Figure 1.--Long stockings were worn as a kind of dressy attire with kneepants and short pants by Belgian boys. Into the 1920s boys wore long stockings more commonly than kneesocks for formal occassions like First Communion. They always wore black or other dark rather than white stockings. The boy here in 1926 wears black long stockings with kneepants. Click on the image to see the full portrait.

We do not yet have information about long over-the- knee stockings in Belgium during the early- and mid-19th century. We believe they long stockings began to be worn in the mid-19th centiury, but we do not yet have phptograohiv images from thast period and can not yet confirm how common thery were. We do have iunformtion on the late-19th century. Long stockings appear to have been common in the late-19th century. were common in the late-19th century, especially during the cold winter months. HBC still has very limited information on Belgian 19th century hosiery styles. We believe that long over-the-knee stockings were common, although like in France, not as common in America. This may have especially been the case in the winter. Long stockings were worn both for warmth and as dress or formal wear. Most of the images we have found are boiys wearing long stockings as part of formal dress up outfits. Our Belgian archive is limited so we can not yet make any firm assessments about long stocking trends. We note that Belgian boys commonly wore long dark stovkings for church and other formal occassions even after knee socks became prevalent in the 1920s. Through the 1920s, boys always wore black or other dark rather than white stockings. As with much else, we believe that they generally followed French styles, although Dutch and German styles may have been important in Flanders. We have very little information on color. Black long stockings were commonly won for formal wear. We notice striped long stockings. in the 1870s, but do not yet have much information on them.

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Created: October 31, 2002
Last updated: 12:12 AM 8/17/2012