Figure 1.-- This boy is identified as Virgil Matthews from Knoxville, Tennesee and the snapshot is dated August 13, 1925. That is probably his home on the background. Unless the information was on the back of the snap shot, we might have guess he was a little younger. Flat caps continued to be standard in the 1920s. Notice how he has buttoned his collar. And we see that black long stockings and high-top shoes were still being worn.

The age of boys wearing knickers declined in the the 1920s. The primary change is that we no longer see many older teens wearing them. We noticed 15 year olds wearing knickers, but not nearly as many as in the 1910s. And they were still fairly common for younger teens. We notice Sears offering knickers suits in 1925 made up to age 15 years. We note a pattern for a reefer coat made in sizes 8-14 years. It is shown with knickers, although I'm not sure the pattern included the knickers. By the 1920 knickers many boys were beginning to get long pants at about 14 years of age and many high school boys were asking for them. We still see some 15 year olds wearing knickers in the 1920s in the photographic record. Of course many photographs do not have ages indicated and we can only estimate, but have found dated images to help confirm age trends. This can be followed in some detail in the school records we have collected.

Created: 4:26 PM 10/21/2018
Last updated: 4:26 PM 10/21/2018