Figure 1.--This Danish boy wears a three-piece suit with a cut-away jacket. The cut-away jacket was a popular style for a younger boy. Note the contrasting trim on the jacket and vest. The image is undated, but was problably taken in the late 1860s or early 70s. The portrait was taken in Kiöbenhavn (Copenhagen?). Image courtesy of the BP collection.

A suit is a set of clothing intended to be worn together. Normally suit garments are made of the same material, but this varied over time. We see a lot of early 19th cntury suits in which the jacket and pants did not match. A good example is an artistocratic boy in 1802. After the mid-19th century the cnvention of matched garments became more established. The basic suit garments were the jacket or coat and trousers. While this was the basic compnents of the suit, they were of course done in many different styles. There were also three-piece suits. The three-piece suits came with vests (waistcoats). The vests were normally made of the same material as the jacket and trousers, but some 19th century vests were made to contrast with the rest of the suit. There were also suits with matching caps, but this was much less common. We do not know of any destinctive Danish suit styles. The suits we have noted seem very similar to English styles.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 11:53 PM 11/8/2004
Last updated: 8:42 PM 2/22/2008