Figure 1.--This Romanian family was photographed in Turda, a city of Dacian origins in northwestern Romania. Turda is most notable for its salt mine. The group despite the formal attire seem to be out in the country. This would be Cluj county. (Cluj is also Romania's second largest city). The boy. possibly with his distinguished grandfather and mother is rather unusually dressed, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, but black long stockings. Short-sleeved shirts and long stockings are an unusual combination. The snapshot is dated on the back, but overwritten. The dates are between 1932-37. We will add a scan of the back in case you are able to sort it out.

Over time we note Romanian boys wearing all the different types of hosiery as well a many boys going barefoot. We see boys wearing socks of all lengths, from ankle socks to knee socks as well as long stockings. We are not yet sure about tights. This of course was affected by changing fashion trends over time. Our Romanian archive is not yet large enough to develop general trends in Romanian hosiery. But we are able to begin to develop some overall patterns. We see quite a few Romanian boys weearing knee socks, at last among the better off urban population. Romania was a generally poor, agricultural country in Eastern Europe, large areas of which were under Ottoman control until the lat-19th century. This we see quite a number of children going barefoot, especially during difficult times such as the World War I and II periods. While located in Eastern Europe, Romanian was situated toward the southern band of Eastern Europe south of Poland. Thus the heavy emphasis on long stockings in the late-19th and early-20th century was not quite as widespread as in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Germany Poland, and Russia. Not to say long stockings were not worn, just not as dominant as in the more northerly northerly countries. The Ottoman influence may also have been a factor. Now long stockings were not just worn for warmth. There were also the modesty and formality factors which have to be considered. This mostly concerned girls, especially the modesty factor, but boys were also affected. The boy. possibly with his distinguished grandfather and mother is rather unusually dressed, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, but black long stockings. Short-sleeved shirts and long stockings are an unusual combination. The boy gere, possibly with his distinguished grandfather and mother is rather unusually dressed, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, but black long stockings (figure 1). Short-sleeved shirts and long stockings are an unusual combination. He has close cropped hair. This was fairly common for school boys in Eastern Europe. A reader writes, "Yes, it does look like he is wiyh his grndfather and mother. The boy is wearing a short sleeved Peter Pan collar styled front buttoning blouse. He is hilding something in his right hnd, perhaos a cp orv hat. He is holding some sort of case and perhps a cot in his left hand. The knee trousers are probably buttoned to a waist under his blouse. His black stockings seem to be cotton or silk, I cannot quite tell but I am pretty certain they appear too thin for wool. His shoes cover his ankles but it is impossible to tell if they are tie or button shoes."

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Smocks] [Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer] [School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]

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Created: 11:42 AM 10/6/2024
Last updated: 11:21 PM 10/7/2024