Figure 1.--These unidentified German children, who seem to be about 7-9 years old, wear typical German school clothes of the 1950s. The girl wears a cotton dress or pinafore with shoulder straps that look as though they might be adjustable, but they seem to be sewn shut--presumably mothger who probably was a home sewer could adjust it. The gir wears her pinafore over a warm sweater. The boy wears Lederhosen with a halter over a striped woolen sweater. Both wear brown cotton long stockings, probably held up by Strapsleibchen, although the garters seem rather loose, which creates wrinkles at the knees. This is probably because the elastic of the supporters has lost its stretchiness and needs to be replaced. Some strict mothers were somewhat fussy about wrinkled long stockings on their school children.

Lederhosen were to an extent seasonal, but in the first half of the 20th century, German boys wore Lederhosen during the winter. At the time short Lederhosen were much more common than the knickers-length Lederhosen, esopecially for bopys. Hosiery in Germany was highly seasonal during the first half of the 20th century, much more than Lederhosen. This was because most boys wore knee pants, bloomer knickers, or short pants. Thus to help keep warm during the winter, boys wore long stoickings. Girls did the same. There were other reasons for wearing long stockings (modesty and formality), but seasonality was very important. Many children had heavy long stockings for really cold weather. This began to change in the 1950s when long pants began to become more important. As a result, we see boys during the winter and the fall and spring wearing Lederhosen with long stockings. This could vary. Some mothers put out stockings based on the weather. Other mothers had an approximate date when they shifted from stockings to socks. Thus some children might wind up wearing long stockings on warm days or conversely socks on cool days. As far as we know there was no special association between Lederhosen and long stockings. Althiugh when worn for outdoor activities as opposed to school, we think boys often preferred socks and the older boys still wearing long stockings probably manahed to convince mothers on this.

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Created: 7:19 AM 6/10/2009
Last updated: 7:19 AM 6/10/2009