Figure 1.--Here we see two Yugoslav brothers all dressed up in back-buttoning blouses, flopopy bows, and velvet short pants. The portrait was probably taken in the 1930s. We do not know about their ethnicity, but the portrait was taken in Sarajevo which is in Bosnia. As was common at the time in Germany, the boys wear H-bar shorts, but the waustline is unsually high. Notice the buttons on the leg hem, an arifact iof the jneec oabts commonly worn befiore World War I. They look to be about 5-7 years old. There is writing on the back. Click on the image if you can translate.

Yugoslavian boys wore a range of pants. The styles reflected the relatively short time span of the country created after World War I out of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and other provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1920s). We see Yugoslavia boys wearing short and long pants. We also see knickers, but to a much more limited extent. Some teens woukld wear knickers before naking thec trabsistion to longb opants. We see some boys in Serbia and Macedonia still wearing traditional clothing in rural areas until after World War II (1941-45). Short pants were especially common in Yugoslavia through the 1950s. Even younger teens wore shorts. They were commonly worn even during the winter, often with long stockings as was common in Germany. They were almost universal for school-age boys. The exception being rural areas where traditiional clothing was still widely worn. School portraits often show all the boys wearing shorts. After the 50s, short pants tended to become more of a casual summer garment as was the case throughout Europe. Such fashion trends tended to lag behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Trends were very similar to Germany until after World War II. In fact, unless a photograph is identified, it is often difficult to differentiate Yugoslav photographs from German, Hungarian, and other Balkan countries. The similarity with German trends was especially the case in northern Yugoslavia (Slovenia) which was annexd to the Reich. Unlike many other areas annexed to the Reich, the Germans seemed willing to accept the Slovenes as an Aryan population. As was the case in the rest of Europe, long pants gradually became more common in the post-war era.

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Created: 2:39 AM 6/14/2024
Last updated: 2:39 AM 6/14/2024