Figure 1.-- This photo of a German Leibchen (vintage clothing) shows the standard Leibchen worn by German boys and girls in the 1950s for holding up long stockings. It is essentially a simple armless undershirt with reinforcement straps over the shoulders with four elastic hose supporters fastened in front and and in back to the straps. Notice how short the supporters are--an indication that in the 1950s long stockings were worn very long to cover the entire upper leg. We can see buckles on the leastic straps for adjusting the supporters to the correct length.

This photo of a German Leibchen (vintage clothing) shows the standard Leibchen worn by German boys and girls in the 1950s for holding up long stockings. It is essentially a simple armless undershirt with reinforcement straps over the shoulders with four elastic hose supporters fastened in front and and in back to the straps. Notice how short the supporters are--an indication that in the 1950s long stockings were worn very long to cover the entire upper leg. We can see buckles on the leastic straps for adjusting the supporters to the correct length. In the 1950s these Leibchen were essentially unisex garments worn by both boys and girls up through about age 12 years. We have a few statements by German contributors saying that boys as old as 14 yeaers sometimes had to wear these Leibchen, especially on Sundays in the more rural parts of Germany, where suits with short trousers and long stckings were insisted upon by mothers for wear to church and for other dress-up occasions. These statements also tell us that although most boys didn't have to wear short trousers to school after the age of 12 years, many boys still wore long stockings for warmth under long trousers, and would have needed the Leibchen for support.