Figure 1.--This unidentified Argentine had his portrait taken in his First Communion suit in 1922. It was a postcard back oportrait. Th dark suit has prominant white buttons as do the knee pants. He has a sports collar. The First Communiin decorations include a medallion and sleeve bow. He wears dark three-quarter socks with low-pcut shoes. The portrait was dated December 3, 1922. The studio was Phographia Belgrano in Buenos Airs. boy Argentune boy in the 1970s wears a dark suit with white knee socks and white shoes. He also has a white tie. He is dresses very formally. Notice the white gloves. He also has aarge white sleece bow.

After World War I we continue to see boys doing First Communion with open sports or Schiller collars. This was a popular style in the 1910s and 20s. While we have a fairly extensive Argentine archive, most of the portraits are undated. Thid makes it difficult to establish a precise chronology. While the open collars were common, the rest of the outfits continue to be formal. In the case of this Buenos Aires boy, he even wears white gloves (figure 1). We also see the fancy sleeve ribbons. Only the boys wore these. We also continue to see boys doing First Communion in knee pants or long short pants suits. We see knee pants both with and without the three decorative buttons ans knee pants made the transition to short pants. We rarely see knicker suits. We begin to see some sailor suits, but not very many. Sailor suits do not seem as common in Argentina as they were in Europe. We see boys wearing both long pants and knee/short pants suits. Short pants still tended to be quite long in the 1920s, looking essentially like knee pants. We see some done with the ornamental buttons at the knee hem and some without. Short pants grew in popularity during the 1920s, but we still see some knee pants even in the late 1920s. Short pants suits were worn with three-quarter socks and with knee socks. We see three-quarter socks earlier, but not knee socks they seem a new style sen for the first time during the decade. Long stockings were declining in popularity, but were still worn although this gradually became less common as the decade progressed.

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Created: 11:05 PM 11/16/2013
Last edited: 11:05 PM 11/16/2013