Figure 1.-- This 1892 photo shows two boys in buttoned-on knee pants in New York City. You can tell that the pants had side openings. You can't see the buttons. There may have been buttons on the pants that went into te shirt or the buttons on the shirt went into only the first layer of the pants waist band. Also notice the beanie-like cap that the boy is wearing.

HBC have noted button-on shirt waists in the 1890s, but am not sure when it first appeared. The shirt waists had detachable collars and buttoned waistbands for holding up both trousers and stockings. They were for boys 5-12 years of age. A HBC reader comments on the 1890s, My wife's uncle, now deceased, was born in 1889, and in telling us about those times, which he called the "not-so-gay nineties", he once wrote: "At that time boys between the ages of 4 and 10-12 years wore knee pants and long black stockings held up by fasteners to a shirtwaist much as women's stockings are held up by a girdle. The shirtwaist had buttons onto which buttonholes around the top of the knee pants could be buttoned. Younger boys wore knee-length skirts that were buttoned to a band around the bottom of the blouse." An 1892 photo shows two boys in buttoned-on knee pants in New York City. You can tell that the pants had side openings.

Created: March 3, 2002
Last updated: 11:47 PM 8/11/2007