Figure 1.--Boys' play wear in the 1970's reflected that decade's growing informality and more relaxed attitudes towards modesty. The short denim shorts shown here are typical of what American boys under 12 years typically wore on hot summer days by the end of the decade. Here is an ad from Zayre's department store, circa 1978, for boys' shorts and tees.

A major trend was thatthe differences between American and European pants continued to close. While there were still differences, they were much less pronounced. This varied somewhat from country to country. We still see many boys in Britain wearing short pants suits and blazers with shorts, but almost always as required school uniforms.

America

American boys in the 1970s dressed mainly in blue jeans and other kinds of long trousers, but shorts, especially worn with white tube socks, became an almost equally popular style for casual wear and sports. One American boy looks as though he were dressed for sports with his Adidas v-necked tee shirt, his dark blue soccer shorts, and his white tube socks with the blue stripes just below the knee. (See figure 1.) Another American boy is similarly dressed, not for a game but for ordinary after-school activities. (See figure 1.) He wears short cut brown OP cord shorts with striped over-the-calf tube socks but with a golf open-necked shirt. Notice that the shirt is worn outside his shorts and not tucked in. Camp shorts which were worn in the 1960s became a very popular style in the 70s and were widely sold by chain stores such as a 1978 K-Mart ad. These shorts, although advertised as proper to be worn to summer camp, were worn for numerous other purposes as well. Notice the prominent pockets at the side with buttons—a style that later came to be known as the “cargo pants” style. These shorts have wide keepers (loops) for a belt, although no belt is shown in the present ad. Boys had begun favoring very wide belts. These shorts could be worn with knee-high tube socks, like the models already discussed, but this ad shows the shorts as worn with ankle socks—undoubtedly white athletic socks. Another catalog page for camp shorts shows one of the two boys wearing dark blue shorts with a wide leather belt and a red soccer tee shirt. These shorts were usually worn with white athletic socks—either over-the-calf or ankle length. The other boy is show in long pants with a popularly styled sports jacket. American fashion designers invented dressy clothes for younger boys to appeal to mothers who wanted to show off their sons as belonging to the elite. This hound’s-tooth checked suit with matching jacket and short pants looks as though it would only appeal to the Park Avenue set and was probably not widely worn throughout the country. We can’t see whether knee socks accompanied the outfit but it is safe to imagine that they did. Even the advertiser spoke of this suit as “experimental. In the 1971 Penny’s catalogfeatured several styles of camp shorts worn with white ankle athletic socks and white sneakers. Notice the different kinds of side pockets (one with zipper) available in these shorts and also the metal attachment to the belt for a penknife or other camp gear. A 1973 Sears summer catalog offered bell bottomed jeans, together with jean jackets (modeled on a man’s Western style). Notice that the boys wear these jeans with colored sneakers—in one instance red sneakers. Casual short pants were advertised on the same page, but the long pants seem to have been the main attraction. The jean jackets and jeans were available in a kind of dusty rose color as well as blue. Cut-off blue jeans had also become popular as casual boys’ wear, as had running shorts, especially in the warmer climates and seasons. The ragged edge of cut-off jeans was part of the desired style, and some boys created them by simply cutting off the legs of their their regular jeans. Both kinds of shorts, cut-offs and running shorts, were usually worn with short-sleeved tee shirts or knitted sport shirts. We see two American boys on vacation during the summer wearing popular styles of casual shorts. Both boys wear over-the-calf tube socks with prominently colored stripes at the top. These socks had spandex elasticized threads in the upper section—a form of knitted-in garters-- which kept them from slipping down and looking “uncool.” One of the image-making movies of the decade was the charming film, “Breaking Away,” about the famous annual bicycle race held in Bloomington, Indiana. In the film, the bikers are not only college students from Indiana University but also the “Cutters” (a miscellaneous group of Bloomington high schoolers and teenagers. The film, made on location in Bloomington, accurately reflects the teenage dress of the period, and in the example offered here, shows one of the boys wearing a typical high school outfit—a red and white baseball shirt, short-cut white shorts, and red and white tube socks (red and white being the colors of Indiana University where much of the film is set). Shortalls continued to be a style for upper-class and fashionable boys in their younger yearsOne of our “society” exposures shows a boy in a sleeveless black velvet shortall with a white shirt. (See figure 3.) His doting mother has dressed him in white tights and strap shoes for some obviously party event. Many boys of the period would have hated this somewhat precious getup because of the teasing they would get from other boys. Shortalls with white tights seems to be the 1970s American equivalent of the Fauntleroy suit, so common in earlier times. But we have very few examples of boys actually wearing such clothes. The style may have been principally a designer’s idea of how a boy at a formal party should look. American Boy Scouts were wearing short pants more, no longer just at camp. We see the BSA promoting the short pants uniform for Cub Scouts with knee socks. (See figure 3.) Notice the prominent garter flash on the legs and the neckerchief. Most Cubs, however wore their uniform with long pants.

Australia

We note Australian schoolboys dressing very conservatively for the 1970s. One boy wears a blazer with piping around the lapels while the other wears a sweater. Both wear knee socks with the school stripe around the top. Note that one boy has trouble keeping his socks from slipping down.

Canada

Czechosovakia

Czech Young Pioneer uniforms during the 1970s) seem to have consisted of long trousers rather than the shorts that the boys would have worn in earlier decades. Notice the red neckerchiefs. The country of course was still within the Soviet sphere of influence.

England

English boys during the 1970s wore both long and short pants as part of their school uniforms. One typical scene shoes two English boys in corduroy shorts with matching jackets and grey knee socks. The boy on the left has left a bit of his white elastic garter showing. Garters were encouraged to keep knee socks from falling down, but many boys seem to have been somewhat careless about the need for them. Blazers were part of the school uniform in some schools. This English schoolboy in 1977 wears a striped blazer with shorts and knee socks. Notice the collared shirt and tie. Degrees of formality varied from school to school. We see an English schoolboy in long trousers in 1970. He wears a shirt and tie, a blazer with the school shield on its breast pocket, and contrasting grey flannel long trousers. Another photo shows both short and long trousers worn at the same school. Both school boys wear the regulation grey pullover with shirt and tie, but one boy wears short pants with knee socks while the other one wears longs. In this school there was apparently a choice. The American style of camp shorts had spread to Europe by the mid-1970s, although they were never as popular in Europe as they were in America. Note an English catalog in this photo, the two boys wear no hosiery at all. One is barefoot while the other seems to wear suede rubber-soled blucher shoes without socks. English Boy Scouts were wearing long pants, but Cub Scouts still wore the traditional grey short-pants uniform with knee socks. (See figure 1.) Notice the prominent garter flash on the legs and the neckerchief.

France

Germany

German schoolboys wore both short pants and long trousers in the 1970s. We note a secondary school class shows more boys with longs than with short pants. But lederhosen were still being worn. Notice the boy on the right who wears his lederhosen shorts with the traditional cross-piece halter and argyle knee socks and sandals. Another boy wears shorts with ankle socks. In both cases, the shorts are extremely brief. All the boys wear informal shirts without ties. The older style formality in school dress seems to have almost totally died out. Notice the dark glasses on one boy, a detail that we would never have seen in pre-war schoolboys. Of course German boys wore shorts for soccer, occasionally with tights to protect their upper legs from the chill. A German boys’ soccer team may have been photographed in the early 1980s rather than the 1970s, but it illustrates the German custom of wearing tights for soccer games. It is interesting that in the present instance only some of the boys have adopted this practice.

Ireland

The costumes that boys wore for the popular activity of Irish step dancing in the 1970s were admittedly specialized, usually involving a kilt and neatly pulled up knee socks. This boy seems to be a beginning step dancer, a boy who hasn’t yet fully enough joined into the practice sessions to wear the kilt. But his mother has approached the desired style by dressing him neatly in a white shirt and tie with trim shorts and black knee socks. Notice his carefully polished shoes.

Italy

A Sicilian boy wears a summer one-piece garment (somewhat like an American wrestling singlet) that has a sleeveless top and very brief legs. It looks almost like an old-fashioned swimming suit, but, worn with flip-flops, it appears simply to be a play suit for an Italian boy of about 6 or 7 years. This is a garment that we have not noticed worn in other countries. It is obviously appropriate only for a warm day.

Japan

The American idea of jean shorts seems to have spread to Japan by the 1970s. One Japanese boy wears extremely brief jean shorts (without the ragged edges of cutoffs, however) with white knee socks. The look is obviously a Japanese adaptation of an American style but looks much more European than American. Notice the sweater with push up sleeves worn over a knitted golf shirt. During the 1970s we see a variety of Japanese school uniforms, some military in design. We note school uniform styles which may cover more than a single decade but it clearly includes the 1970s. All the different styles involve the new European style of extremely short shorts, and all but one also involves black or white knee socks. One style features ankle socks. Japanese schools, for the most part, did not encourage the wearing of long trousers for boys until at least their middle teens. Notice also the various kinds of headgear prescribed. We see a group of Japanese schoolboys in another photo (see fig. 3) wearing short pants uniforms and distinctive brimmed hats. Notice that both white knee socks and white ankle socks seem to be permitted. Some boys wear suit jackets while another boy wears only a white shirt. Notice the backpacks. Japanese boys wore tights, not only for formal occasions but also sometimes for additional warmth. We note one Japanese boy playing the cello at a recital dressed in short pants and colored tights (obviously as a replacement for the older-style long stockings and worn partly for reasons of formality). A younger Japanese boy wears white tights under short pants as appropriate for school (See figure 2.)

Morocco

Netherlands

In Holland designers advertised coordinated clothing, not only for younger brothers and sisters, but also for mother. A Dutch ad shows a mother, a daughter, and a son wearing checked red shirts and red shorts or skirts held up, in the case of the two children, by buttoned on suspenders. Notice the bare feet. These clothes seems more eye-catching and cute than practical, and one wonders how many boys and girls were actually dressed like this. Short pants, however, continued to be popular for youngsters in the Netherlands during the 1970s.

New Zealand

Norway

Norway is famous for its heavy winter-weight sweaters. Some boys wore these sweaters with color-coordinated tights as an alternative to short pants or long trousers. Although a very young boy is shown in this illustration, the wearing of tights was not only for very little boys. Tights not only replaced the long stockings that had been worn in earlier decades but served sometimes also as a substitute for trousers (and also for long underwear).

Poland

In Poland the famous Poznan Nightingales, a boys’ choir, wore attractive red jackets over white shirts and tie, dark short pants, and white knee socks. Some of these boys were as old as 13 or 14.

Scotland

The school uniform at Arbelour House in Scotland involved blue sweaters over shirts with ties, blue cord shorts, and grey knee socks. The extreme shortness of the shorts is notable, another clear mark of the 1970s.

South Africa

In Africa British styles of school dress tended to prevail with even the older boys being required to wear short pants and knee socks. One of HBC’s photos shows two boys of about 17 or 18 dressed in shorts, knee socks, and short-sleeved shirts and ties in front of their school. Some commentators have thought that this school was in Kenya, others that the picture comes from South Africa. Another African school (perhaps Kenya, perhaps South Africa) shows a class of older schoolboys wearing tan shorts, shirts with school ties, and, in some cases, sleeveless sweaters. They wear knee socks with turnover tops held up very neatly by garters. These boys seem to be as old as 18. The African schools appear to have held on longer than schools in England to conservative standards of dress in the 1970s.

Soviet Union

Some Russian mothers in the 1970s began substituting tights for long stockings to be worn under short pants, although long stockings did not entirely die out. We see a Russian boy wearing tights under his shorts, worn with an open jacket or cardigan sweater and a shirt buttoned at the neck. Many Russians considered it improper for boys from the better families to wear long trousers until at least near or reaching their teens, although this became less common by the end of the decade. We note another Russian boy who seems to represent a fairly typical use of tights in Russia to replace long stockings worn with short pants in the 1970s. Tights do not seem to have been worn exclusively in Russia as cold-weather garments. We note boys in the warmer seasons, for instance, wearing tights under their shorts even when they are also wearing sleeveless or open shirts. These boys look as though they are dressed for play rather than for some dress-up occasion, but one suspects that their conservative mothers thought tights (or long stockings) as opposed to bare legs was simply the appropriate wear for their younger sons, even in informal situations. We note a boy model wearing a modern version of a boy’s sailor suit, worn with white knee socks, appeared in a Russian fashion magazine during the decade. This appears to have been a somewhat upper-class fashion in a theoretically classless society. An even more improbable style of long-pants suit can be seen by clicking on the image. A different Russian fashion magazine showed another fashionable boy in matching shirt and short pants made out of a somewhat busy patterned material apparently more suitable for a girl’s dress than for a boy’s suit. Again the outfit is worn with white knee socks, one of the clear markers of class in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. As we understand the Soviet fashion industry, few actual boys dressed this way.

Switzerland