Figure 1.--Here we see Edward and William in 1878. Edward wears a kneepants suit with a bowler hat. William wears a longpants suit. Click on the image for a fuller discussion of the boys' clotyhes.
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Figure 1.--Here we see Edward and William in 1878. Edward wears a kneepants suit with a bowler hat. William wears a longpants suit. Click on the image for a fuller discussion of the boys' clotyhes. |
There are 35 images of the Robinson family, friends and environs in this album are wonderful rare and clear examples of what boys were wearing in the affluent upper-middle-classes in England at the time. This collection is also of benefit to us as so many of the images are full-length, when most images of this period are
simply head and shoulder portrait shots. The boys mostly appears in formal outfits like suits, showing the formality of the day in clothing. They always wear long pants, although by the 1870s shortened lrength pants like kneepants and knickers were becoming increasingly popular for younger boys. We also see the boys in
sporting gear for cricket, important as many popular boys' styles developed from English cricket.
We notice the boys with a variety of headwear. The photograph here shows Edward wearing a bowler hat (fihure 1). William had a formal top hat. Here I am not sure how common this was. We are not sure just how a boy William's age would have worn a top hat. Was it a school hat or one that William coomonly wore. Another interesting type of headwear was what looks like a smoking cap. We are not sure how the boys would have described these caps at the time. Here we are a little suprised to see younger boys wearing these caps. We are guessing that they may have been borrowed from adults rather than caps these boys actually had and wore. Unfortunately we have virtually no information on these caps.
We do not have a lot of information on shirts. This is because in so many of the photographs the boys are dressed formally in suit coats and vests (waistcoats). We do notice Edward wearing a very modern looking shirt for cricket. We also notice the boys wearing Eton collars.
We see the boys weraring quite a range of neckwear. The interesting point here is that the boys never seen to wear open neck shirts, even the younger boys and even when playing some sports (cricket). Presumably an exception was made for football, soccer and rugby. We see Edward wearing a very modern (if conservative) looking rep necktie for cricket. Other pictures show the boys in much larger neckties, I think thst these might have been the kind of wider black ties with Eton collars that the boys wore at school. We also notice William wearing a tie that looks something like a bowtie. A picture of Edward shows him wearing unidentified neckwear that we can not yet really describe.
The boys mostly appears in formal outfits like suits, showing the formality of the day in clothing. The jacket Edward wears with his knee pants suit does not have lapels, but rather buttons to the collar (figure 1). The jackets mostly seem to be cut like sack suits. Presumably the boys also had blazers for cricket. The jackets are single breasted and cut with very high-set lapels. There was not yet conventions for buttons on these suits. One photograph shows a school friend with a suit jcket tht had five buttons. Suits were commonly worn with vests (waistcoats) a a photograph of the school friemds show. We notice the boys wearing vests and pants that contrasted with their suit jackets. We also notice Edward wearing a dark suit with a matching vest and trousers. We are not sure about the color.
The Robinson boys in most of the photographs wear long pants, although by the 1870s shortened lrength pants like kneepants and knickers were becoming increasingly popular for younger boys. Edward was a prep-school age (8-13 years) boy. Here in 1878 Edward wears kneepants (figure 1). He appears to have received a new long pants suit, perhaps his first long pants suit, soon after the portrait here was taken. The convention of younger boys wearing shortened-length pants like kneepants or knickers was becoming invreasingly set. Older boys, however, were not yey commonly wearing the shortened-length pants. A range of factors were involved her such as social class and family income as well as where they lived. Families in the big cities were more exposed to fashion tends. The boys because they surely attended boarding schools would have also been exposed to trendy fashions as the boys came from affluent familieds.
We are not entirely sure about trioser spension. As the boys are wearing jackets and vests (waistcoats) in most images, we are not sure about trouser suspension. One impage does show Wdward wearing a very fancy belt for cricket.
We do not see the boys wearing clearly identifiable school uniform. We think that private schools did have uniforms at the time, but the uniform standards were more flexible than might be the modern conception of a school uniform. One portrait of Edward and a friend along with William shows what boys may have been schoolwear at the time.
We also see the boys in
sporting gear for cricket, important as many popular boys' styles developed from English cricket. A portrait of Edward shows him in his cricket whites
Edward here with a kneepants suit wears long stockings. It is difficult to be sure, but they look like black long stockings (figure 1). Other photographs suggest that the boys wore ankle socks with long pants.
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