Figure 1.--Here we see a boy wearing striped long stockings, his sister wears pantalettes with white long stockings, but have high-top shoes. This is an undated tin-type portrait. It looks to have been taken about 1870, either the late-1860s or early-70s. This is when these strioped stickings began to bcome a majo fashion trend..

The chronology of striped stockings appears to have been the same as patterned stockings in general, primarily because the dominate pattern was stripes or actually bands. HBC has not noted boys wearing patterned stockings after the turn-of-the 19th century. I do not have details on this, but is my general impression from a review of available images. There are a variety of factors affecting the chronology. One, advances in weaving allowing multiple-colored yarn to be machine woven. Two, the increasing tendency of boys after the 1850s to be dressed in knee pants (otherwise wearing patterned stockings would be senseless). Shirtened-length pants appared (1850s). We note fashion illustrations from the 1850s =knne pznts anbd knickjers and showing striped stockings being worn. We suspect that they appeared at about the same time boys began wearing bloomer knickers and kneep ants. We note stripped long stockings in the increasingly extensive photographic record. Photographs are not as common as they will become after the development of popular negative-based formats in the 1860s, but they are much more common than during the 1840s. Patterned stockings appear to have been popular from the 1860s through the 80s. The photographic record shows that they were popular from the 1860s through the 80s, although we have noted them into the 1890s. Home knitting may introduce more variery in the chronological pattern than the trends from commercial mills. We suspect that they were most popular in the 1860s and 70s, although our information is still quite limited. We have not, however noted boys wearing striped stockings into the 1900s. HBC has not noted stripped stockings after the turn of the century. Currently HBC's efforts to develop a chronology of patterned stockings is limited by the fact that we still have relatively few images and most of the images that we do have are not dated. This topic needs to be researched in dated clothing catalogs. Much of our information comes from America. We are not sure to what extent chronological trends in America were mirrored in Europe. We notice a French boy in the 1880s wearing stripped stockings. There may well be differences among countries. Home knitting may introduce more variery in the chronological pattern than the trends from commercial mills. The clothing worn with striped stockings also varried over time. We do not have details on this, but is our general impressiion from a review of available images. Notably as kneesocks became more common in the 1900s, horizontal striped knee socks were never worn, although there might be colored bands on the turn-over-top cuff. In contrast, boys later in the 20th century did eventually wear ankel socks with horizontal stripe or bands.

The 1840s

We believe striped stoclings appeared in the 1840s, but we have very little information at this time. We do not yet have any images of striped stockings from the 1840s. This may be a reflection of the realtively few 1840s images we have. Photography was still very new and expensive in the 1840s which limited the number of portraits made. One question we have about striped stockings is just when weaving technology developed allowing manufactures to make multi-colored hosiery. We are not let sure.

The 1850s

The chronology of striped stockings appears to have been the same as patterned stockings in general, primarily because the dominate pattern was stripes. We note fashion illustrations from the 1850s showing striped stockings being worn. We suspect that they appeared at about the same time boys began wearing bloomer knickers and knee pants. We do not know who camne up wih thr idea and wehere. We note sripped long stockings in the increasingly extensive photographic record. Photographs are not as common as they will becone after the development of popular negative-based formats in the 1860s, but we do see a few examples of stripped stockings during the 1850s. A good example is an unidentified American boy in 1855, although we are not sure about the length of his stockings. Of course photograoht became much more common which affects the rekative number of images in the 1850s. Another factor here is that hortened-length pants just began to appear in the 1850s.

The 1860s

Boys still commonly wore long trousers in the 1860s, but knee pants were beginning to become popular. We tend to see most boys wearing white or light-colored stockings in the 1860s. Large number of images in the photographic record shows boys wearing white stockings. A good example is the Johnson boys in 1867. White stockings were very common. This was true of boys not yet breeched as well as those wearing knee pants. White stockings, however, were not universal. We do see some striped stockings. Patterned stockings appear to have been popular from the 1860s through the 80s. This is a little difficult to assess with percesion because many period portraits were not dated. Advances in weaving allowing multiple-colored yarn to be machine woven. The increasing tendency of boys after the 1850s to be dressed in knee pants (otherwise wearing patterned stockings would be senseless). Most of the examples we have found so far seem to come from the late-1860s. This is a little difficult to assess because we have so few dated images. But they can be reliably dated to the late-1860s or early-70s. These early stripped stocking patterns thst we have found so far are all American. We are not entirely true just how common they were. An example is an American boy in 1865. By the end of the decade we begin to see more striped stockings and they became very common in the 1870s as white stocking went out if style, especially for boys.

The 1870s

We especially notice striped long stockings in the 1870s. This is primarily becuse of the prevalence n America, we are not entirekly sure about Europe yet, but suspect the chronolohy was similar. Our European chronologiues are not as large, espcially for the 19th century. This reflects the fact thar phoytography took off in Anerica much daster than in Eurip, ven houhgh photogrphy was invdnted in Europe. There are countless examples in the photograph record. The vast majority are American. This suggests to us that that these striped stockings were more popular in America than anywhere else. Of course our American archive is much larger than in any other country. So that has to be taken into consideration. But we see these sripped stockings being worn in many European countries, especially in England. It was an exceeding popular style. A good example is an unidentified American boy which we think was taken in the 1870s. An American boy, 3-yeatr old Andrew Richardson, wears boldly striped long stockings in 1875. We note a 9-year old American boy wearng striped stockings in 1878 with a collar-buttoning suit and long knee pants. The stripes were very narrow.

The 1880s

Striped stockings were still a popular style in the 1880s. We still see striped stockings in the 1880s, but not nearly as common as the 1870s. Many of the examples we have found some from the early-80s. We note solid/fl;ar=t cilors becoming increasingly prevalent. Interestingly we do not notice boys wearing striped long stockings with Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, at least in America. This was an enormousdly popular style. We notice a French boy in the 1880s wearing stripped stockings. We note advertising llustrations commonly depicting children wearing striped long stockings. A good example is a stocking supporter ad in 1885.

The 1890s

The striped stockings appear to have gone out of style by the end of the century. We do not note many children wearing stripped stockings during the 1890s, especially the late 90s. Even in America for which we have a huge archive, we have not yet found any 1890s examples. We are not entirely sure about other countries. Striped stockings are clearly much less popular in the 1880s, but we still see a few examples. They may be home knitted rather than mass produced. A Czech boy here is a good example..

The 1900s

We have not yet found any examples of striped stockings after the gurn-of-the 20th century. As far was we can tell, striped stockings were no longer worn. Black long stockings were very common, at least in the United States the dominant color. HBC has not noted striped stockings after the turn of the century. The clothing worn with striped stockings also varried over time. I do not have details on this, but is my general impressiion from a review of available images. Notably as kneesocks became more common in the 1900s, horizontal striped kneesocks were never worn, although there might be colored bands on the turn-over-top cuff. In contrast, boys later in the 20th century did eventually wear ankel socks with horizontal stripes