Figure 1.--These unidentified American siblings were photographed in Chicago during 1930. It is obviously Spring, the season for the tulips that the children are carrying. The boy is 5 years old, the girl is 7 years old. These ages were given in the source. Notice the beige long stockings worn with double-pendant hose supporters. The girl's black supporters show. Click on the image for more information about garter waists.

We note both boys and girls wearing long stockings in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Images from the 19th century show most boys and girls wearing long stockings. There may have been age differences, but this is a little difficult to follow in the photographic record. A major problem is that mostly younger boys wore knee pants until the the 1890s. We suspect though that long stockings were not commonly worn by boys wearing long trousers. Both boys and girls commonly wore long stockings through the 1920s. As long stockings began declining in popularity during the 1930s, we think that girls were somewhat more likely to wear them than boys, but our information is too limited at this time to make any definitive assessment. Many girls began to see long stockings as unfasionable, even dowdy and didn't want to wear them. Boys were less concerned about fashion, but were concerned about their image after they began primary school. So for the most part only younger boys wore them. In addition the increasing popularity of long pants made long stockings less important to keep warm. Long stockings were important to keep warm during the winter when knickers and short pants were more common. This of course was also true of short pants, but shorts were less common in American than Europe. Keeping warm may be part of the reason why girls who mostly wore skirts, esoecially to school, wore long stockings more commonly than boys in the 1930s.

Created: 1:12 AM 2/4/2011
Last updated: 4:11 PM 2/4/2011