American Knee Socks: Accompanying Pants


Figure 1.--This studio portrait shows an unidentified boy wih his trusty pet terrier. The boy wears corduroy knickers with loud patterned knee socks. Notice how long they were with turn-over-top socks. The portrait was probably tajen about 1930. The studio was Dawson in Wooster, Ohio. .

American boys wore both short pants and knickers with knee socks during the 1920s and 30s. By the time knee socks had appeared, knee pants had gone out of fashion. Knee socks and sjort pants appeared at bout the sa,me time in America. Other hosiery were worn as well with both knickers and short pants. We still se both three-quater socks and long stockings, both very common in the 1910s. Long stockings ewre very common with knickers during the 20s, less commonly than with short pants. Three-quater socks were going out od style, but we still see them with sjhort psnts during the early-20s. Here age was a factor. We see far more boys wearing knickers with knee socks, primrily because knickers were much more common, at least with school-age children. Long stockings were still quite common in the 1920s, but much less so when we see most boys wearing knickers with knee socksduring the very-late-20s and 30s. Knee socks They were less common with short pants, primarily beczuse far fewer American school-age boys wore short pants. The peak of popularity was the 30s when large numbers of boys wore knickers. Knee socks became less common for boys when knickers rapidly went out of style in the 1940s. Sime boys wore knee socks with short pants, but not naly as many as wore them with short pants. We see some boys wearing knee socks with short pants, but they became increasingly dresswear. Short psants began to be seen as casual summer wear in the 1940s and boys did not want to wear knee soicks in the summer. This was especusally the case as they began to be seen more as girl's hosiery.








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Created: 10:53 PM 12/10/2014
Last updated: 10:53 PM 12/10/2014