Stocking Supporters: American Boy Personal Experience (1930s)


Figure 1.--.

HBC has a number of pages about the stocking supporters that boys wore to hold up long stockings. Most of these pages describe the advertisements and catalog offerings and ionclude information about age and construction. HBC has very few pages describing what boys wearing these gsarments actually thought abour these suporters. I wore long stockings as a boy and do have some recollections about the stocking supporters I wore to keep them up. Here are some random thoughts and imperfect memories as I was of course quite young. Modern readers may find some details on the process for attaching supporters to a waist with the safety-pin top and adjusting the buckle on the elastic strap.

Charles

I am particularly fascinated by HBC's treatment, both foreign and domestic, of the subject of boys wearing long stockings with hose supporters. I hope I can make a minor contribution to your information on this topic based on my boyhood experiences and subsequent study and perhaps correct a few misconceptions. When mentioning specific HBC web pages, I give the precise references in a series of footnotes at the end of this letter.

Supporter Types

I wore underwaists until I was about 9 or 10 years old. A model shown in a HBC page about Ward's underwaists with shoulder buttons, made of jean cloth, looks familiar to me, but I don't have much memory about it. I remember the garter waists at a slightly later stage of my boyhood somewhat better. A 1929 Sears waist is a style I also recall. The "skeleton waist" (the final one in the top row), is referred to on my personal experience page. I recall now that I wore at least two styles--the kind with the button shoulder, already mentioned, and the skeleton waist, cut more athletically with large arm holes and cooler and lighter in weight than the other one. The skeleton waist was better, I think, for warmer weather. My recollection is that the skeleton waist was the style boys liked best, however, for all seasons of the year.

Getting Dressed

I think I can vaguely recall my mother helping me get dressed in an underwaist that had just been laundered and to which she helped me attach and adjust new hose supporters, probably because the old ones had worn out. It was a question of not jagging one's fingers on the safety pins as they were being fastened to the pin tubes or metal eyelets of the waist.

Adjusting Lengths

I can remember, I think, that the new supporters in one instance were too long to hold the stockings up tautly enough, and that she had to shorten them by adjusting the buckles in exactly the way that men adjust the buckles on suspenders. The adjustment of the length of the supporters was an issue because if the supporters were too short, the stockings would be uncomfortably tight and you would feel constricted. But if the supporters were too long, they wouldn't hold the stockings up smoothly and a boy's legs would look sloppy and wrinkled. So the adjustment had to be just right--tight enough to look good but not so tight as to restrict movement or be uncomfortable for active movement. Of course once the buckle had been properly adjusted for the correct length, there was no further problem. But with use the stretchiness of the garters got a bit slack, and one might have to tighten up the supporters a bit. However, I think that in my childhood when the stretchiness gave out, my mother just bought a new pair of supporters. They were after all not very expensive, and mothers with several children in the family tended to buy them in multiple pairs (maybe half a dozen pairs at a time).

Hickory Supporters

one of the best known stocking supportewrs were the Hickory supporters. They were known for a strong and unbreakable pin. Quite a number of garments existed to help children hold up their pants/skirts and long stockings. The variety and prominance of these garments in period catalogs and advertiing is a good indicator as to just how important they were in 1921. We note this to be the case throughout the 1920s. Many were mixed support garments and underwear. Waists suits were the standard underwear for children in 1921 as long stockings were still common. Styles varies somewhat. Sleeves and leg length varied seasonally. Most boys wore short pants, kneepants, and knickers so except for boys living in the most northern states with severe winters, long leg waists suits were not common. We \have archived numerous advertisements for Hickory Supporters on HBC. These ads were common place in local newsparts. Two examples are Bridgeport and Salt Lake City.

Colors

Supporters came in black and white, and the white ones tended to get a bit dirty with daily use and boys' grubby fingers. For some reason, I wore only the white ones, which meant that they had to be replaced fairly often. It was theoretically possible to wash them, but I don't think they ever got washed in my house.

Growth

Growing boys outgrow their stockings too, and since it was important that the garters not show under our short pants, we needed the stockings to be long enough to cover at least the mid-thigh.

Stocking Shrinkage

If a new pair of stockings was worn (not yet shrunk by washing), the supporters might have to be shortened a bit so there was no sagging. But cotton stockings, beige or tan usually, don't shrink very much so this was not a major problem, and some of my more dress-up stockings probably had a bit of rayon yarn in them, which helped reduce shrinkage.

Gender

Some boys of my generation seem to have rebelled against wearing underwaists and long stockings because these garments were also worn by girls. But we didn't feel much pressure from the gender angle because there were no girls in our family. I suppose if I had had to wear the same kind of underwear and stockings as my sisters, I might have complained more, but we had no girls to compare ourselves to, so we just accepted it as part of what boys wore.






HBC





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Created: 7:40 PM 2/20/2006
Last updated: 5:30 PM 5/11/2010