Figure 1.--This snapshot probably from the 1940s shows a mother visiting her son at summer camp. Dad probably took the photograph. Notice the stripe on his short pants. Also notice the leather shoes. .

Pants are usually not decorated. This is generally more important with shirts and jackets. Pants tend to be primarily plain garments, although they may be done in patterns. They may have features like pockets that can be styled, but these are really are not decorations in the sence of a purely decorative item. Decorating pants seems to have been most common in the 19th century, but not the entire century. We do not have a great deal of infirmstion ion the early-19th century, but we do after the invention of photography (1839). We note dcorated pants most commonly during the 1870s and 80s. The major decoration was stripes, but we note some pants for younger boys with extendice embroidery, usully matching the decoration on the jackrts. Stripes in particulsr were very populr. This seems especially the case for younger boys, but our information is still veryb limited. We do not see many decorated pants in the 20th century, with only a few exceptions. Summer camo uniforms. The short pbnts often had a stripe for some reason. This was common for a long time (1920s-50s). Scout and Cub pants had decorated pockets (1950s-60s). And slacks for a time had little decirative belts at the back (1960s). Perhaps the most heavily decorated pants were the casual short pants that appeared with athletic styling (1970s). And of course it became fashionable to decorate jrans, but this was more common for hirls than boys (1970s).