Figure 1.-- Drawing by Birte Koch.

Readers can look at the getting dressed project by garment tyoe. There were major fashion changes following World War I in the 1920s. The most significant change after the War was a move toward more casual clothing, a trend that has continued throughout the 20th century. This change of course took place over time. We see a mix of old and new styles in the 1920s and that is reflected in the clothing worn by our family. Here we will look at the childrens underwear, support garments, and hosiery so we can follow the process of getting dressed. Here we are still developing information. We are not sure what kind of underwear German children wore in the 1920s. In working on the United States section we had s substntial resource of the HBC catalog to use to understnd underwear. German children still commonly wore long stockings in the 1920s, especially during the Winter. Thus support garments like Leibchen were worn although ad hoc devices like pins and rubber bands were used. Of course we know much more about the children's outer clothing because of our expanding archive of photographic images. Here we see a mix of old and new styles that are family wore. We have chosen a range of Summer styles for the children.

German Fashions (1920s)

There were major fashion changes following World War I in the 1920s. The most significant change after the War was a move toward more casual clothing, a trend that has continued throughout the 20th century. This change of course took place over time. We see a mix of old and new styles in the 1920s and that is reflected in the clothing worn by our family. Raders may want to look at the HBC German 1920s section. here for more information about German fashions during the 1920s. We also have a few pages from 1920s catalogs.

Garment Types

Readers can look at the getting dressed project by garment tyoe. Here we will look at the childrens underwear, support garments, and hosiery so we can follow the process of getting dressed. We are still developing information. We are not sure what kind of underwear German children wore in the 1920s. In working on the United States section we had s substntial resource of the HBC catalog to use to understnd underwear. German children still commonly wore long stockings in the 1920s, especially during the Winter. Thus support garments like Leibchen were worn although ad hoc devices like pins and rubber bands were used. Of course we know much more about the children's outer clothing because of our expanding archive of photographic images. Here we see a mix of old and new styles that are family wore. We have chosen a range of Summer styles for the children.

Underwear

Here we are still developing information. We are not sure what kind of underwear German children wore in the 1920s. In working on the United States section we had s substntial resource of the HBC catalog to use to understnd German children's underwear during the 1920s. Hopefully our German readers will be able to help us develop the basic information needed to draw the images accurately for this section.

Hosiery and support garments

German children still commonly wore long stockings in the 1920s, especially during the Winter. We have, however chosen to portray the children during the summer. Thus none of the children here are wearing long stockings. This is not to say that German children never wore long stockings during the Summer. Long stockings were still very common in Germany during the 1920s. Some children ,may have worn them for formal occassions or on cool days. Some children may have worn them just because some mothers preferred long stockings. Or they may have been what was available to wear on any given day. Our children all wear three-quarter length socks or kneesocks which were becoming more common during the Summer. Thus support garments like Leibchen were worn although ad hoc devices like pins and rubber bands were used for long stockings. As our children do not wear long stockings, this was not necessary. The children wearing kneesocks may have worn garters. .

Outer garments

Of course we know much more about the children's outer clothing because of our expanding archive of photographic images. Here we see a mix of old and new styles that are family wore. We have chosen a range of Summer styles for the children. The girls wear different styles of dresses, various light-weight often light-colored dresses reflecting the Summer season. They also wear hair bows or hats. Hair bows were still very popular in the 1920s although the sizes were usually smaller than those we noted in the 1910s. With hair bows they couldn't wear hats so the girls had to choose on or the other. The boys wear popular styles like a shirt with a Schiller collar and a sailor suit. Both boys wear short pants which were very popular for boys at the time, even in the Winter. Often boys would wear long stockings during the Winter, but continue to wear short pants.

Beachwear

Here we see three of the Berger children at the beach. Margarete, Hans, and Friedrich are wearing the beach fashion of the 1920s. Notice that at the time the swimsuits fir boys and girls were very similar. Boys like girls both wore tops. In this case the children wear one-piece suits, but two piece suits were appearing for boys. The suits here are solid colors, but stripes were also popular. Strangely at the time, wool was a popular material for swimsuits. I'm not sure why it was so popular. It seems a fabric totally unsuitable for swimwear.

Created: 1:39 AM 9/4/2005
Last updated: 5:14 PM 9/5/2005