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Suits were a much more important part of male dress, including boys' dress, than is the case today. Thus understanding suit fashions is important to know how boys dressed at the time. And this was not just the case for boys from families in comfortable circumstances. And we see that reflected incatlogs which offered a wide range of options. American boys wore a range of suits. Norfolk suits with belted waists were especially popular. American boys by 1917 were commonly wearing knickers. Some mostly younger boys were still wearing knee pants. Some boys also wore knee pants for formal outfits. Knee pants were a style which continued for a few more years, but knickers had becom virtually universal. 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 secured (buttons or clasps) just at the knee. Sears abd swatds catliogs are a wionderful source of information on suits which were at the time much more commonly wirn thzan is the case today, not only for school but many other occassions.
Seasrs offered a range of suits for boys in the 1917 (figure 1). We see both single-breasted and Norfolk suits. A catalog pages shows the actual colors which offers a rare insight as the photograohic record is still black and white. The suits look remarkably simlar and with mstching flat caps. This was less common than suggested by the catalog page. The differences in the suits offered by Sears varied miostly in color and material. The cut of the knickers is identical. They were all shown being worn wih long stockings ehich were in fact virtully uiniversal at the time. The colors of long stockings could vary, but were mostly black. We see both high-top and low-cut shoes, but in actuality high-tops were still predominate.
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?
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