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We notice in the 1918 that the Charles Williams store catalog offering a wide range of wash suits for younger boys. Here we see the styles offered (figure 1). We know nothing about this store other than it was in New York. The suits here are for boys 3-8 years old. Some stores offered these or similar suits in pre-school age groups. These suits include sizes for boys in the early primary years, but school portaits show that most boys wanted more mature styles, especially after the first grade. Here we see some of the Williams offerings. Tunic suits were still popular, but notice that the tunics are now being styled more like jackets and are no longer the longer knee-length style we saw in the 1900s and early-10s. Also notice the poularity of Norfolk and Oliver Twist styling. Notice that the pants are straight-leg knee pants beginning a transition to short pants rather than the bloomer knickers we see in the 1900s and early-10s. This is not to say that straight-leg knee pants were exclusively worn at the time, but they were becoming more popular as the style of short pants became increasingly adopted for younger boys. There are matching hats and caps which could be purchsed separately. Although not part of the outfits, the Williams ad has a lot of interesting information about hair styling, hosiery and footwear. And as it is a color advertisement, it provides useful information about color in boys' clothing--something we do not get from themostly black and white images of the day. And of course the ad shows a little pariotic fervor as the country was emersed in World War I. Note one of the boys is wearing two bar closed toe sandals. We did not see any other imagaes of anyone wearing these in the rest of the catalog. Single bar strap shoes appear to have been the most popular style at the time for both boys and girls.
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