Figure 1.-- A boy's underwaist was advertized in Ladies Home Journal (March 1917, p. 58). The illustration hete shows a boy seen from the back brushing his teeth and holding up the tooth brush in his right hand (figure 1). He is only half-dressed. He has already put on his underwaist, attached his hose supporters to his white stockings, buttoned his knee pants to the waist buttons, and put on his high top shoes. But he still has not put on his blouse. I think this may have been a toothbrush ad. A reader writes, "Note the boy has a back buttoning underwaist so the mother would probably have dressed him in at least that garment."

American mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. We have sone limited informatin on 1917 styles. Boys commonly wore flat caps which were called golf caps. American boys by 1917 were commonly wearing knickers. Some mostly younger boys were still wearing kneepants, a style which continued for a few more years, but knickers were much more common for older boys. Knickers were made for boys 6-18 years of age.

Headwear

Headwear was much more common in 1917 than today. The most common type of cap worn by school-age boys was the flat cap, commonly referred to as golf caps. Boys wearing suits might have a flat cap matching their suits. Younger boys might wear sailor styles. We note swabie-type caps, odten with down turned brims.

Toddler Clothes

A variety of todler styles with simple casual styles appear. They were often done with kneepants. The button-on style appears to have been very popular for boys.

Sailor Suits

Shirts

Coats

Juvenile Suits

We notice a range of destinctively styled suits for younger boys.

Suits

American boys by 1917 were commonly wearing knickers. Some mostly younger boys were still wearing kneepants. Some boys also wore kneepants for formal outfits. Kneepants were a style which continued for a few more years, but knickers were much more common. We do not yet notice short pants suits as had begun to be worn in Europe. American boys primarily wore knicker suits. They were pictured as being buttoned just at the knee. Most had belted waists.

Da Pinna suits

The 1917 De Pinna Co. catalog was issued in hard cover. De Pinna was an important New York retailer, especially know for its suits which were a more important psart of boys' wear than is the case today. The store was located on 5th Avenue with other exclusive retailers and was the New York branch of an English boys clothing store that was founded in London, 1880, so I presume that the text was written by them.) The catalog advises, "The manly appearance of an English lad is always noticeable. Over there, the dressing of boys and young men has been standardized for years. There is lacking in their dress that suggestion of feminine intervention which has crept at times into the dress of American boys. There is no reason why any good healthy American boy should be decked in ribbons, frills, and laces. There is every reason why he should wear--according to his station in life--clothing and accessories that closely resemble those of men ..." The text runs on another few pages to tout the importance of "manly" attire... It is interesting that this word is no longer used in children's fashion ads It certainly was used a lot around the early 1900s! One wonders why the term fell out of favor. Sometimes the changing rhetoric of fashion is just as mysterious as fashion trends themselves. Also note the phrase "good, healthy". There is a psychological implication here. Did men innately regard a boy who is ill or a invalid as more the property of his mother than a "good, healthy" boy?

Pants

American boys mostly wore knickers in 1917, although kneepants had not completly gone out of style. The catalogs and advertisements we have collected primarily offer knickers. We note the pants Sears included in their complete back-to-school outfit were knickers, but Sears just refers to them as "pants" and "knickerbockers".

Underwear

Quite a range of underwear styles were available for children in 1918. The styles were still quite different from modern styles. There were shirts, drawers, and combination or "union" suits with the shirts and pants combined. There were also waists, a support garment worn by women and children. Also sometimes combined with the waists are worn separately were stocking supporters for the still commonly worn long stockings.

Porsoknit union suits

Hosiery

Children wore a wide range of socks and stockings. Long stockings were still very common and worn with stocking supporters. Some hosiery was made specifically for boys or girls. Other socks were made for infants and children that did not specify gender. Long stockings were made for boys and girls. Socks were mostly made for younger chidren up to about 8 years of age.

Suspension Garments

Children in the early 20th century wore a variety of suspension garments. The primary purpose was to hold up long stockings, but some were also designed to support pants as well. There were several different types of suspension garments being sold in 1919. We know a great deal about them because they were heavily advertized. We note brands like E-Z, Kazoo, Nazareth, and Sampson. Magazine adverisements tend to stress brands much more heavily than catalog listings. We note quite a number of magazine ads as well as catalog offerings for the various types of support garments in 1918. We note ads for garter waists, susppende waists, waists union suits, and other support garments. The ads for these garments normally stressed elaciticity, comfort, and durability as well as posture support.

Kazoo suspender waists

The 1916 Kazoo ad which appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal, has a text which is too small to read. I've done my best to recover it but have not so far succeeded. We did however find another Kazoo ad in Good Housekeeping (May, 1917, p. 114), which presents exactly the same Kazoo illustration but with a different text. No need to copy the same picture twice.

Summer waist union suit

We also note a ad from Good Housekeeping Magazine (March, 1917) for a little boy's summer waist union suit. This ad for an "Allheneeds" appeared in the Good Housekeeping Magazine (March, 1917). This little boy's summer waist union suit was made by the Frederick H. Sprague Co. and manufactured in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The company's brand is called "Allheneeds". The company also had similar "Allsheneeds" for girls. The "Allheneeds" brands carries the implication that this summer underwear supplies everything the boy needs--both union suit (undershirt and underpants) and waist for supporting trousers and long stockings. Curiously, the ad shows the boy wearing calf-length short socks and no hose supporters are shown in the illustration; but also prominently displayed (and described) is the patented garter tab that allows the boy to wear hose supporters either outside or inside his underwear.

Underwaist

A boy's underwaist was advertized in Ladies Home Journal (March 1917, p. 58). The illustration hete shows a boy seen from the back brushing his teeth and holding up the tooth brush in his right hand (figure 1). He is only half-dressed. He has already put on his underwaist, attached his hose supporters to his white stockings, buttoned his knee pants to the waist buttons, and put on his high top shoes. But he still has not put on his blouse. Here we have good details about the way the knee pants were buttoned to little straps on the underwaist. Notice that the attachment straps are arranged so that the trousers fit rather loosely around the child's middle and are held up as if they were attached to suspenders. This waist, probably made of cambric, buttons down the back and has shoulder straps which are adjustable for age and button in place at the top of the waist. The waist is also rather low cut so that the boy can wear blouses or a sailor suit with a wide-open collar and no dickey without exposing his underwear. We can't see the attachment for the hose supporters because the trousers cover them, but this waist obviously has garter tabs, probably placed at the sides of the waist just below the waisband of the trousers. The white stockings are interesting--a color that was usually reserved for younger boys in the 1910s. This boy is probably about 5 or 6 years old.

Shoes

Boys still wore mostly high-top shoes. We note strap shoes and sandals for younger boys.

Sleepwear

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Created: 4:33 AM 9/1/2005
Last updated: 2:18 AM 9/2/2005