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After World war when short pants began to be worn by American boys, there had to be changes made in the underwear worn by boys. The same was true of girls who began wearing shortr shirts. Long underwear was unsightly with short pants and short skirts. It was not so inportant when boys wore kneepants and knicker with long stockings. With short pants, however, shorter styles of underwear were needed. Obviously parents did not want to dress boys in short pants and long underwear. All the major companies producig underwear for children made adjustments to their product line.
Hanes is an underwear company still familar with consumers. A 1933 advertisement in Parents Magazine showed the new underwear stylesfor children. It included boys' and girls' waist union suits amd boys untaped union suits (i.e. without reinforcing straps and garter tabs) shows two different models of waist suits--one with ankle length legs and one with short legs. But in this case the styles are not differentiated by gender. A boy or girl could wear either style. Note that both styles have short sleeves, which were becoming more popular with children because of their greater coolness on the arms. Both the long-leg and the short-leg styles have reinforcing straps over the shoulder and two buttons for outer clothing at each side.
The Minneapolis Kinitting Works after World War I developed new styles of underwar for children. An ad in Parents' Magazine read, "Minneapolis "M" garments are universally accepted as the correct underdressing in juvenile styles. The fashionable French Type (short trunk) garments illustrated above are made for both boys and girls in all popular fabrics." The advertisement appeared in Parents Magazine during September 1930.
Here is on of the new styles of underwear that could be worn with short pants (figure 1). This Nazareth Children's Underwear ad appered in Parent's Magazine during October 1929, p. 53. . This advertisement for Nazareth Children's Underwear advised parents, "While Nazareth undergarments retain the old-fashioned comfort which only knitted fabrics can give, Nazareth styles are thoroughly modern. Necks, sleeves and legs are cut to harmonize ith junior styles in outer garments." The illustration shows a boy of about 12 wearing the "heavyweight" Nazareth waist union suit with short legs and short sleeves. This is a style designed specifically for boys. Girls had the equivalent but in a slightly different style, usually with buttons that came only half-way down the front.
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