Freitag, 14. September 2012

long Stockings on Children´s Legs - Introduction



See also here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aryaman-stefan/





for the german introduction and the pictures klick on the right side on the black field on "Kinder-Strümpfe - Zeichnungen. Von 1880-1960"

um zur deutschen Einleiung und die Bilder zu gelangen, klick rechts auf dem schwarzen Feld auf "Kinder-Strümpfe - Zeichnungen. Von 1880-1960"

 
Long stockings on children´s legs – 
an old fashion or what?

One of my most personal special interests is the habit to wear long stockings, reaching more or less over the whole leg, or at the minimum just over the knee. I´m not talking about tights nor leggings. Long stockings are my love and longing since my early childhood.

In Middle and Northern Europe, in the days until about 1960 at least in the colder season, women and children covered their legs with various styles of long stockings, protecting and adorning the legs and thus their whole appearance. For children they have later come out of fashion. Perhaps partly because they were often worn in an ugly way, too much wrinkled or full of holes, or letting the bare leg-skin peep out of the upper garment which sometimes caused some scoffing by other kids.

At the beginning of their disappearance the long stockings were replaced by tights, but predominantly for girls and women, less so for boys to whom tights never became a general habit. So now, tights and long stockings seem to look very feminine to most people. But for me, and for a few more elder and younger people long stockings have become a fetish in the good sense, they are mostly inhabitants of the colder parts of the northern hemisphere where the stockings fulfill a good task against cold weather.

In order to recall the old fashion, and because published photographs and reports are rather seldom and blurred, I made a series of pencil drawings and published them in this blog, http://kinderstruempfe-lang.blogspot.de/ . The drawings were made following my own remembrance (born 1932) and several photographs in the internet.

It may be conspicuous that often the hem of the stockings and parts of the naked skin of the upper thigh become visible. This continously happened after since about 1930 the dresses, skirts and short pants became shorter and shorter and the length of the stockings did not increase that much. In my drawings the shortness of the stockings ís often expressed, may be in some cases exaggerated. But this was a peculiarity of those days between about 1930 and 1960.

A few more sites and blogs deal with long stockings as worn by children, a list of those known to me will be added at the end of these words.

Throughout my life I myself continued to wear various styles of long stockings - except between the age of 13 and 45 (now I am almost 80). I always was fascinated with long stockings – or long socks as the Americans say. It was not only my love for them but also the need to protect my paralized legs after a polio attac. In addition for me it became a „fetish“ as Niqkita . . .

(Sock Dreams: http://blog.sockdreams.com/author/niqkita/
    . . .  had it in a letter to me. So in Niqkita´s sense I feel as a „Sock Dreamer“.

Long stockings easily may sag down unless they are fixed in their position. This is done by an elastic band around the thigh above the knee, the original round garter, or by suspenders/supporters made of elastic band. The suspenders are fixed somehow at the underwear, either a bodice or suspender belt or girdle or other device. It was wanted that all these things be never seen to the outer world, but it happened. Before about 1885 boys did not wear long stockings, but it then became a fashion which quickly grew. Until 1930 they were mostly fixed with round garters but then the suspenders came up. In those years on school class photos almost all children wore long stockings – except the boys older than 15 or 16.

Suspenders were fixed at the sock either at one or two buttons sewn to the stocking or with the means of a wire clasp. All these things could have been made more beautiful than it happened. You can see modern ideas on Niqkita´s site http://www.sockdreams.com . I would wish that long stockings (not tights that are different) will become fashionable again, and more colourful than before. As mentioned I wear long stockings, often I have to buy ladies´ tights and cut the upper part off and thus create stockings for me. Because I always wear a long skirt, my stockings become visible to others. I enjoy my fetishable fashion.



















1 Kommentar:

  1. In addition I found that to wear Long Stockings help children (and grown ups, too) to feel better grounded, closer to earth, and thus get more self-assurance. Tights may not fullfill this task - except perhaps for children younger than five. My feeling is that I am talking about a certain spiritual health. In my comments on poictures in Flickr, Ipernity and Pinterest I added a few more observations.

    AntwortenLöschen