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 København (Copenhagen). Image courtesy of the BP collection.

The tuxedo was a formal suit which was probably mostly worn by boys from affluent families. We are not sure what the Danish term for a guxedo was. This was certainly the case in America and we suspect the same was true of Denmark. We note a portrait of a boy in a knee pants tuxedo with white vest and tie. . The portrait was taken ny Kai Kanneworff, we think in Horsholm. We are not sure how common knee pants tuxedos were, but it probably reflects how common knee pants for boys were in the 1890s and 1900s. As the tuxedo was a formal suit, the knee pants tuxedos were worn with black long stockings. HBC has used the term "tuxedo" as a kind of generic term for formal wear. A HBC reader points out that this is not correct and tuxedo is not even the most formal style of formal dress. He also provides some uinformation about formal dress in Denmark. He tells us, "The Danish boy is wearing a short coat like a dinner jacket or tuxedo but a white tie and waistcoat like full dress, so he comes somewhere in between the two levels. This may seem like quibbling in the climate of today's flexible and casual customs, but in 19th-century Europe, the rules were quite a bit more rigid. In upper-class families in Denmark even today, the rules of formal dress are still usually insisted on. I know this because I have a close friend who attends such functions regularly in Copenhagen. I suspect that the boy is in junior full dress because of the white tie and waistcoat even though he doesn't wear a tail coat. I suspect that the absence of the tail coat is a concession to his age, which I would judge to be about 11 or 12. years old."

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Created: 3:39 AM 6/8/2009
Last updated: 2:40 PM 6/8/2009