Figure 1.--The German girl here is doing her First Communion. She would be about 7 years old. Her brother might be doing First Communion with her. (Did German parents have siblings do First Communion together. This mean one would have to wait for the other.) He does seem to have a flower boutenaire. Her brother looks about 8 or 9 years old. He wears long-cut short pants. Notice the black long stocklings.

The pants an 8-year old boy might wear varied from country to country during the1920s. American boys at age 8 might wear short pants, but knickers were more common. Many boys at about 8-9 years of age shifted from short pants to knickers. Many boys wore their knickers below the knee. Some boys still wore kneepants in the early 20s. A good example here is 8 years old Warren Sonneman all dressed up in a kneepants Norfolk suit in 1923. Most European boys wore short pants at age 8. Kneepants might be worn for dress occasions, but after the early 20s were rapidly replaced with short pants, although they were usually nearly as long as kneepants. They were often worn with both kneesocks and long stockings, depending on the season and the boy's age. Kneesocks gradually became more common, especially for older boys, but this also varied bt country. Shorts were normally worn year round: for play, school and dress occassions. The German boy here wears a short pants sailor suit. They were very common for boys his age. The black kneesocks were probably for a formal occassion rather than warmth.