|
Warren and Carolyn Benedict had their portrait taken during 1929 in Crawsfordsville, Indiana. Carolyn was about 8 years old and her little brother Warren about 6. Carolyn wears a plaid dress with dark collar and cuffs, hightop shoes and unusually patterned long stockings which come to just above her knees. Her brother Warren wears a one-piece belted short pants suit with matching white collar and cuffs, long beige stockings of conventional length, and hightop shoes. The children appear to be wearing typical school- age clothes of the late 1920s and early 1930s, although the girl's patterned stockings look a bit anomalous.
Warren and Carolyn Benedict had their portrait taken during 1929 in Crawsfordsville, Indiana. Carolyn was about 8 years old and her little brother Warren about 6. The children look to come from a comfortable, but not affluent middle-class family.
The portrait was taken in 1929. This year was known of course for the Wall street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. We do not know how these children and their family fared in the Great Depression.
Carolyn wears a plaid dress with dark Peter Pan collar and cuffs, hightop shoes and unusually patterned long stockings which come to just above her knees. Note that it is the pattern part of the stockings that come just to above her knees--the stockings are actually much longer. White collars were of course more common. Her brother Warren wears a one-piece belted short pants suit with matching white collar and cuffs, long beige stockings of conventional length, and hightop shoes. Belted shorts were a popular boy's style that appeared in the mid-1920s and continued into the 1950s. This boys's outfit is belted shorts with a matching shirt. The children appear to be wearing typical school- age clothes of the late 1920s and early 1930s, although the girl's patterned stockings look a bit anomalous. We have noted these patterened kneesocks more on girls than boys, but as many boys in the 1920s and 30s wore knickers, it is not always possible to tell if the boys were wearing long stockings or kneesocks. Notice that while the children are dressed differently, that the collars and cuffs on both outfits have been used for stylish accent. We wonder if this means that their mother may have sewed thes garments at home.
Warren has his hair cut short in a common style for boys. Carolyn has her hair cut in bangs, another popular style.
Readers may want to have a look at the clothing styles for children offered in caalogs and advertisements during 1929. We have included here retail catalogs, sewing advertisesments and periodical advertisements.
A HBC reader writes, "I think HBC is right about the girl's long stockings only having the pattern to just above the knee. This point occurred to me, but I had never seen stockings that are patterned only as far as just above the knee and then plain for the rest of the way. Does HBC have any other images like that? If so, I'm not aware of it. The patterned long stockings that Sears offerred in its 1928 catalog (for both boys and girls apparently) were patterned throughout. The novelty long stockings seem to have become an American fashion in the late 1920s. The Sears ad is 1928. There are, I think, a couple of comparable ads in the the years between 1927-30."
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Girls]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
