Figure 1.--IThis is a French postcard dated 1914. At that time, stamps were often pasted on the image. We see two children heavily clothed but without winter coats but having cloth leggings. We often see this on nostalgic Christmas and New Years cards. Here they were not always depicted as wealthy children, but the children shown in leggings were always nicely dressed. Of course these cards were not accurate depictions of what children commonly wore, but they often depicted how mothers wanted to dress their children.

Leggings appears to be a style worn by children from affluent families. We see this very clearly in the photographic record during the late-19th century. More modest families attempted to copy the fashions of the affluent, like Fauntelroy suits, but this rrely included the leggings we sometimes see. A factore here is presumably because the leather leggings of the day were expensive. HBC has not noted children in the photographic record from working class families wearing lrggings. Of course working-class children are underrepresented in the photographic record, but the declining cost of a portrait meant that they were not absent. We also notice leggings frequently depicted in early-20th century postcards in nostalgic winter (inclusing Christmas and New Years) cards. Here they were not always depicted as wealthy children, but the children shown in leggings were always nicely dressed. Of course these cards were not accurate depictions of what children commonly wore, but they often depicted how mothers wanted to dress their children. Notably, the wealthy were a major influence on clothing and fashion in the 19th and early-20th century. We notice middle-class toddlers wearing leggings as part of snow suits in the 1930s-40s, but with this exception leggings were almost always worn by children from well-to-do families.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Girls]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 8:08 PM 9/16/2010
Last updated: 8:09 PM 9/16/2010