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.

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 te 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

France

Germany