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Italian suits are considered to be some of the most stylish available. Our information on suit styles is still very limited. We have noted Italian boys wearing all the different types of suits, kneepants, knickers, short pants, and long pants. They often are more trendy than the more staid English suit styles. They also tend to use a wider range of materials. Presumably some of this styling flair caried over onto boys' suits. Our knowledge of Italian suits, however, is still very limited. We have little igormation on the 19th century at this time or the early 20th century. We note boys generally wearing short pants suit in the mid-19th century. Shirt pants suits wre vey common through the 1950s, although we note boys in the 1950s wearing long pants suits as well. Social class factors may have been a factor in the types of suits worn.Boys in the 1960s increasingly began wearing long pants suits. A HBC reader has provided us an image of a popular suit style in the 1970s. Boys commonly wore short pants suits through the 1950s, but long pants suits began to become more common in the 1960s. Suits were very common in the ealy 20th centuy, but after World War II, casual clothes became increasingly common. Our information on Italian suits is still very limited. We hope that HNBC readers will provide more detailed information on boys' suits.
We note Italian boys wearing a large varuety of suits. Someare dessed fashionably. Italian clothes are considered to be some of the most stylish available. Presumably some of this styling flair caried over onto boys' suits. Our information on suit styles is still very limited. They often are more trendy than the more staid English suit styles.
We have noted Italian boys wearing all the different types of suits, kneepants, knickers, short pants, and long pants. The popularity of these types of suits have varied widely over time as have the age conventions associated with these different types of suits. Long pants suits wetre common in the 19th century until kneepants began to appear after mid-century. Boys wore both stright kneepants and bloomer knickers. Older boys wire long pants. There were not only age conventions, but also social class conventions. Poor boys more commonly wire long pants, in part because they wore thewir father's or older brother's hand me downs. After World War I, short pants became increasingly common. Most boys wore short pants suits and older boys wore knicker suits. Long pants suits were also worn. After World War II, short pants suits were commonn, but gradually by the 1960s, long pants suits began to become more common.
Italians tend tend to be made in a wide range of materials.
Until after World War II, suits were very commonly worn, even to school. Younger boys at primary school wore smocks. Older boys advancing beyond primary school tended to wear suits. They were also worn at parties, church, and most social occassions. This of coure meant boys frommfamilies that bcould aford them. Many families, especiallin southern Italy could mot really afird suits. After World War II convntions bgan tio change with fewer boys wearing bsuits , espcially by the 1960s. .
Our knowledge of Italian suits is still very limited. We have little igormation on the 19th century at this time or the early 20th century. We note boys generally wearing short pants suit in the mid-19th century. Shirt pants suits wre vey common through the 1950s, although we note boys in the 1950s wearing long pants suits as well. Boys in the 1960s increasingly began wearing long pants suits. A HBC reader has provided us an image of a popular suit style in the 1970s. Boys commonly wore short pants suits through the 1950s, but long pants suits began to become more common in the 1960s. Suits were very common in the ealy 20th centuy, but after World War II, casual clothes became increasingly common. Our information on Italian suits is still very limited.
Social class factors may have been a factor in the types of suits worn. Not all Itlalian boys had suits. Thery were much lesss common in the south than the north for both climatic and economic reasons. Southern Italy was relativerly poor and many boys there wore only the basics. Middle- and upper-class boys did have fashionable suit. We have noted quite a number of images of Italian boys wearing long pants suits in the 1950s when Italian boys till commonly wore short pants. We believe that these long pants suits were more common with working-class than midle-class families.
We note that suit styling variesd in part as a function of a boy's age. Here we do not yet have enough information to discuss how age affected the javket styling. We do not that it did affect the pants. Here this has varied over time. We notice quite old boys wearing short pants suits in the 1920s. One available image sghows an unidentified boy 16-17 years old wearing a knee pants suit with kneesocks about 1920. Gradually short pants vecame primarily for younger boys. Even younger teenagers as alate as the 1950s were wearing short lants suits. This began ticahnge in the 1960s when short pants suits began to be worn only by boys in primary scghool. After the 1960s, short pants suits became less and less common as part of the genrtal trend for more informal clothing..
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