images shows boys plyin in suspender shorts. This may be beaise susprnder shorts were being bouugt as part of shirt sets shich were common in mail order catalogs. These were done as both nutton-on and supebder outfits. Button-on styling seems to have been more important than suspender styling. A Sears catalog in 1941, shows only one pair of suspender shorts among quite a number of shirts and long sets. A reader writes, "I think that suspender shorts gained their greatest popularity a few years after the 1941 example mentioned here. You see them most in the early postwar years, up to the early 1950s. Perhaps they shared some of the zoot suit zeitgeist. (Say "zoot suit zeitgeist" three times fast, and try to keep a straight face.) The thing is that by then shorts were definitely considered little-boys' wear, so suspender shorts were reserved for toddlers. Very different from the situation in Europe." We also see suspender shorts worn for dressy ovvasion and smart casual wear. This was was the standard convention in earlier decades. A good example is the boy here wearing whzt looks like the short pnys fora jui=nior Eton suit (figure 4). He is in his backyrd, but clearly not dressed for ply despite the hobby horse and helmet. Another good example is two brothers dressed up for Christmas in 1940. Again they look like the shorts for junior Eton shorts that many boys wore.

The 1950s

Suspender shorts were sill worn to some extent in the early 50s, but they were much less common than in the 1940s. We primarily see them with dress shots for youngerboys, such as the ones worn with Eton suits. They do not show up very prominatly in the photographic record because they are covered by the suit jacket. Shorts with suspenders of the same material as the the shorts were still worn. The suspenders were attached to the shorts or buttoned on. These were generally dressier shorts rather than the ones for play in which case elasticized boxer waists became common. The suspender shirts became less common during the decade, probably because dressy shorts were less commonly worn. A HBC reader writes, "I don't think that suspender shorts were very common in America during the 1950s. I've looked at a lot of school pictures and family snapshots on the web, and the last examples of suspender shorts worn as an item of daily wear by a boy above toddlerhood was in the late 40s in a first or second grade class in Florida. I didn't wear them beyond the age of 2, and my New Jersey cousins last wore them at 3 or 4 when gussied up for a Christmas photo. Clearly they had become a nostalgia item that mother inflicted on boys too young to object when they wanted to make them look precious. The fact that Dennis the Menace's friend Joey wore them was an anachronism that more reflected 40s styles than 50s styles, much the same as Dennis the Menace's overalls." I think our reader is correct except for dressy wear. A good example is the Gabriel family in 1958. The younger boy wears the shorts probably for an Eton suit, but without the jacket. Another reader writes, "I grew up in the 1940s-50s and I don't recall suspender shorts, perhaps I was too young. I do vaguely recall clip on suspenders, but no longer recall just when I wore them."

The 1960s

Short pants declined in popularity during the 1950s, except for younger boys. This was especilly the case when dressing up. We believe that most of the shorts worn with junior Eton suits were suspender shorts. Here it as little difficult to be sure as the boys in available images usually thave their jackets on, thus covering up the suspender straps. We think hat most suspender shorts in 1960s were worn as part of suits. We do see some casual suspender shorts. Most casual shorts for younger boys, however, were boxrs with elaticized waistbands. A matter of convenience for both moms and boys. Most boys don't like to fuss with clothes, so the elasticiaed waists were what they liked to wear. They were east to slip on and off. And even at a very early age hey could put them on. We begin to see shorts in bright colors. This was most common for boxers, but we also see casual suspender shorts done in bright colors. We see short pants becoming more popular by the end of the decade, but mostly casual and play horts. These were not normally done as suspender shorts.

Figure 5.--Here we seww a boy wearing red suspende shorts for a visit to a fair and a carosel ride. This could have been taken in the late-1960s, but color photography was more common in the 70s.

The 1970s

The trend for casual clothing continued in the 1970s, even accelerating. We see a lot fewer boys wearing suits. We continue to see some younger boys wearing junior Eton shorts, mostly with short pants. We see the occassionals becoming increasingly limited as fewwe boys were dressed up in suits for fewer occassions. There is no way of telling with most photographs, but we think that the shorts were mostly suspender shorts. We also see casual suspender shorts, not as commonly as boxers with elasticised waists, but we do see some. And like boxers, they could be done in bright colors like boxers which were more common. These of course were not worn with cuits so we know along with the activity depicted that ghey were casual or play shorts.

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Created: 3:30 PM 1/31/2017
Last updated: 4:06 PM 1/31/2017