Jeans vs. shorts/ US vs. Europe

Boys imitate the kinds of men they admire. In the US that meant cowboys. So about a century ago American boys started wearing jeans which had originally been designed for cowboy requirements. Meanwhile, in Britain, boys admired the soldiers, explorers and scouts in the farther parts of the British Empire. Because most of those farther parts were in hot places, British men of the active sort began shortening their trousers -- "short trousers." Baden-Powell of blessed memory introduced the look in his "Scouting for Boys" and it caught on right away, quickly replacing the icky-poo Little Lord Fauntleroy look that had previously dominated boy fashions. Since Britain enjoyed cultural as well as economic and military hegemony at the time, people on the continent (and in places like Japan) began imitating British styles of dress -- thus we got men's business wear -- and boys in shorts. Alas for boyswear, British cultural hegemony was replaced by American and with it, jeans replaced shorts for many boys (the damage was particularly acute and regrettable in central Europe with the near-disappearance of those deliciously short lederhosen in favor of jeans.) But that was all two generations ago and boyswear has been changing for the better recently in all sorts of ways -- one of which is the return after a generation of real shorts-wearing by boys -- in the US as well. A few years ago, I wrote a piece about it reprinted here: https://www.boychat.org/messages/1548546.htm You also might find the thread linked below (a different thread) of interest. SR (Boychat.org link) Adult reactions to boys in shorts