Figure 1.-- Here we see two Austrian brothers wearing Lederhosen with long stockings in 1935. We do not know their names, but the boys are clearly brothers. The boys are 4 1/2 and 12 years old. Their portrait clearly suggests that they are very close. Note how the younger brother leans in toward his older brother who has his arm protectively on his little brother. Their clothes suggest to us that they are from a working-class or lower middle-class family.

Here we see two Austrian brothers wearing Lederhosen with long stockings in 1935. We do not know their names, but the boys are clearly brothers. The boys are 4 1/2 and 12 years old. Their portrait clearly suggests that they are very close. Note how the younger brother leans in toward his older brother who has his arm protectively on his little brother. Their clothes suggest to us that they are from a working-class or lower middle-class family. A few aspects of the boys' clothing are worth noting here.

The Boys

Here we have an interesting portrait of two brothers in Vienna. We do not know their names, but the boys are clearly brothers. The boys are 4 1/2 and 12 years old. Their portrait clearly suggests that they are very close. Note how the younger brother leans in toward his older brother who has his arm protectively on his little brother. Their clothes suggest to us that they are from a working-class or lower middle-class family. They are not dressed elegantly. But they are not from a poor family. Lederhosen were ot cheap and they both have sturdy shoes. The quality of the portrait also suggests a family of modest means. The older boy would be just about ready to enter high school or a gymnasium. I'm not sure whether he would wear Lederhosen to school, but some boys did because of the durability of the leather trousers. A boy goung to gymnasium (selective secondary school) I think would have been likely to wear suits. But the boys here with wirking-clss backgrounds might not have entered gymnasium and may have only gimne to primary school. Clothes like this would have been acceptavle at a primary school.

Portait

This is a studio portrait mot a family snapshot. The very basic backdrop, however, suggests to us that it was a rudimentary studio or perhaps an itinerant photographer. It would have been less expensive than going to an established Vienna photographic studio.

Chronology

The portrait was taken in 1935.

Clothing

A few aspects of the boys' clothing are worth noting here.

Lederhosen

Both the boys here wear Lederhosen which were very popular in Austria. In fact Lederhosen seem more popular in Austria than any other country. The same can not also be said for Vienna itself. Lederhosen were most popular in rural areas and small towns than in more cosmopolitan Vienna itself, but were widely worn in Austria. Note that here the boys are wearing them as part of everyday wear and not as any kind of folk costume.

Hosiery

Both wear long stockings whereas knee socks were probably a bit more commonly worn with Lederhosen. Long stockings, however, are by no means unkown with Lederhosen. We have few Austrian examples because our archive of Austrian pgotographs is fairly limited. We note them being worn in Germany. One example is a German brothers about 1952. We note a German boy wearing Lederhosen with long stockings as late as 1957. We think long stockings with Lederhosen would be most common with working-class families or families in which the parents had grown up in rural areas.

Halters

Both both boys seem to have halter tops to their Lederhosen. You can see the younger boy's halter. Whereas the older boy may conceal his halter top by wearing a sleevless sweater on top. You can see the bulges, however, under the sweater. Sometimes boys wore their haltrs over their sweaters. I'm not sure if any conventions were involved here.

Sweaters

The younger boy seems to be wearing a hevy sweater or jacket. The older boy wears a sleevelass sweater. We would guess that it was jknitted by his mother or grandmother.

Shirts

The younger brother has a shirt with a Schiller collar. Noye how it looks like it is buttoned at the collar. Actually the Schiller collar was meant to be worn open. But mother has buttoned the collar button of his sweatr/jacket making it look lile the shirt is buttoned at the collar. Notice also the way the older boy's shirt, even without a necktie, is buttoned all the way to the neck. We are not sure what the conventins were here. In America some mothers insisted that boys buttoned their collars. Other mothers were not bothered. The convention here varied over time. We assume the same was the case in Germany and Austria.

Footwear

Both boys wear hightop leathershoes.

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Created: 1:32 AM 5/14/2006
Last updated: 9:58 PM 11/30/2007