Figure 1.-- A boy John's age might have worn a waist suit, but a suspender waist was more likely and older boys would have definitely worn suspender waists. The suspebder waists holds up his long stockings, preventing them from sagging. John wears black long stockings. Blacl was still very common, although there were other colors.

John here wears a sleeveless, short-legged waist union suit with a drop seat fastened in the rear by three buttons. The suit has reinforcement straps over the shoulders that end in waist buttons for attaching knee pants or knickerbockers. There is also a reinforcement strap under each arm that ends in a tape loop for attaching the safety pin of his white hose supporters. Waist union suits were made for boys up to the age of 13 or sometimes 14 years of age. Boys older than 13 usually wore ordinary untaped union suits with separate suspender waists or skeleton waists with hose supporters attached for holding up long stockings. Older school age children, John's age (up to 18 years) commonly wore suspender waists to hold up stockings and other garments. So-called "suspender waists" were invented at the turn of the 20th century. The style did not last very long but was most popular during the 1910s and very early 1920s. They were called "suspender waists" because they combined trousers suspenders with hose supporters and had leather suspender attachments for holding up knee pants in addition to hose supporters for long stockings. Although some models of the suspender waist (such as the Kazoo) were manufactured in styles that could be worn also by girls, the main wearers of these waists were boys John wears black cotton stockings. Black was the most common color, but there were others colors. He would not have worn socks. Knee socks were worn in Britain, but were not very common in America yet. He would not have worn shot socks.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site Related Pages:
[U.S. 1890 catalog pages] [U.S. 1900 catalog pages] [U.S 1910 catalog pages]
[U.S. late 19th century page] [U.S. 1900s page] [U.S 1910s page] [U.S 1920s page]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main U.S. Getting Dressed 1910s chronology page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Essays]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Registration] [Tools]
[ Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 9:11 PM 9/6/2007
Last updated: 9:11 PM 9/6/2007