Figure 1.--These German children were photographed in 1911. The boys wear kneepants sailor suits with long black stockings. Kneepants at the times were the primary type of pants worn by boys in both Europe and America, although there were variations from cpuntry to country.

Both men and boys in the 18th century wore knee breeches. The first destinctive boy's fashions was long trousers worn as part of skelaton suits which are popular by the 1780s, even before the French Revolution (1789). At the time laborers, the sans culottes wore trousers, but gentlemen continued wearing kneebreeches until well after the turn of the 19th century. By the 1920s both men and boys were wearing long tousers. Thus began to change in the mid-19th century when boys began wearing various types of shortened trousers. Boys by the 1850s and even more so the 1860s were increasingly wearing bloomer-styled knickers, although long trousers were still common--especially for working-class boys. These bloomer knickers, called knickers, were a practical alternative to long trousers for active boys. The bloomer knickers were loose pants gathered at the knee. Styles varied from country to country. In America, a more slim fitting straight leg version became the standard. These knepants were open rather than gathered at or below the the knee and usually had three ornamental butons, harkening back to the button closures on knee breeches. They were commonly worn at calf length. These knee pants were very widely worn by the 1870s and by the 1890s even quite old teenage boys were wearing them. In Europe the bloomer knickers as well as knickers with button closures were more popular. . By the end of the century, knickers and knee pants were worn at knee length or even above the knee. Short pants for boys had appeared in the 1890s, but were first worn by younger boys. There use by the British Army in tropical postings and then by the Boy Scouts and Wandervogel had by the 1910s made them increasingl popular for older boys in Eurpope. American boys except in the South mostly insisted on wearing knickers. A variety of play outfits for younger boys such a romper and overalls in the 1900s. Olderboys in the 1930s begin to wear long trousers more commonly, more in America than Europe. This trend becomes increasingly common after World War II (1939-45), even in Europe. Short pants begin to become more popular in the 1960s, but increasingly as casul clothes. Jeans ar commonly worn by Americn boys in the 1950s and begin to become stylish worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s. Longer shorts appear in the 1990s and by the late 1990s baggy syles of both shorts an longs become popular.

Pre-history

For most of pre-history, humams did not wear clothing beyond animal skins or other basic items. This began to change in the Paleolithic. Thgere is some limited evidence tht it is at this time the first pants appeared. One source reports figurines found at the Siberian sites of Mal'ta and Buret'. [Nelson, p. 85.] The oldest trousers ever found at the time of writing were encountered at the Yanghai cemetery in Turpan, Xinjiang, China. Archeologists have dated the pants (13th-10th century BC). The trousers were done in wool. They had trousers had straight legs and wide crotches. Archeologists beleve that they were made specifically for horseback riding. [Beck, et. al.]

Ancient Times

Pants were not the first garments worn by ancient man. They are a more complicated gsrment than other options like the kilt-like garment worn in Egypt. Weaving and sewing were advance technologies. Ths only with the advance of civilization do we begin to see pants. Some historians believe that pants or trousers may have been conceived about 6,000 years ago by the nomadic horsemen of the Ukranian Steppes. Notably this was also the approximate time that horses were domesticated. [James and Thorpe] There are certain pratical aspects to wearing pants when riding. We know that Synthian horsemen wore pants. There are metal-work and vase depictions of this as well as Greek commentary. Pants seem especially useful in temperate climates that experience cold weather. They also seem suited for horsemen. The Greeks were not at all impressed with trousers, considering them a barbaric form of dress. Hippocrates in particular was critical of Synthian pants. The Greeks also mention tht the Celts wore pants and the Romans made similar comments. Both considered the bractice barbaric. The German tribes which over ran the Roman Empire wore pants-like garment. While there is not much contemprary images from the nomadic tribes of Central Asoa like the Synthians. The Romans have left us images of the Celts and Germans, mostly sculpture. The Romans did leave paintaings, but few depicted the northern barbrians.

Medievel Europe

Our information on the medieval era is still quite limited. The Roman Empire was overwealmed by the Huns and Germanic tribes in the 6th century AD. I'm unsure about pants during this period. The invaders wore pants-like garments. I'm not sure about the clothong worn during the early medieval era, but by the mid-medieval period men were wearing long robes and women long dresses. I am unsure as to evolution of these garments. Also fashion was concept for the upper and small middle classes. The peasantry had little time or income for fashion. Also fashion for the aristocracy was a class more than a ntional concept. This meant that the arisorcracy throughout much of Europe were affected by the same fashion trends. There were variations from country to country, but they ere less important than the basic trends accepted by the aristocracy throughout Europe. The same styles persisted for centuries. Change took place very slowly. By the late-medieval era there were important fashion changes. Older men still worn long robes. Boys and young men, however, were wearing short tunics with long hosiery.

The 15th Century

Young men and boys in the later 15th century, wore very short belted doublets (tunics or jackets in modern terminology) which extended only low enough to cover their buttocks. Some doublets were even shorter than this and exposed the buttocks. To cover their legs, thighs, and buttocks, men wore very long stockings which were secured to shirts or undershirts by laces (called points). The effect was like tights, but the stockings were actually two separate garments. Codpieces were worn to cover the male genitals, which the stockings of course did not cover. Codpieces eventually became quite prominent and were somtimes ornamented with jewelry or other decorations to emphasize male virility. Men and boys from noble families often wore a garter around the left leg just below the knee--not to support the stocking but for purely decorative or symbolic reasons. In England, the Order of Garter, founded by Edward III, was a particularly elite order of knights, and the decoration was worn as an actual garter around the leg. This is illustrated in Millais' depiction of the two princes murdered in the Tower (Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York). The boys are wearing typical aristocratic dress of the period--black velvet doublets with very long black stockings that come up to waist level. This is a 19th-century illustration, but the period depicted is about 1584. Another illustration of a continental page shows similar clothing. This page boy is about 16 years old. He wears a belted doublet with elaborate sleeves and the same kind of waist-length stockings, tied to the waist by "points," that we see in the Millais picture of the two young princes.

The 16th Century

Men and boys by the middle of the 16th cenutry, had begun to wear much longer doublets, often with "trunk hose" or breeches that ended at various points on the upper leg. This portrait of Edward VI, Henry VIII's only son, shows the boy king at about the age of fourteen. He is wearing breeches that come down to a point about four inches above the knee and have a close-fitting band around them at the bottom. Some trunk hose at a later point were very full, but these trunk hose seem relatively unbloused although they are not really close-fitting. Edward wears white long stockings which probably extend quite high up his leg but may not necessarily be waist-high since the breeches cover the upper thighs. The painting shows Edward VI in about 1550-51. In the later 16th century, during the time of Queen Elizabeth, we see the young James VI of Scotland (later to be James I of England), dressed in large, stuffed "Venetian" breeches, which he wears with white silk stockings. A variety of styles of trunk hose and breeches were worn in the later 16th century by both men and boys. The future James I is a boy of only 9 or 10 in this painting. Another royal portrait (we are not sure what prince is depicted) shows a teenager, presumably continental, wearing very large stuffed trunk hose that cover most of the upper leg. These are like giant bloomers. The boy seems to be about 17 years old. He wears stilk stockings of a color coordinated with his elaborate brocaded suit. Very often the stockings and "hose" (Elizabethan trousers) were color-coordinated.

The 17th Century

During the Jacobean period (the reign of James I of England), especially in the years just after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the style of much briefer trunk hose persisted. Prince Henry, Prince of Wales and oldest son of James I, wore these in a state portrait painted by Peake, one of the court painters, in 1610, only a couple of years prior to his untimely death. The boy was about fifteen years old at the time. Note that his trunk hose are unusually wide. The stuffing that was used for such trunk hose was called "bombast" (from which we get the modern term bombastic, meaning rhetorically overinflated). Prince Henry wears white silk stockings which must be almost waist-high and of course the Order of the Garter around his left leg. A bit later in the 17th century (1637), we see the oldest son of Charles I (the future Charles II) wearing a red satin suit with breeches that come just below the knee. These are the ancestors of the tighter breeches, known as knee breeches, that became standard for men and boys in the 18th century. These breeches are, however, somewhat fuller than the later knee breeches and they are decorated with ribbons or a bow at the knee closure. Notice the matching red silk stockings. The portrait is by Van Dyke.

The 18th Century

Both men and boys in the 18th century wore knee breeches. They were by the mid-18th century quite tightly fitting knee breeches which reached barely to the knee. The buckles were often loose enough for the breeches to ride up slighly above the knee so that long silk stockings were always worn with them. The favorite color of the stockings seems to have been white although black stockings were also worn, and, among the lower orders, worsted stockings of brown, tan, or even blue. This portrait by Richard Wilson of the future George III and his brother the Duke of York (1749) shows the ordinary style of knee breeches at mid-century. Note that the breeches are amost skin tight and that they often expose part of the knee when the wearer is in a sitting position. These boy princes seem to be about 12 and 14. In 1771, we see the young sons of George III (painted by Zoffany) in which the boys wear looser knee breeches with trimmed bands at the knee and decorative bows or rosettes. A bit later in the century (1777) we have a portrait of the future Prince Regent, later George IV, with his father, George III. The knee breeches worn in this portrait are very tight but seem to be fastened tightly below the knee. From these two portraits it may be possible to deduce that younger boys wore looser knee breeches but that as they grew older, they adopted the tighter breeches of the adult style. Note the decorative details at the knee closure in these illustrations. Of course the elaborateness here is probably due partly to the fact that the children are royal. Note for instance the tightness and knee style of the Graham children shown in a portrait by Hogarth (1742). At the end of the 18th century, we see a few instances of boys wearing loose pantaloons--much less restrictive than knee breeches. These appear to have been introduced only in aritistocratic families. Goya gives us several illustrations. The first destinctive boy's fashions was long trousers worn as part of skeleton suits which are popular by the 1780s, even before the French Revolution (1789). At the time laborers, the sans culottes wore trousers, but gentlemen continued wearing kneebreeches until well after the turn of the 19th century.

The 19th Century

Knee breeches were still commonly worn by men in the early 19th century. Here social class trends were involved with the wealthy and artistocratic class clinging to knee breeches more than the working class. Increasingly, trousers (i.e., long trousers) were being introduced, and gradually trousers replaced knee breeches. The influence of the French Revolution was felt--a democratizing influence in which knee breeches were identified with the aristocratic class and a group of French revolutionaries began to be known as the "sans coulottes" (without breeches). Boys were commonly wearing long pants as skeleton suits. Gradually long pants became standard for boys even after the skeleton suit disappeared. We note an illustration showing the teenage Duke of Brabant (the eldest son of Leopold I, King of Belgium) in 1851. Leopold belonged to the Saxe-Coburg family and was acutally the uncle of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. The young duke is wearing a military uniform with long trousers, which had now become standard for men and boys except for very formal occasions when court dress was required ("court dress", at least in England, continued to mean knee breeches worn with silk stockings, and it is still worn on ceremonial occasions even in the 21st century). The standard of long pants for boys began to change in the mid-19th century when boys began wearing various types of shortened trousers. Boys by the 1850s and even more so the 1860s were increasingly wearing bloomer-styled knickers, although long trousers were still common--especially for working-class boys. These bloomer knickers, called knickers, were a practical alternative to long trousers for active boys. The bloomer knickers were loose pants gathered at the knee. Styles varied from country to country. In America, a more slim fitting straight leg version became the standard. These knee pants were open rather than gathered at or below the the knee and usually had three ornamental butons, harkening back to the button closures on knee breeches. They were commonly worn at calf length. These knee pants were very widely worn by the 1870s and by the 1890s even quite old teenage boys were wearing them. In Europe the bloomer knickers as well as knickers with button closures were more popular.

The 20th Century

By the turn of the 20th century kneepants After the turn of the centuropen-ended version, reaching below the knee and worn with stockings. By the end of the century, knickers and knepants were worn at knee length or even above the knee. Short pants for boys had appeared in the 1890s, but were forst worn by younger boys. There use by the British Army in tropical postings and then by the Boy Scouts and Wandervogel had by the 1910s made them increasingl popular for older boys in Eurpope. One major divergence in the 20th century is that pants were less commonly bought as part of a suit. In fact after World War I boys began wearing suits less and less requently. American boys except in the South mostly insisted on wearing knickers. A variety of play outfits for younger boys such a romper and overalls in the 1900s. Olderboys in the 1930s begin to wear long trousers more commonly, more in America than Europe. This trend becomes increasingly common after World War II (1939-45), even in Europe. Short pants begin to become more popular in the 1960s, but increasingly as casul clothes. Jeans ar commonly worn by Americn boys in the 1950s and begin to become stylish worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s. Longer shorts appear in the 1990s and by the late 1990s baggy syles of both shorts an longs vecome popular.

The 21st Century

Boys in the 2000s commonly wore long pants. Jeans and cargo pants seem especially popular. Shorts were commonly worn in the summer. Shorts were most commonly orn as casual wear. We norte some exceptions such as summer weddings or choirs. The length of the shorts was commonly quite long. We note, however, a range of lengths. The boys in a Belgian choir, for example, wears shorts of widely varing length.

Sources

Beck, Ulrike, Nayke Wagner, Xiao Li, Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, and Pavel E. Tarasov. "The invention of trousers and its likely affiliation with horseback riding and mobility: A case study of late 2nd millennium BC finds from Turfan in eastern Central Asia," Quaternary International Vol. 348 (October 20, 2914), pp.224-35.

James, Peter and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994).

Nelson, Sarah M. "Gender in archaeology: analyzing power and prestige," Gender and Archaeology 9 (Rowman Altamira: 2004).