Up until the latter part of the nineteenth century, little boys clothing was
virtually the same as their sisters. Boys wore dresses until they were
"breached" at about the age of four or five. In the early 1900's toddler boys
began to be clothed in short pants or rompers. They were styled in the
above-the-knee fashion for little tykes, and below-the-knee for their school-age
brothers. American boys between the two world wars wore knickers suits. Little
boys wore shorts and were always anxious to graduate to wearing knickers.
Knickers came to be a symbol of American boyhood in the years from approximately
1910 to 1930, boys wearing knickers up until about the age of 13 or 14.
