Figure 1.--Here we see a European poscard showing a boy wearing striped stockings. It woulf have been made about 1910. We are not sure anout the country, although the logo should help identify it. The card was being sold in the Netherlands. Basically striped stockings were a 19th century style. We are unsure about the stockings here here. Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

We see boys and girls in many different countries wearing striped long stockings. Most of the images that we have of boys wearing striped stockings are American images. Clearly this was a popular style in America furing the mid-19th and late 19th century, although toward the turn of the 20th century you no longer commonly see them. We note more boys wearing solid coloted stockings, but the striped stockings were very clearly widely worn in America. It appears to have been a fairly popular style that crossed national borders. We believe these striped stockings were also commonly worn in most European countries, but we have little specific country information at this time. This probably relects in part our larely American archive. They may, however, been particularly popular in America. We do have a page on Canadian striped stockings.

America

We see boys and girls in many different countries wearing striped long stockings. Most of the images that we have of boys wearing striped stockings are American images. Clearly this was a popular style in America furing the mid-19th and late 19th century, although toward the turn of the 20th cenntury you no longer commonly see them. We note more boys wearing solid coloted stockings, but the striped stockings were very clearly widely worn in America. It appears to have been a fairly popular style that crossed national borders. We believe these striped stockings were also commonly worn in most European countries, but we have little specific country information at this time. This probably relects in part our larely American archive. They may, however, been particularly popular in America.

Belgium

We do not yet have much information on Belgian long stockings in general and have just begun to assess stripped stockings. We note striped stockings in Britain during the 1850s, but not in America until the 1870s. We are not sure when they first appeared in Belgium. We first note striped long stockings in the 1870s, but our Belgian srchive is limited. Here we see an unidentified Belgian boy from Liege, a city in Flanders. Liege is te eadtern-most province of Walonia abd the city of Leege is on the fauklt line between Dutch-speaking Flanders anbd French speeking Walonia. The boy here was probbly a Waloon. We do not know if there were any differences between Walonia and Flnders as to long stivkings in general abd striped stockings in particular. We have no informatiin yet as to the chronology of striped long stockings other than the CDV here looks to have been taken in the 1870s, probably the early-70s. We also do not have any information in the gender conventions. The boy here is wearing striped stockings with a suit for a dressy occassion. For a more fornmal event such as church he may have worn black or other dark long stockings, but this is just speculstion at this time.

Canada

Canadian children generally wore solid color long stockings, but we have noted some patterns. The most common pattern was stripes. In many cases the stripes were done i quite bold patterns, althoughwe are not sure about the actual colors. We are also not yet sure about the chronlogy, but they seem especially common in the 1870s-80s. We believe these striped stockings were worn by both boys and girls. They see to be rather sporty, but boys seem to wear them with dressy outfits. Some times the suits are rather sober, making the stockings really stand out. We are not sure how common they were for more formal occassions like church. We do not know if the children had any preferences about these stockings. These seems more an American than a British style, but we are not yet positive about this.

England

We note a lot of illustrations suggesting children wore striped long stockings in the mid-19th century. Many of the illustratios come from English sources. We were a little surprised by this because our archive of American images does not how this fashion in the 1840s and 50s and in the 60s we mostly see white long stockings. As there are few English Dags and Anbros, we are unable to assess hosiery trends at mid-century with any validity during the 1850s and 60s. We do note a Lewis Carol portrait of the Cameron boys (late-1850s). The older boy, charles, is wearing stripped long stockings with some kind of a skirted outfit. We do begin to see large numbers of portraits with the appearance of the CDV (1860s). We do not, however, see children wearing striped long stockings.

France

Germany

Italy

Russia