German Lederhosen: Lengths


Figure 1.--This unidentified German boy looks to be about 14-15 years old. Lederhosen came in many different lengths, depending on the prevailing fashions. this farm boy in 1931 wearsratherblongbLederhosen with knee socks and high-top shoes. Notice the rather rumpled work shirt and suspenders. He looks as though he has been helping with chores on the farm and is dressed more for work than for school.

Most Lederhosen are short pants. Some shorts pants Lederhosen were quite long,rather like Bundhosen, but had no closures. While these are the two basic types of Lederhosen, the short pants type come in many different lerngths. We thus see short, medium, and long Lederhosen. Here there seem to be two factors involved. First was the popular fashions of the day. We notice knee-length Lederhosen in the 19th and early 20th century whern short pants were either not commonly worn or very long. We begin to see shorter cut Lederhosen in the 1930s when boys began to wear shoerter-cut shorts. This was much more the case in the 1940s. And in subsequent decades the length of Lederhosen followed the popular length in which other short pants were worn. Short cut Lederhosen, for example, were popular at mid-century. The second factor is age. Lederhosen are not cheap. Mothers commonly brought a large size. The halters commonly worn with them could hold them up. They had a cuff like arrangment that could be turned down as the boy got taller. As Lederhosen were vurtually indestrutable, boys often wore them for years. Thus older boys with Lederhosen bought a few years earlier would be wearing pants much shorter than when they were first purchased.








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Created: 10:33 PM 12/18/2010
Last updated: 10:33 PM 12/18/2010