*** English knickerbockers knickers : chronology 1930s








English Knickers: Chronology--The 1930s

English knickers
Figure 1.--Here we see two older teens and a young adult. They look to be about 16-22 years old. We are not sure if they are brothers or friends. The two younger boys wear patterned knee socks. This was not as common in Britain as in America, especially with short pants. Notice how the older youth wearing long pants has them fastened together at the ankle with something to keep the trousers from getting caught in the bicycle's moving parts. The dealer dates the snap shot to 1935. We think that was an estimate, but seems resonable.

We see very few British boys wearing knickers in the 1930s. Knickers were still very common in America. But we do see some boys wearung, almost always only teenagers wearing them. We do not see pre-teens wearing them which was the case in the 19th century. We would not call them rare or unusual, but they were much less common than short and long pants. We notice them being worn with brightkyb colored patterned knee socks. Unlike the 19th century, knickers were not schoolwear. They were a kind of intermediate step for youths between short pants and long pants. As best as we can tell they were not casual wear as was the case for adults. We suspect there was a social class factor. We do not think they were work to any extebt by working-class youth. We do note that in the trade that knickers were used interchangeably with short trousers. (The British always say 'short trousers', unlike the Americabs who say 'short pants'. A British reader writes, "I certainly never saw them being worn here and believe they died out even earlier - maybe the 1920s - at which point most boys were wearing short trousers." Knickers were more common as smart casual wear by adults part the affluent class.







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Created: 5:11 AM 7/28/2023
Last edited: 11:37 AM 7/29/2023