Figure 1.--Thiis unidentified family snap shot shows a boy wearing a Norfolk short pants suit with a flat cap, bow, Eton collar, knee socks and strap shoes. He seems to have pin-on wrist cuffs. The boy looks to beabout 5 years old. The photograph is undated. We would guess that it was taken in the late-1890s or early-20s. This is a summer suit, but work with dark knee socks. Black long stockings were stabdard for boys at the time.

HBC has not noted short pants suits being sold in America during the 1910s. Suits were available with knee pants, knickers and long pants, but I do not believe in short pants. We do note some boys wearing above the knee knickers with knee socks, looking somewhat like short pants suits. We have not yet found examples of boys wearing short pants suits, t least dated images. Suits were still very common in the 1910s. Boys commonly wore them, even to school. We do not, however, see short pants suits. We do note a few boys during the late 1910s and early-20s wearing above-the-knee knickers with knee sovks, leaving the knee bare. This looked raher like a short pants suit. We also have a number of undated images that could have been taken in the late-1910s. So it is not possible to tell just when these images were taken, theu could have been tken in the late-1910s or early-20s. Some of the images we have found do look like the 1910s. Most are, hoever, difficult to date with any certainty.

Additional Information

New style: 1920s

The Party: 1950s

Traveling in Europe: 1960s

British debate: 1960s

Boyhood memories

Created: 10:34 PM 4/9/2017
Last updated: 2:11 AM 4/10/2017