German/Austrian Knee Pants: Gender Trends


Figure 1.-- As far as we can tell, only boys wore kneepants in Germany. Girls throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century were expected to wear dresses. We have not found any German portraits yet, but this child was photographed in Vienna, proably in the 1860s. The child is unidentified, but does look rather like a girl.

As far as we can tell, only boys wore kneepants in Germany. Girls throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century were expected to wear dresses. Especially in the 19th century this was seen as in very poor taste. There may have been exceptions to this basic rule, but they are very rare indeed in the historical record. We have noted thousands of images of German and other European girls and have almost never seen girls wearing trousers of any kind. We have found very few exceptions to this.






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Created: 7:17 PM 12/1/2005
Last updated: 7:17 PM 12/1/2005