Figure 1.--This unidentified boy was photographed by T McMahan 'Over the Post Office', Danville, Philadelphia. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1870s. It is unusual because at this time boys were nirmally photographed wearing suit jackets. The image is useful in that it shows a little about these bloomer knickers were constructed. Notice the butto-on styling here.

Knicker bloomers appeared in the mid-19th century. They were worn by younger boys with a wide variety of fancy jackets, primarily cut-away jackets. They were also worn around the turn of the 20th century with tunics. They were normally worn with a suit jacket, although we see a few boys wearing them just with blouses. We know realatively little about them because the suit jacket or tunic usually covere a good bit of them. We think most were made in the button-on style. We are not sure about this as we have realtively few images. Ware also unsre about the construction. They do not seem to have commonly had flys, but rather side buttons which let down a front flap. We are unsure about pocket arrangements. They were made in different lengths, both above and below the knee. The pants blouced at the knee. We're not sure if elastic or drawstrings were used.

Created: 4:00 AM 12/14/2005
Last updated: 3:40 AM 1/31/2006