Figure 1.--One of the major elements in the styling of knickers was the length. American boys in the 1910s and early 20s wore them fastened above the knees like this boy here. This is often dffiult to tell because the knickers were baggy and the boys mostly wore long stockings. Boys in the late-20s anf 1930s increasingly swore knee socks.

The two basic stylistic elements of knickers are length and cut. Boys initially usually wore their knickers buckled above the knees in the 1910s and early 1920s. Younger boys especially wore them above the knees. Many boys as they got older and began to want long pants would often prefer the more manly style of buckling them below the knee. Some mothers would insist that their son buckle his knickers above the knee. The boy, however, after leaving the house would rebuckle his knickers in the preferred below the knee position. This mother/son struggle of the 1920s was imortalized in the classical American musical, Music Man.The problem was eventually resolved during the 1930s as shorts became more common for younger boys. Knickers for older boys were made slightly longer and the fashion of buckling them below the knee became accepted. We also notice a wide range of cuts for knickers. This ranged from rather tight form fitting knickers as well as very baggy full cut knickers, often called plus fours.

Length

One of the basic stylistic elements of knickers are the length. Knickers could be woirn at various ;engths. We note abnove the knee knickers, below the knee knickers, calf-length knickers, nd ankle-length knickers. The last was basically a European style and not seen much in America. Knickers in America were initially made to be fastened above the knee. The material commonly fellover the knee. And this is how American boys initially wore knickers, buckeled above the knee. This was the basic style in the 1910s and much of the 20s. Basically the effect was that boys wore their knickers at the same length tht was common for knee pants in the 1900s. Younger boys especially wore them above the knees. Many boys as they got older and began to want long pants would often prefer the more manly style of buckling them below the knee. Some mothers would insist that their son buckle his knickers above the knee. The boy, however, after leaving the house would rebuckle his knickers in the preferred below the knee position. This mother/son struggle of the 1920s was imortalized in the classical American musical, Music Man.The problem was eventually resolved during the 1930s as shorts became more common for younger boys. Knickers for older boys were made slightly longer and the fashion of buckling them below the knee became widely accepted in the 1930s. We also see knickers wore at calf length, but this was not very common.

Figure 2.-Knickers also varied in fullness. Some were fairly form filling. This boy wears standard cut knickers. Some had extra material anf=d were called plus fours..

Cut

We also notice a wide range of cuts for knickers. This varied significantly from knee pants were also referred to as straight-leg pants because they different so much from full-cut knickers. This ranged from rather tight form fitting knickers as well as very baggy full cut knickers, often called plus fours. Many knickers look very baggy to the modern eye. The popularity of the various cuts have varied over time. The differences in cut were affected not only by fashion trends, but in the 20th century by the two world was. Fabric became a critical material and many governments passed regulatins aimed at economizing and even rationing fabric. Full-cut knickers were seen as a wasteful use of ascarce material.

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[The 1900s] [The 1910s] [The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]

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[Jackets] [Long pants suits] [Blazers] [Kilts] [S ailor suits] [Short pants suits]
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Created: 11:12 PM 7/29/2007
Last edited: 12:06 AM 2/2/2013