Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows two girls with long wavy hair and their younger brother. The children look to be about 4-10 years old. The girls are wearing identical dresses with a pleaded skirt and large lace collars. Their brother wears a slightly smaller lace collar. Often during the Fauntleroy Craze, when the boys had fancy collars, the girls wore plainer collars. Here the girls have the larger collars. The boy seems to be wearing a blouse kiltsuit. There is an incription on the back of the card, bit it is difficult to read. We cn only maske out 'with love from Gracie and Eddie'. The photographer is Mailland (sp) at Myers New Block, Market Square in Stratford, Ontario.

We do not yet have much information about shirt-like garments worn by Canadian boys. Our Canadian rchive isrltively limited. This would include shirt-waists, blouses, and shirts. Blouses in particular were commonly worn by boys in the 19th century. Only after World War I in the 1920s do we see shirts becoming the primarty top garment worn by Cnadian boys. YThe blouse bcme more associatd with wsomn and girls. We would guess that trends were similar to Britain and America. We see some aspects that look American and others that look British. We see boys wearing fancy Fauntleroy blouses as in Ameica, but not as prevalent. We would guess that given the climate than flannel shirts were especially popular in Canada. The collar is the most visible part of a shirt, on past becuse a shirt is often coveredd by jackets or sweaters. We note both attsched snd detachbled collts. The fancy lace collrs her seem detachable (figure 1). The collar is idten often the elment which gives sa shirt its name. Because so many boys wore jackets, we often only see the collars. We do have some information on Eton collars. They seem particlarly popular during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Probably more common in Canada than America. We see quite a number of boys wearing lace and ruffled collars during the Fauntleroy Craze. We hope to develop this topic as our Canadian archive grows.

Shirt-like Garments Types

We do not yet have much information about shirt-like garments worn by Canadian boys. Our Canadian archive is reltively limited. This would include shirt-waists, blouses, and shirts. Shirt-waists sometimes called just vwaists were essentially shiryts without collars. Thet were made to be worn with detchable collars. Blouses in particular were commonly worn by boys in the 19th century. Only after World War I in the 1920s do we see shirts becoming the primarty top garment worn by Cnadian boys. The blouse became more associatd with women and girls. We would guess that trends were similar to Britain and America. We see some aspects that look American and others that look more British. We see boys wearing fancy Fauntleroy blouses as in America, but not as prevalent. We would guess that given the climate than flannel shirts were especially popular in Canada.

Elements

The collar is the most visible part of a shirt, on past becuse a shirt is oftncoibered by jascketsor sweaters. We note both attsched snd detachbled collts. The fabcy lace collrs her seem detvlsble (figure 1). The collar is idten often the elment which gives a shirt its name. Because so many boys wore jackets, we often only see the collars. We do have some information on Eton collars. They seem particlarly popular during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Probably more common in Canada than America. We see quite a number of boys wearing lace and ruffled collars during the Fauntleroy Craze. We hope to develop this topic as our Canadian archive grows.

Chronology

The trend in Canada durung the 20th century was toward more and similarity with Americn fashions.

Age

Gender

Created: August 9, 2003
Last updated: 8:32 AM 2/24/2022