Figure 1.--Here w see Hungarian boys in what looks like a summer family park outing. The boys look to be anout 8-15 years old. The younger boy wears a button-on sailor suit with short pants. His older brother wears a suit jcket with what looks lke casual shorts. The dealer thought that the photograph was takennin the 1930s. The late-30s is possiblr, but we thought it might date to the 1940s.

We do not yet have a lot of information on pants and trousers worn by Hungarian boys in the 19th century. Our photographic archive is very limited. Hungarian boys as best we can tell mostly wore long pants in the 19th century. We note some younger boys in fashionable urban families beginning to wear knee pants and bloomer knickers after mid-century. We are less sure about rural areas, but believe that traditiona peasant styles were still worn in many areas. These shortened-length pants did not bcome pronounced for older boys until the 1890s. They were mostly worn with long stockings. We believe that trends, at least in urban areas, were very similar to Austria and Germany. Hungary during the 19th century was of course politically and economically connected to Austria which was part of the German cultural area. We know more about the 20th century, although we still have a limited archive. Trends in the early-20th century were very similar to the 1890s, but with shotened length pants becoming more prevalent and more commonly being wirn with socks rather than long stockings, at least during the summer. After World War I, Hungary declared independence, but we continue to see similar fashion trends. Short pants rapidly became standard for boys, at least in the cities. H-bar and suspender shorts were common. We also note button-on shorts. We see teenagers wearing long pants, especially older teens. Older boys wore long pants, the actual age varying greatly from family to family. Many younger teens wore shorts. Short pants were commonly worn by Hungarian boys through the 1950s, but were declining in popularity by the end of the decade. Shorts declined in popularity during the 1960s, but some boys still wore them. Teenagers wanted jeans, but thy were hard to obtain behind the Iron Curtain. Gradually Hungarian boys began wearing the same pan-European styles worn in the West (1970s, even before the fall of Communism (1989).

Chronology

We do not yet have a lot of information on pants and trousers worn by Hungarian boys in the 19th century. Our photographic archive is very limited. Hungarian boys as best we can tell mostly wore long pants in the 19th century. We note some younger boys in fashionable urban families beginning to wear knee pants and bloomer knickers after mid-century. We are less sure about rural areas, but believe that traditiona peasant styles were still worn in many areas. These shortened-length pants did not bcome pronounced for older boys until the 1890s. They were mostly worn with long stockings. We believe that trends, at least in urban areas, were very similar to Austria and Germany. Hungary during the 19th century was of course politically and economically connected to Austria which was part of the German cultural area. We know more about the 20th century, although we still have a limited archive. Trends in the early-20th century were very similar to the 1890s, but with shotened length pants becoming more prevalent and more commonly being worn with socks rather than long stockings, at least during the summer. After World War I, Hungary declared independence, but we continue to see similar fashion trends. Short pants rapidly became standard for boys, at least in the cities. H-bar and suspender shorts were common. We also see button-on shorts like the boy in the sailor suit is wearing (figure 1). We also note button-on shorts. We see teenagers wearing long pants, especially older teens. Older boys wore long pants, the actual age varying greatly from family to family. Many younger teens wore shorts. Short pants were commonly worn by Hungarian boys through the 1950s, but were declining in popularity by the end of the decade. Shorts declined in popularity during the 1960s, but some boys still wore them. Teenagers wanted jeans, but thy were hard to obtain behind the Iron Curtain. Gradually Hungarian boys began wearing the same pan-European styles worn in the West (1970s, even before the fall of Communism (1989).

Types

Long Pants

Hungarian boys as best we can tell mostly wore long pants in the 19th century, but our archive is very limited. We are less sure about rural areas, but believe that traditiona peasant styles were still worn in many areas which mean long pants, at least in the 19th century. We see teenagers in he20th century.wearing long pants, especially older teens. Older boys wore long pants. Teenagers wanted jeans, but they were hard to obtain behind the Iron Curtain. Gradually Hungarian boys began wearing the same pan-European styles worn in the West (1970s, even before the fall of Communism (1989)

Knee pants

We note some younger boys in fashionable urban families beginning to wear knee pants and bloomer knickers after the mid-19th century. These shortened-length pants did not bcome pronounced for older boys until the 1890s. They were mostly worn with long stockings. We believe that trends, at least in urban areas, were very similar to Austria and Germany. Hungary during the 19th century was of course politically and economically connected to Austria which was part of the German cultural area. We know more about the 20th century, although we still have a limited archive. Trends in the early-20th century were very similar to the 1890s, but with shotened length pants becoming more prevalent and more commonly being wirn with socks rather than long stockings, at least during the summer.

Knickers

Short pants

After World War I, Hungary declared independence, but we continue to see similar fashion trends. Short pants rapidly became standard for boys, at least in the cities. H-bar and suspender shorts were common. We also note button-on shorts. the actual ages for shorts varied from varying greatly from family to family. Many younger teens wore shorts. It was common fr boys to wear shirts into their younger teens. We see boys wearing shorts to about 15-years old (figure 1), but then they became less common. Short pants were commonly worn by Hungarian boys through the 1950s, but were declining in popularity by the end of the decade. Shorts declined in popularity during the 1960s, but some boys still wore them.

Rompers

We are not sure how common rompers were in hungary. We have so few images that we do not have a good idea about trends and conventions. We suspect that trends were very similar to Germany. We only seepre-school boys wearing rompers. We are not sure to what extent if any girls wore them. We suspect that girls in secondary schools wore middy blouses and bloomers for gym, but we do not kmow about romper suits. We note boys in one family wearing rompers in 1939. We see bib-front rompers, although there may be H-bar rompers as well. The boys look to be about 1-5 years old. They seem to be summer play suits. We do not know if there were dressy rompers as in France. We think play suits with regular shorts were much more common.

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Created: 6:07 AM 3/22/2017
Last updated: 9:37 PM 3/29/2018