Figure 1.--This boy near Hamelin during 1954 wipes his hands on his pants. Long stockings got progrssively longer as boys wore them with shorter and shorter short pants. Click on the image for a discission of the wide range of clothing styles being worn.

Germany is one of the countries in which long stockings were especially popular and continued to be worn even when they went out of style in many other countries. The German clothing industry until after World War II was very important and German fashions affected styles in many neighboring countries, including Scandinavia and Central and Easter Europe. German boys up to their teens very commonly wore long stockings. We note boys wearing short, mid-length, and long long stockings. It is difficult to fully assess the length of those stockings as the boys in many images are wearing kneepants or longer-length short pants and we have virtually no catalog information. Most of our information from from portraits and snapshots. We have begun to collect information on different lengths of long stockings. We also have inforrmation on diifferent decades which provides some insights on chronological trends. German boys until the 1930s mostly wore long stockings with kneepants and rather long, knee-length short pants. With knee-length pants, the length of the stockings were normally just a little above the knee. German boys up to their teens very commonly wore long stockings. We note boys wearing short, mid-length, and long long stockings. We also have information on diifferent decades which provides some insights on chronological trends. German boys wore long stockungs in the 19th century, but our information is very limited on the lengths prevalent durng this period. We believe that they were relatively short because of the long length of the kneepants boys were wearing. We have much more iunformation on the 20th century. German boys wore long stockings throughout the first half of the 20th century.

Influence

Germany is one of the countries in which long stockings were especially popular and continued to be worn even when they went out of style in many other countries. The German clothing industry until after World War II was very important and German fashions affected styles in many neighboring countries, including Scandinavia and Central and Easter Europe. As ourinformation is more limited on countries like the Baltic Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovalia, this is a helpful factor the bear in mind.

Lengths

German boys until the 1930s mostly wore long stockings with kneepants and rather long, knee-length short pants. With knee-length pants, the length of the stockings were normally just a little above the knee. German boys up to their teens very commonly wore long stockings. We note boys wearing short, mid-length, and long long stockings. It is difficult to fully assess the length of those stockings as the boys in many images are wearing kneepants or longer-length short pants and we have virtually no catalog information. Most of our information from from portraits and snapshots.

Chronological Trends

We have begun to collect information on different lengths of long stockings. We also have information on diifferent decades which provides some insights on chronological trends. German boys wore long stockungs in the 19th century, but our information is very limited on the lengths prevalent durng this period. We believe that they were relatively short because of the long length of the kneepants boys were wearing. We have much more iunformation on the 20th century. German boys wore long stockings throughout the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s the length of the stockings became more complicated as boys began wearing shorter cut short pants. HBC is not sure why shorter shorts began to be worn at this time. One HBC reader believes was due to an increasing spirit of athletici, which called for shorter pants, especially in warmer summer season. This required mothers who continued to insist on long stockings to either to buy or make longer stockings for spring or autumn or for the evening hours. Thus long stockinfs which were initially made ar lengths just above the knee gradyually were made longer and longer, extending well above the knee. Some boys found that that the hem of the stockings never reached the lower hem of very short shorts. Most objected to this, espcially as their stocking supporters including the white button or the metal clasps would show. All this was by some children consdidered as extremely girlish or childish and were teased by other boy. There were other boys (and their mothers) to whom this did not matter. We see fewer boys in the 1950s, but the lengths of the stockings by that time were quite long because of the shorter cut shorts boys were wearing.