* United States boys clothes : garments casual playwear








United States Boys' Clothes: Garments--Casual Playwear


Figure 1.--This unidentified brother and sister stand in front of their porch steps during the summer. The girl wears a eret with a light-weight summer dress. Her little brother wears a sleeveless shorts outfit. The photograph is undated, but looks like the 1920s. A reader writes, "I would guess that the boy is about 6 years old. What are your thoughts?" That seems about right, we might guess 6-7 years old.

Playwear was a category of boys clothes that did not even exist in the 19th century. The very idea of play was a concept which only slowly developed in the 19th century. Puritanical Americans saw play as a kind of idelness that was not good for either boys or adults. Generally speaking as play became more asccepted in th later-half of the 19th century we see children wearing old clothes for play rather than specially designed playwear. There were also ptotective garments like pinafores and smocks to protect clothing, but more from work than play. At the turn of the century, the tunics suits younger boys wore were often used as play suits, although there were also dressier tunic suits. We begin to see all kinds of playwear in the early-20th century. Early item were rompers and coveralls. Much more playwear appeared after World War I in the 1920s. These were mostly light-weight summer outfits. They were often called wash suits. There were many button-on outfits. Most were done with short pants. We see some sleeveless shorts sets. Younger boys might wear rompers, but they rather merged with bloomers to become more populasr for girls. Most girls cotinued to wear drresses, including light-weight summer dresses, but we see some girls wearing rompers and short pants by the 1920s as casual play outfits. T-shirts and jrans became standard afer World War II. Some boys wore short oants, but jrans were more populat. Many styles of shorts panrs appeared and the became more popular--esoecailly shirts with athletic styles. At vthe end of thev20th century we begin tosee longer, baggy shorts.

Chronology

Playwear was a category of boys clothes that did not even exist in the 19th century. The very idea of play was a concept which only slowly developed in the 19th century. Puritanical Americans saw play as a kind of idelness that was not good for either boys or adults. Generally speaking as play became more asccepted in th later-half of the 19th century we see children wearing old clothes for play rather than specially designed playwear. There were also ptotective garments like pinafores and smocks to protect clothing, but more from work than play. We begin to see all kinds of playwear in the early-20th century. At the turn of the century, the tunics suits younger boys wore were often used as play suits, although there were also dressy tunic suits. We see a range of other play outfits im the early-20th century, such as inexpensive sailor suits, but for the most part children still dressed rather formally. An exception was the coveralls and bin-front outfits for youngr boys. Major changes occurred after World War I (1914-18), casual styles became increasingly common. This was especially true for younger children. Short pants became increasingly commom and long stockings began to decline, especially during he summer. There were varioss kinds of short pants outfits, especially during the summer. We begin to see shorts being worn on a seasonal basis. We see many variously styled button-on outfits, some with no sleeves or abrevaited sleeves--something we had not seen before. The boy's outfit here is a good example (figure 1). Most boys wore knickers in the inter-war era, but shorts were very common among younger boys. There was a social class factor with shortbpants, but younger boy of all classes might wear shorts. More changes occured after World War II (1939/41-45). Clothing styles became even more casual. The t-shirt emerged as standard summer wear, with short pants or more commonly jeans. Shorts became less common as dresswear with suits and much more common as summer play wear. We see different bonds of shorts such as camp shorts. Short pants were standard for summer camps. Private camps had uniforms. More different types of shorts appeared toward the later decades such as althletically styleed shorts. The baseball cap became standard casual playwear. Children began wearing tube socks with rather short cut shorts. OP cord shorts appeared in California. Singlet styled tops appeared. Toward the end of the century, shorts became nearly standard, but longer and baggy.

Styles

Ttunic suits in wash materials . Early item were rompers and coveralls. Much more playwear appeared after World War I in the 1920s. These were mostly light-weight summer outfits. They were often called wash suits. Most were doimne with short pants. We see some sleeveless shots sets. Younger boys might wear rompers, but they rather merged with bloomers to become more popular for girls. Most girls cotinued to wear frresses, including light-weight summer dresses, but we see some girls wearing rompers and short pants by the 1920s as casual play outfits. There were many button-on play suits. Sailor suits wre done as wash suits for play wear. Perhaps the most imporant and long lasting casual playwear garment is the T-shirt. It became popular in the 1940s and after the war was standard. Shirts done with bands of color were the nost popular, but by the 70s we see T-shorts with all sorts of logols including sports teams and cartoon characters. Related shirts were sleeveless singlets and polo/rugby shoryts. T-shirts were also done with long sleeves for winterwear. As short pants declined as formal wear with suits, we see all kinds of casual play wear shorts, including athletically-styled shorts, boxer shorts, camp shorts, cord shorts, and others. At mid-century, jeans became a major fashion item. Many boys never wore short pants by school age. Jeans became almost a uniform for American noys. They were not fashionable, but very common. We wore our cuffs turned up like John Wayne in the movies. For some reason you had to forcevyour legs tharough a new pair. The plain styling changed in the 1970s when designer jeans appeared, primarily for girls. Toward the end of the decade we begin to see longer, baggy shorts that hardly look like short pants as well. Theu were commonly done with cargo pants--a fashion artifact from the Vietnam War. Headwear declined in popularity. While headear was very commom on the 1900s, children rarely wore headwear, except in the cold winter weather. Virtually the only exception was the basevall cap which came to be often worn backwards. .






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Created: 4:52 AM 4/4/2010
Last updated: 4:02 PM 3/1/2020