Figure 1.--Thispress photo shows Swedish boys playing the trumpet at the inauguration of St. Göransgårde--a humanitarian foundation in Stockholm. You can see Swedish flags in theckground. The phtograph was taken November 13, 1949. The boys who look to be teenagers are wearing knickers and long pants.

We note Swedish boys wearing different type of pants. Knee pants were common in the late-19th century. They were connonly worn with long stockings except for the short summer season when children went barefoot. At the turn of the 20th century, knee pants were still common. As late as the 1920s, boys were wearing short pants that were not much different than knee pants. We see boys in the 20th century wearing mostly knickers and long pants. Short pants were worn during the short Summer season, but were not as common as in some other European countries, basically because of the climate. Younger biys might wear shorts with long stockings. Younger boys wore suspenders or H-bar pants. We note many Finnish evacuee children dressed in H-bar shorts at a group home near Stockholm during World War II. Finnish boys commonly wore H-bar shorts with long stockings, but in Sweden they were given Swedish clothes. Swedish boys beginning in the late 1930s begin wearing plaid shirts, which we suspect may be due to the influence of American cowboy movies. Boys beginning about 1945-50 began wearing T-shirts and jeans. That would seem to be another American influence. We are not sure about how the American fashion impact arrived in Sweden other than the movies. Knickers were commonly worn in Sweden, even into the 1950s after they had disappeared in America. The same was true of several European countries. Then in the 1950s you see boys wearing American-styled blue jeans. This was a trend throughout Europe. For some reason, many Swedish boys rolled up the jean cuffs until their jeans were knicker length, maybe because that's a good length for trousers when one does a lot of cross-country skiing. We also see Swedish children wearing rompers.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer]
[School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]

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Created: 5:48 AM 4/10/2017
Last updated: 1:07 PM 8/9/2018