Trousers & underwear

There where many different sorts of trousers in the 1930s/1940s, who you where and your age influenced the kind of trouser you would be wearing.
Most trousers where part of a suit, these where extremely wide and straight, today most trousers are tight, if you would be wearning 1930s pants the shape of your leg would not be seen.
Like curtains the trousers went down to the ground, they didnt get wider at the end like those flares from the 1970s.
The end of the trouserlegs where usually folded back. Although zippers where known, most trousers still had buttoned flies. The trousers usually had no elastics, so braces or a belt where needed.
Boys always wore short trousers except on sundays or special days, like holidays and parties. At special occations they would wear miniature adult suits.
When boys where accepted as young adults (usually at age 14)they where allowed to wear longer trousers all the time, or the extremely fasionable Knickerbocker or as most Dutch boys called it; the Shit Catcher...
These trousers where closed just below the knee...this explaines the knickname...

A young boy wearing a long knickerbocker.

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This picture shows the 3 possible ways of wearing trousers in the 1930s and 1940s, the boy on the left is wearing knickerbockers, the two boys in the middle are wearing short trousers and the boy on the right is wearing long trousers.
You can also see that the boy on the right is the oldest, the boy on the left younger and the two boys in the middle the youngest.



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This picture shows more typical trousers for boys, note that the boy in the middle is obviously wearing suspenders.

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This picture shows how trousers often looked at the end of the war, people wore often repaired clothes, they couldnt afford to get new ones.
You can see that the man on the left had the bottom of his trouserlegs repaired or he may even be wearing trousers that are just too short.
He may even have outgrown them.

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Nice long trousers on a boy during a typical Dutch Date.
Although Dutch men and boys often put a bit of string around their legs to keep the trousers from getting cought in the bikes mechanism.

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This picture shows very clearly how wide and straight the trousers were.

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and finally...
Here is a rather nice picture of a large family, it shows all sorts of daily clothing from the late thirties or early fourties. Dresses, suits, jackets, hairstyles, its all there! May take some time to load.

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