Figure 1.--Here we see three brothers, abou6-14 years old. Note that the little brother wears a knee pants suit while his older brothers wear knickers. The snapshot is undated, but was probably taken in the 1910s or perhaps the early-20s. Also notice thst the younger boys wears a Norfolk jacket whilke his brothers have sing;e-breasted jackets. The younger brother also wears an Eton collar and floppy bow, rather than the regular collar and neck tie his brothers wear.

The age of American boys wearing knee pants varied over time. At first in the mid-19th century, knee pants and nloomer knickers were worn by younger boys. We see either pre-school boys are early-primary children wearing them. The age of the boys wearing knee pants gradualy increased. By the 1890s most boys amd many teenagers were weazring knee pants. We see by the turn-of-the 20th century even some older teenagers were wearing lnee pants. The knee-length knee pants became standard for both boys and teenagers. We see boys of all ages wearing them. A good example is 9-year old Harvey Eldridge Hannaford. This began to change again during the the 1900s. By the end of the decade most boys were wearing knickers. Knee pants became seen as old fashioned. In the 1910s knickers essentially replaced kneepants. Knee pants fid not disappear all together. We note in the 1910s that some younger boys continued to wear knee pnts rather than knockers. We are not entirely why this age bifurcation occurred or how common it was, but we do notice catalogs ciontinued to offer knee pants suits, modtly for younger boys. During the 1910s mostly younger boys wore knee pants, older boys more commonly wore knickers or to a lesser extent long pants. Kneepants were still worn in the early-1920s, but almost entirely by younger school-age boys. This only continued a few yeats. By the mid-20s we no longer see knee pants. Younger boys wore either short pants or knickers.

Created: 1:18 AM 10/19/2009
Last updated: 3:29 AM 10/20/2009