Figure 1.-- This looks like a birthday party. Some boys were still dressed up for birthday parties--you can see a mix here. The snapshot is undated, but looks like it was taken about 1960. The younger boys in the back wears suspender shorts and saddle shoes. (They may be clip on suspenders.) We suspect that the shorts were part of a junior Eton suit. Some children still were dressed up for parties, but it was becoming less common. Another boy further back wears suspender pants that do not look like clip on suspenders.

Short pants declined in popularity during the 1950s, except for younger boys. This was especilly the case when dressing up. We believe that most of the shorts worn with junior Eton suits were suspender shorts. Here it as little difficult to be sure as the boys in available images usually thave their jackets on, thus covering up the suspender straps. We think that most suspender shorts in 1960s were worn as part of suits. A boy in the image here is a good example (figurev 1). A Reader writes, "The image reminds me when I was invited to a friend's birthday party and my mother insisted I wear a short pants suit with clip on bow tie. It was identical to the boy in the back including the saddle shoes with dark socks (mine were knee socks to match the dark gray shorts). I also wore an Eton jacket which the birthday boy's mother insisted I remove so it would not be ruined during the party. Like the boy in the image, my suspenders were clip on (I think they look like clip on). The date was similar as it was around 1962." We do see some casual suspender shorts. Most casual shorts for younger boys, however, were boxers with elaticized waistbands. A matter of convenience for both moms and boys. Most boys don't like to fuss with clothes, so the elasticiaed waists were what they liked to wear. They were east to slip on and off. And even at a very early age hey could put them on. We begin to see shorts in bright colors. This was most common for boxers, but we also see casual suspender shorts done in bright colors. We see short pants becoming more popular by the end of the decade, but mostly casual and play horts. These were not normally done as suspender shorts.

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Created: 2:01 PM 1/5/2022
Last updated: 2:33 PM 1/7/2022