Figure 1.-- This is Didi, George, and Wally. They are 9-16 years of age. The boys are 9 and 16-years of age, The boys wear conservative dark suit with loud knee socks. Thchikdnive in awell-to-do neghborhood nd sttned prive boardng school.

We see boys wearing short pants, knickers, and long pants suits during the 1930s. It was perhaps the most diverse decade for boy's suit trousers. Knicker suits were standard for boys in the 1920s, not as common as in the 1910s or older boys, but still standard. This began to change in the 30s. Knickers suits were still common in the early-30s. After mid-decade, however, we begin to see more boys wearing long pants suits. Some boys wore short pants suits, mostly younger boys. The cut off point for short pants suits was about 10 years of age, but this varied somewhat. This varied from family to family. Some suits came with both knickers and long pants. We are not sure what conventions parents had in mind with this combination. There was also a social-class element with short pants. Short pants suits in additioThe choice of panrs does not seem to have ben seasonal. n to the agedifferential seem more common with affluent Americans than knicker or long pants suits. By the end of the decade, knicker suits were rapidly going out of style, but we still see quite a few in the photographic record. The dominant trend during the decade was the increasing prevalence of long pants, including long pants suits.

Created: 5:21 AM 5/21/2009
Last updated: 9:38 AM 6/3/2014