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Much more information omn color becomes available in the modern era. At first the major source of information was still paintings. We think that by the 16th century we begin to get more accurate color depictions. Of course a great deal of art was commissioed by the Church or the aristocracy and other wealthy individuals. Thus we know much more about the elite than the common people. We note both plain brown clothes in the 18th century as well as very colorful clothes. This can be seen in the individual 18th century portraits we have found. The sources of information on color become much more extensive and diverse in the 19th century. The development of photography in the 19th century brought us much more detailed information on clothing than ever before. Unfortunately almost all photographs in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century were black and white images. Interestingly this was roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Victorian era when blaxk clothing, especially for men, was very common. Colorized mostly tinted images, paintings, catalogs, and magazines provide some color images. The accuracy of color depictions varied. After World War II color photography becomes increasingly common, especially by the 1970s.
We hope to create pages on the colors of various garments. Here we have just begun to create these pages. This section is greatly complicated by the black-and-white photography of the 19th century and early-20th century. We note dresses in many different colors. We have a color page on American kilt suits. We note tunic suits in msany differen colors, but this caried substntislly over time. Because of the black-and white photography, Fauntleroy suits are commonly seen as black, but in fact were often done in colors. Another popular garment was the sailor suit. Of course blue and white were the two most important colors, but the suits were done in many other colors as well. We note boys suits mostly done in muted colors (blue, brown, and grey). We note suit with brighter colors used in the trim. A good example is Walter Pond's cut-away jacket that had bright blue trim. The casual clothes that became popular in the 20th century could be very coloful.
The colors used in boys clothing to a fegree varied chronologically. There was a substantial degree of consistency over time. We do, however, note chronological variations. We are developing chronological information on the use of color in boys clothing.
Much more information omn color becomes available in the modern era. At first the major source of information was still paintings. We think that by the 16th century we begin to get more accurate color depictions. Of course a great deal of art was commissioned by the Church or the aristocracy and other wealthy individuals. Thus we know much more about the elite than the common people.
We note both plain brown clothes in the 18th century as well as very colorful clothes. This can be seen in the individual 18th century portraits we have found. Early skeleton suits could be very brightly colored.
The sources of information on color become much more extensive and diverse in the 19th century. We note some brightly colored skeeton suits. We have little information about the color of tunics worn in the early 19th century. The development of photography in the 19th century brought us much more detailed information on clothing than ever before. Unfortunately almost all photographs in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century were black and white images. Interestingly this was roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Victorian era when blaxk clothing, especially for men, was very common. Colorized mostly tinted images, paintings, catalogs, and magazines provide some color images. The accuracy of color depictions varied. We note some younger boys wearing bright colors. The unidentified American boy here in the 1850s wearing a blue tunic (figure 1). We note another unidentified American boy in the 1870s wearing a bright blue suit, but we are unsure about the color depiction.
We notice a blue bow in the 1870s.
Certainly the developed of the chemical indusyry, especially in Germany during the late-19th century made a range of dyes available thet could be used by the clothing industry.
We know much more anout color in the 20th century. We still have to rely on colorized imasges in the early 20th century. A good example is a group at the Calvert School in the 1900s. High quality color lithography became increasingly common in the 1900s. This provides color images from caalogs and magazines. Commercially viable color photography appeared before World war II, but because of the War was not widely available and was very expensive. After World War II color photography becomes more common , although family snapshots in color it did not become widespread until the 1970s. An English reader tells us, "The one thing which seems to be highly interesting is the introduction of brighter colours. My auntie has given me some information that suggests that the brighter colours were due to the importation of nylon from America as it could maintain stronger, brighter colours for longer than cotton. After the 1960s flower power, there seems to have been a change to the way colour was viewed and used for fashion and this may have been when the current gender specific colours of blue for boys and pink for girls became more prominant. Im still investigating this and trying to find some sources to support this." [Burnett]
Burnett, Sian-Louise. E-mail message, September 8, 2008. Burnett is a university student researching the topic.
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