Figure 1.--Here a row of fashionable Canadian mothers who loved the Shirley Temple style dressed their girls with short dresses and curls during the 1940s. Like Shirley, the little girls didn't wear hose suspenders and long stockings. They are learning to express themselves in French language arts. It is obviously winter and we suspect that many of these children wore leggings. Leather leggings gaiters were such a fad that even inside, some girls kept them on. We can wsee two of them at the right. For two seasons, Spring and Fall, those "enfants modèles" from high middle-class wore their gaiters even when having to go to school until 1965 when the advent of tights was prefered for their usefulness. But gaitesr had a big quality. They were indestructible and usable by the same child for many years until the younger child will use them for many years also. Size of shoes could change. No problem. It is still possible for the child to wear them until the upper part happened to be below the knees. Of course, long pants for boys and tights for girls killed this fashion. Leather gaiters became "old-fashioned".

Our Canadian archive is limited. We have very few 19th century images. We do not have any information on Canadian leggings in the 19th century. We suspect that it was fairly common for younger children to wear leggings in the late-19th century. Amnd as far as we can tell, the age and gender conventions were similar. We suspect that Canadian trends in the early-20th century were similar to those in America, only leggings were more popular because of the colder weather. Girls' skirts and boys' shorts became shorter in the 1930s, perhaps in part because of Shirley Temple. And mothers shooting for the Shirley Temple look did not like the look of long stockings. Thus you see more Canadian children wearing leggings. A Canadian reader tells us, "Around 1945-50, a lot of parents in Quebec City and Montreal (Canada) bought those fashionable gaiters not only for warm up legs but because they were 'chics'."

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Created: 10:18 PM 2/4/2005
Last updated: 10:18 PM 2/4/2005