Figure 1.--Here we see a German stree scene in 1925. We note one boy wearing suspenders. Note that there are no belt loops on his shorts. The other boys may also be wearing suspenders, but as they are wearing jackets it is not possible to tell.

Suspenders declined in popularity during the 1920s. Several factors were involved. First was the development of suspender pants, with suspenders straps made in the same material as the pants rather then special elasticised material. This was a trend that was especially common in Europe. In Germany we see the H-bar variant. Second was the growing popularity of belts. I believe it was after World war I in the 1920s and 30s when it first became common to put belt loops on trousers. This needs to be confirmed. We believe a major factor was the War. Large numbers of men wore military uniforms with belts. Many wanted to wear belts rather than suspenders in civilism life. This trend gradually sopread to boys' wear. Third was the developmrnt of the increased populsrity of button-on styles. In America coordinated shirts ans shorts or long psnts sets became populsr for boys through bout age 10 years. This is a little difficult to assess because boys still commonly wore suit coats and sweaters in the 20s. Suspenders were always worn under coats and jckers and usually worn under sweatrs. This makes it very difficult to determine if boys were wearing suspenders if all we have to go on are an old photograph. So far all the supenders we have found are the button type of suspenders. We are not yet sure about county trends, but they seem particularly common in Germany, but tht may be because we have more German. One factor that we have noted is that American boys wore suspenders, but did not wear them very commonly when not covered up by a jacket or sweater. We see several German boys wearing them with just suspenders. We note German boys wearing pants without belt loops, but belt loops were fairly standard on the pants American boys wore.