Figure 1.--Color is difficult to assess in bacl and white photofraphs, but it seems clear to us that this boy is not wearing a black suit or stockings. The suit and stockings seem to mstch and the most likrly color is brown. The portrait is not dated, but lookds like the 1920s. (The AZO stamp box was two triangles up and two down.) At the time black long stockings were very common.

We believe that boys in the 1860s-80s commonly wore stockings that matched or were close to the color of their suits. This is very difficult to prove because of the black-and white-photography, but it our current working hypothesis. While we can not assess the color of stockings with black and white photography with any certainty, it is often possible to spot black stockings. And it seems to us that most stockings in the 19th century were not black. And if they were not black they had to be come color. The primary exception was white stockings which seem very popular in the 1860s. Other than white, many of the images suggest that the suit and stockings matched. We also note striped stockings in the 1870s and early-80s, but these could be matched with the suit. We note black stockings were very popular in the 1890s and 1900s, but before that we think colored stockings, especially brown shades, were quite common. This convention changed somewhat in the 1890s when black stockings became increasingly common and were worn with suits of every color. While black was very common, we do see colored stockings that matched the suits as well. Light brown shades or tan long stockings became very popular after World War I, but primarily for younger boys wearing casualn styles. Dark brown was not common, but the tan shades were. Boys wearing knicker suits were more likely to wear black stockings in the 1920s and louc knee socks in the 1930s.

Created: 6:42 AM 10/7/2010
Last updated: 6:42 AM 10/7/2010