Suspender Shorts: Chronology


Figure 1.--This early image of suspender shorts was probably taken during the 1910s. The bpy appears to be French.

We are not sure when suspender shorts originated and have little informatiion about the chronology of this style. Short pants only appeared as a significant style for boys after the turn of the 20th century. The prevalence of this style varied from country to country. It appears to have been a particularly popular style on the Continent, especially France. Suspender shorts were also worn in Germany, England, and other European countries. They seemed to have been popular in France through the 1950s, but declimed during the 1960s. I do not recal seeing suspender shorts commonly in America during the 1930s, but it was popular by the 1940s. Little boys were dressed in suspender shorts through the 1970s. Suspender shorts are not as common as they once were, but are still worn by younger boys. The style is primarily for dressy occasions in America. I'm not sure if the style is still worn in other countries. I think it is rarely worn by British boys.

Variations

I'm not sure when the style originated and have little informatiion about the chronology of this style. Short pants only appeared as a significant style for boys after the turn of the 20th century. The prevalence of this style varied from country to country. It appears to have been a particularly popular style on the Continent, especially France. The chronology thus varies from country to country. Suspender shorts were also worn in Germany, England, and other European countries. They seemed to have been popular in France through the 1950s, but declimed during the 1960s. I do not recal seeing suspender shorts commonly in America during the 1930s, but it was popular by the 1940s. Little boys were dressed in suspender shorts through the 1970s. Suspender shorts are not as common as they once were, but are still worn by younger boys. The style is primarily for dressy occasions in America. I'm not sure if the style is still worn in other countries. I think it is rarely worn by British boys.

Individual Decades

We have begun to develop information about suspender shorts during specific decades.

The 1900s

We have no images of suspender shorts from the 1900s at this time. The earliest kind of suspender shorts were shorts or kneepants held up my men's-style suspenders. (The British term is braces.) In the 1900s knee pants were more common than short pants. We have not noted, however, suspender kneepants with suspender straps in the same material as the kneepants. Suspenders didn't carry a juvenile connotation, as suspender shorts later did. Suspenders used a standard method for keeping trousers up. We note school portaits and do not notice boys wearing suspender pants. We do notice suspenders, but not suspender pants where the straps were the same material as the pants.

The 1910s

We do note boys wearing suspender shorts in the 1910s. The French boy seen here is one such example (figure 1). The style we now know as suspender shorts appears to have originated in the 1910s. This was a more juveile style than wearing suspenders with short pants. There was one button per strap-end and the strap was made of the same material as the trousers. The style from the beginning was for younger boys, mostly primary school age boys. Thre were also suspender skirts for girls, but this appeared to have develoed later than suspender shorts.

The 1920s

We note boys wearing suspender shorts commonly on the Continent during the 1920s. They seem especially common in France and Germany. They were most common for primary school children. We have rarely noted even younger teenagers waring suspender shorts. A HBC reader writes, "I've seen pictures of young teens wearing short pants with suspenders in the 1920s or 30s. I have not noted them wearing suspender shorts."

The 1930s

We note boys wearing suspender shorts commonly on the Continent during the 1930s. They seem especially common in France and Germany. We notice a younger Dutch boy in 1937. We are not yet sure how common suspender shorts were in America. We notice a younger French boy in the late 1930s wearing suspender shorts. Note his mother has crossed the front straps, probably because she bought a large size he could grow into.

The 1940s

Suspender shorts continued to be worn in Europe during the 1940s. TYhey seemed to have beern very common in Germany during the 40s. A good view of post-World War II Germany is "Germany Year Zero" (1948). It was shot in 1947. A lot of these Italian neo realist films had very low budgets. There was not a lot of money for costumes and thus tend to provide very accurate depictions of contemprary fashion. The main character was a 12-year old German boy who wears suspender shorts. A lot of pictures describing the Berlin Air Lift in 1948-49. Some of most common photographs depicting the Airlift show children watching the flights coming and going at the Berlin airports, especially around Tempelhof where the Americans flew into. The American pilots started dropping chocolate bars and other candy from the planes, attracting even greater numbers of children. Quite a number of the German boys in 1948 appear to be wearing suspender shorts. We note Italian boys 11-12 yeatrs old wearing them. We also American boys wearing suspnder shorts in the 1940s. Generally younger boys wore suspender shorts in America than in Europe. American boys wore thm for both play and dressing up. We note two brothers at Christmas in 1940. A Sears catalog in 1941, however, suggests that button-on styling was more common than suspender shorts.

The 1950s

Suspender shorts were still being worn on the Continent. French primary-age boys wore suspender shorts. It was most common with the younger boys. The oldest French boys seem to be boys 10-11 years old. They were also quite common in Germany. We note one German family in which all the boys wore types of suspender shorts. In a wealthy family, in fact former royalty, during 1952 we note the younger boys wearing suspender shorts, but not the older boy. We note another Germany boy, we believe in the early 1950s. Few American boys except todlers wore suspender shorts in the 1950s. One exception was boys wearing short pants Eton suits. Suspender shorts do not seem to have been as popular in Britain as on the Continent, but boys did wear suspenders (braces) with their shorts. A British reader writes, "In Britain we used to call them braces and I would say that 50 percent of boys short trousers for the average 11/13 year old would have brace buttons as well as belt loops. Many of the older style shorts I have seen confirm this." We notice that suspender shorts were still quite common in the Soviet union during the 1950s. We note a 1956 image.

The 1960s

Suspender horts seem to have been popular in France through the 1950s, but declimed during the 1960s. We notice French boys wearing suspender shorts to school in the early 1960s. They were most common for the younger boys, but a few of the older primary school boys also wear them. A HBC reader has provided an account of his boyhood experience when traveling to France in the 1960s.

The 1970s

Little boys were dressed in suspender shorts through the 1970s. We note Eton suits for younger American boys often had suspender shorts.

The 1980s

Suspender shorts are not as common as they once were, but are still worn by younger boys. They tend to be dressy outfits for special occasions than outfits for everday wear.






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Created: July 13, 1998
Last updated: 6:50 PM 11/18/2005