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Children still commonly wore long stockings in 1926. Many styles of underwear included support features for both pants and long stockings. The variety of stocking supporters is an indicator of how common long stockings were. We note both waists and garters. Several companies with a large range of product offerings. They were featured in both the Sears and Wards catalog. There were also several manufactuers that advertized in newspapers and magazines. One important manufacturer was Nazareth. Stein was another important manufacr\tuer. They were better known by the Hickory brand.
A Ward's catalog (Spring and Summer catalogue for 1926, p. 131)
offered garter waists for boys in sizes 2-12 years of age which they label as "hose supporters". These garter waists were primarily to hold up long stockings. They were in essence a form of stocking supporters. Long stockings were still breing commonly worn by both boys and girls in 1936. They were, however, rapidly being replaced by kneesocks which did not require these gsarter waists.
This underwaist ad is from Ward's 1926 Spring and Summer catalog, p. 156. There are five models shown here--all but one suitable for both boys and girls. The puff waist is for girls only. Two of the waists are of knit design and fit the upper body closely. The other three are of cambric and don't stretch but are somewhat cooler to wear in summer. All of these
waists have additional buttons for attaching pants, skirts, bloomers, etc. All are equipped with tabs for hose supporters.
Here are five different styles of underwaists offered by Wards in their Fall and Winter catalog (1926-27), p. 77. There is some variety we haven't seen in other waist advertisements, and the choice of styles shows how popular--or at least necessary--these garments were for younger children. All of these waists are unisex--suitable for both boys and girls. The ages are also uniform--from age 2 to 12. Boys and girls didn't necessarily abandon the wearing of long stockings at age 12. Some continued to wearing full length stockings into their mid-teens, but, if older children wore long stockings, they usually switched to garter waists with the supporters already attached.
Two of the waists are of knitted material and were preferred by some mothers because of the extra warmth they provided as underwear.
Here is an ad for Ward's Summer Waist Union Suits from the Wards Spring and Summer
catalog of 1926, p. 77. These summer-weight waist union suits are offered in
styles for a boy or a girl. These suits are for boys and girls from 2 to 12 years old. They were popular in the summer because they allowed children to dispense with an additional underwaist. Short trousers or skirts could be buttoned to the waistband of the waist union suit, and supporters for long stockings could be pinned to metal tubes attached to the waist.
The George Frost CompanyHere made garters for boys who had graduated to long trousers. We know very little about the George Frost Company which manufactured the Boston garter. They were located in Boston which perhaps ecplains why they were called the Boston garter. This ad appeared in The Youth's Companion for April 3, 1926, p. 559. This ad for boy's garters, appealing to boys who have just graduated to their first long trousers and want to wear the kind of garters their fathers wear to hold up calf-length socks. Before boys got their first long trousers, they wore garters of a different type--either (a) pin-on hose supporters for long stockings attached to underwaists or waist union suits or (b) round garters to be worn around the leg just below the knee to hold knee socks in place. Once they had abandoned knickers or short pants and had got their first "longies" (usually at about age 17 or 18), they could begin to wear garters like those of adult men.
Hickory was one of the best known brands of waists and garters. They were advertised in the Ladies Home Journal (May 1926, page 179). Notice the obvious association with school--a garment school children would need almost universally. Hence the school books in the background. The lower illustration also shows how the garters were attached--that is, pinned onto tabs with metal eyelets at the hips. Hickory waists and garters were the best known American brand during the 1920s and were widely promoted in local newspapers as well as national magazines such as the Ladies Home Journal. These waists were for children of both genders from age 2 to age 14. They were manufactured by Stein & Company out of Chicago. In the 1920s long stockings were quite common for both boys
and girls up to the age of 14. Boys commonly wore long stockings with both short trousers and knickers.
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