Posted by Bob Hollis on 10/15/99 from 63.74.189.39:
In Reply to: Re: Girls'clothes in AR posted by Robert Thompson on October 14, 1999 at 23:37:12:
Hmmm. Sounds like two definitions of the same word, depending on your nationality. In the States, knickerbockers - which fastened just below the knee - were the official uniform of the Cub Scouts when I joined in 1947. They didn't go into long trousers until about 1950.
In the song, "Trouble," from "The Music Man," Professor Harold Hill asks, "Mothers of River City, when your children leave the house, do they re-buckle their knickerbockers below the knee?" In the 1920s, knickers were worn by the sporting crowd, the young men about town, who fastened them above the knee and let them fold over and cover the buckles. They were known as "plus fours" or "plus sixes" or "plus eights," depending on how far they draped.
For a present-day example of knickerbockers American style, take note of professional golfer Payne Stewart's attire.