Figure 1.--This younger American boy with his best friend wears above-the-knee knickers with patterened knee socks in the 1930s. The patterned knee socks date the photogrph to the late-1920s or more commonly the 30s. |
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We note knickers being long at several different lengths. Here we are talking about proper knickers and not the bloomer knickers worn by younger boys in the the 1860s and 70s. These include above the knee knickers, below the knee knickers, calf-length knickers, and ankle-length knickers. Of course these are just the basic alternatives. There were also gradiations between these basic alternatives. Knickers in America were initially made to be fastened above the knee. The material commonly fellover the knee so the fact that they buckeled above the knee is not always simple to detect in available photographs. And this is how American boys mostly wore knickers, buckeled above the knee during the 1910s and 20s when they were most common. Most boys wore knickers with long stockings. A few boys wore then with knee socks and thus they look more like short pants as the knne shows. This was not very common, but we do see some examples in the photographic record. We also see knickers wore at calf length, but this was not very common. We do note knickers that had cloth ellastic cuffs in the 1930s. These were all made to be worn below the knee. The ankle-length knickers were basically a European style and not seen much in America.
Knickers in America were initially made to be fastened above the knee. The material commonly fellover the knee so the fact that they buckeled above the knee is not always simple to detect in available photographs. And this is how American boys mostly wore knickers, buckeled above the knee during the 1910s and 20s when they were most common. This is not entirely clear from the photographic recotd because the knickers material blosed at the knee and tended to cover the knee anyway. It was most obvious when boys wore knee socks. Most boys wore knickers with long stockings. A few boys wore then with knee socks and thus they look more like short pants as the knee shows. This was not very common, but we do see some examples in the photographic record, mostly during a short period from the laste-1910s and early-20s. Knee socks became standard in the 1930s, but the knickers worn then tended to be cut longer so the knee did not show.
We do note knickers that had cloth ellastic cuffs in the 1930s. These were all made to be worn below the knee. This ment thast they were cut a littlke differently. It also meant that they could be worn with thebrightlycolored patterned knee socks without the knee showing which the boys did not like. We note in addition tonthe knickers thst buv\uckled that knickers with an elasticused cloth cuff appeared so boys did not have to bother with the buckle.
We also see knickers wore at calf length, but this was not very common. We are not sure to what extent knickers were cut at this lengh or perhaps boys were weasring sizes meant for an older boy. Of course boys vaet in size and some boys were shorter than their age cohart which could account for long knickers.
The ankle-length knickers were basically a European style and not seen much in America. We see ;asrge numbers of boys in Europe wrearing them, especially in the 1940s and 50s.
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