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A reader writes, "Why did boys begin wearing kneepants after the mid-19th century. Boys since the turn of the 19th century had been commonly wearing long pants." We do not know. Nor do we know who created this style or why it developed. Some fashions are easily explained. We know for example who created jeans and why--there was a need for inexpensive hard wearing work trousers. In the case of kneepants we do not know. They appear to be a fashion change not a practical innovation. At least I see nothing practical about them. Most fashion books mention the style, but do not explain why they became so popular. Here we are not sure just why this new fashion caught on. Most stylistic innovations do not. It seems that they idea of having a particular style of trousers for boys appealed to parents at the time. Perhaps our readers will have some insights. A reader writes, "I have thought about this. I suspect, and it is only an opinion, that knee pants were a visual designation of childhood. Prior to mid-19th
century most children worked (except for the nobility and affluent merchant classs). Even the tradesmen and artisans commonly apprenticed their children. After mid-century, school attendances becomes longrr and more regularized. More countries began providing free state schools. Also the issue of child labor arizes and laws are enacting restricting the employment of children. Thus it seems reasonable that destinctive styles would be developed for children. Knee pants were the destinctive style worn by boys."
A reader writes, "Why did boys begin wearing kneepants after the mid-19th century. Boys since the turn of the 19th century had been commonly wearing long pants." We do not know. We have, however, begun to collect some information.
Nor do we know who created this style. Or even if tere was specific person who created it.
We notice kneepants becoming a stylish fashion in the 1860s in several different countries. Thus we do not know if the style was originated in any one country. Britain was very influential in terms of boys' fashion, but we do not for sure that kneepants originted in England.
By the 1900s upper-class and more affluent boys wore knee pants with long
black stockings usually until at least 15 or 16, and we have evidence that a
few boys didn't graduate to long trousers until the age of 20. We find knee
pants suits still sold for "youths"--boys in late adolescence on the threshold
of manhood, but still officially boys. The American sophisticated classes seem
to have taken their cue for dressing their sons from the more formal customs
of Europe--particularly northern Europe (England, Germany, the Netherlands,
and Scandanavia). Knee pants were a modern modification of the formal knee
breeches of the past (but still worn on very formal occasions in countries,
like Great Britain, for appearances at court and for ceremonial pomp and
circumstance). In the 1900s and 1910s knee pants in America had gotten
somewhat shorter than in the decades preceding. Note, for instance, HBC's
photographs of the Spencer family in Pittsburgh from the period 1900-1912
where we see knee pants almost approaching the length of short trousers worn
in the 1920s. The same phenomenon can be observed in many of the fashionable
portraits of teenage boys taken in studios in Montreal from the same period
because Montrealers were strongly influenced by European ideas of childhood
formality and dressiness. In many families, graduation to long trousers was an
important rite of passage and didn't occur in many cases until a boy had
graduated from high school.
Most fashion books mention the kneespants style, but do not explain why they became so popular. Here we are not sure just why this new fashion caught on. Most stylistic innovations do not. It seems that they idea of having a particular style of trousers for boys appealed to parents at the time. Perhaps our readers will have some insights.
We also do not know why kneepants became such an important an widely worn fashion. Some fashions are easily explained. We know for example who created jeans and why--there was a need for inexpensive hard wearing work trousers. In the case of kneepants we do not know. They appear to be a fashion change not a practical innovation. At least I see nothing practical about them. Boys of course wear out their pants at the knee. Thus knee-length pants do not avoid that problem . I HBC reader tells us that long pants wear out at the hem. Perhaps, but my experience is that other parts of the pants wear out before the hem, at least for boys.
A reader writes, "I have thought about this. I suspect, and it is only an opinion, that knee pants were a visual designation of childhood. Prior to mid-19th century most children worked (except for the nobility and affluent merchant classs ). Even the tradesmen and artisans commonly apprenticed their children. After mid-century, school attendances becomes longrr and more regularized. More countries began providing free state schools. Also the issue of child labor arises and laws are enacting restricting the employment of children. Thus it seems reasonable that destinctive styles would be developed for children. Knee pants were the destinctive style worn by boys." Another reader writes, "One reason knee pants became fashionable--first in the east and urban centers of America and only later in the rural areas of the south and mid-west--was a changing view of the status of childhood. Working-class children throughout most of the 19th century were frequently employed or worked hard on farms and in shops and factories run by their parents or bosses and were, in a sense, small adults from the economic point of view. Children of the wealthier and more educated classes had more freedom to play and spent their childhood (especially, the boys) being schooled, not only academically, but in the manners of the genteel world. Young boys and adolescents had to become accustomed to a kind of polite subservience and obedience, which could be symbolized by dress that signified that they were still children or youths."
Some fashion changes follow in the wake of war. American boys began wearing kneepants in the wake of the Civil War (1861-65). The War nay have well been a factor in Amerca. The popularity of kneepants was not hust an American fashion. In fact, in seems that it was a popular European style imported by Americans.
We see nothing appealing about kneepants from the boy's point of view. With short pants, many boys did not mind them or at least weren't to bothered. They were compfortable warm weather wear. With kneepants this was less true. Boys wearing kneepants usully wore long stockings, at least in America. Long stocings could be scratchy in the warm weather. In addition the stocking supporter was restictive. Thus there was little reason for a boy to wnt to wear kneepants.
