Figure 1.--Here is a microfilm image of a 1902 Eaton's ad for various kneepabnts outfits which they call short pants. |
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We notive an interesting advertisement from Eatons' Spring and Summer catalog for 1902, p. 93. These are all knee-pants suits sold for "youths"-- that is, boys in the upper teen years from about 15 5o 20 years of age. The ad uses the term short pants although the garments look more like kneepants.
T. Eaton's was a well known Toranto department store. Their catalogs provide a good indication of the styles popular in Canada at the time. This Canadian retailer began publishing mailorder catalogs in 1881, at least that is we begin noticing them. We have catalogs from the 1970s, although we do not know about the company's current status. The 1970s catalgs were full of clothes which look like American styles. Timothy Eaton, founder of the huge all-Canadian department store
chain bearing his name, was an Irish immigrant born on a tennant farm in northern Ireland. He was born in 1834 and followed his brothers to Canada in 1854. His brothers had opened a small dty goods store in St. Marys. Timothy Eaton began his business with a small dry goods business in Toronto during 1869. He built a giant retail store in Ontario’s capital city along with a country-wide mail-order business and a big new branch store in Winnipeg, by the time of his death in 1907. The Winnipeg branch was the first of many branches. Eaton Company business establishments eventually spread all across Canada when Timothy’s family successors extended the Eaton
empire. Timothy masterminded the company during the crucial period of its early development, spanning nearly 40 years. It was Timothy who implemented the concept of the "Department Store", in Canada, a concept which were already flourishing in London, Paris, and New York.
Here is an interesting advertisement from Eatons' Spring and Summer
catalog for 1902, p. 93.
These are all knee-pants suits sold for "youths"--
that is, boys in the upper teen years from about 15 5o 20 years of age. Ages
are not given. The shopper buys these suits by chest measurement in sizes
from 27 to 33 inches. Unfortunately, the complete text describing these suits
is missing from the microfilm, but the illustration shows that boys as old as
20 were still wearing knee pants with long stockings.
The advertisement calls
the suits "short pants" suits, but knee pants are obviously meant since the
pants in all cases come just to the knee and have ornamental buttons at the
knee. The image is dark but the usual number of buttons at the knee was
three.
Various styles of suit jackets are shown--both single-breasted and double-breasted. Some suits are three-piece (with a vest) and others are only two-piece. At the lower left we have two belted styles resembling Norfolk jackets. The youth at the extreme lower right is wearing a knee-pants dinner jacket with rolled satin collar and a dress white shirt with studs and a black bow tie. Except for the knee pants and long black stockings, he is dressed
the same as a young adult for a formal dinner or party or the opera. Notice the variety of hats. The boy second from the left (top row) wears a sort of tam or beret with a tassle at the back. The shorter boy standing next to him appears to be carrying a flat cap with a bill. In the bottom row, the youth second from the left wears a very grown-up Homburg hat with the brim curving up at the sides. The conception of boys' clothes shown here for older teen-
agers is essentially that of grown-ups except for the knee pants and the long stockings. A few long-pants suits for boys about 18-21 are also shown in the same catalog, but the majority of suits for boys this age feature "short pants". Full adulthood in male dress seems to have come only at about age
21.
The colors
range from navy blue and black to "light grey", "fawn", and "dark brown". The long stockings worn always seem to be black.
Notice the boy in the knee-pants "dinner jacket" suit at the lower right (figure 1). He has a collar with satin lapels. This is a knee-pants version of the standard adult dinner jacket or
tuxedo. The two terms are interchangeable, but "dinner jacket" is the term used in England and Canada for "tuxedo". Notice that the boy is also wearing an evening dress shirt with studs and a black bow tie.
Aeader werites, "Even though the image quality was poor, the page displayed here is an interesting bit of data on Canadian styles. I was especially struck by the knee pants dinner jacket--obviously for a "youth" from the age of 18-21. I think there would have been various formal events for boys of this age that required formal
dress. What I thought especially striking was the fact that the dress required was adult in every respect but the knee pants and long stockings and that the term "youth" was used--something in between a boy and a man. This is a good illustration of how boys on the threshold of manhood could still be required by their parents to wear knee pants in 1902. I wonder if the same attitude would have prevailed in conservative parts of the United States as well as in Canada."
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