Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows three brothers about 5-8 years old. We see noth sailoe sduits and lapel jackets. All three wear knee opants suits with black long stockings. The portrait is ot dfated, but the new style mounts help to date the portrait to about 1905.

We do not have much information on 8-year olds in the early 19th century. Some boys may have worn knee breeches, but long pants soon became standard for boys of all ages. This continued until mid-century. And thanks to photography we can follow this in some detail. After mid-century, especially by the 1860s, we begin to see younger boys wearing shortened-length pants. Long pants also continued to be worn by many boys of all ages. We see many boys at age 8 wearing cut-away jacket suits in the 1860s, some with knee pants and others with long pants. It was less common for older boys to wear shortened-length pants. This began to change in the 1870s with more younger boys boys wearing knee pants. We see a range of suits including both collar-buttoning suits and lapel suits. Sailor suits had become popular.By the 1880s, knee pants had become standard for boys up to about 10 years of age. Fauntleroy suits were usually worn by younger boys, but 8-year olds did wear Fauntleroy blouses and suits with Fauntleroy trim. The age conventions gradually increased and by the late-1890s even teenagers were wearing knee pants, except in rural areas. Knee pants were, however, virtually universal for 8-year olds. This continued until the late1900s decade. It is at this time American boys suddenly began wearing knickers. Younger boys up to about age 8 might wear knee pants in the 1910s, but mostly boys switched to knicker suits. We begin to see short pants suits (1920s). Most 8-year olds wore either knicker or short pants suits. This began to change in the 1930s, by the end of the decade knickers began going out of style and even younger boys were beginning to wear long pants suits. We see both short and long pants suits in the 1940s and 50s, but long pants were becoming the dominant pants type by the 1960s. Short pants suits were only common for pre-school boys by the 19790s. By the 1980s we mostly see long pants suits even for younger boys, but by this time dress had become so casual that suits were becoming less-and-less common.

Created: 11:49 PM 12/28/2023
Last updated: 11:49 PM 12/28/2023