Figure 1.-- This CDV was taken at the Studio of R. Totherwick, Berwick upon Tweed in the late 1860s. This boy wears a dress made to look some whatlike a plaid kilt. He also wears pantalettes. The subject is unidentified, but looks to be about 5 years old. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

HBC has not yet been able to identify chronological trends associated with dresses in England. We have very little chronological information at this time, but we hve begun to collect some information. Younger English boys wore dresses and other skirted garments throughout the 19th century, although this practice varied widely from country to country. Both boys and girls appear to have worn the same style dresses in the early 19th century. Later in the 19th century boys began wearing more dectintly styled boy dresses. This was increasingly common by the 1880s, but again many mothers had their own very personal idea about what was suitable for boys. While some mothers continued to prefer fancy dresses, other mothers like sailor or plaid dresses. We do have an image from the 1880s with a boy wearing a sailor dress with wide-brimmed hat. Plaid was also a popular pattern for boys, presumbly because it appeared somehat like a kilt, which was a male garment. Likewise kilts and kiltsuits were also worn by boys.

The 1830s

We do not have a lot of information on the 1830s yet. The era before photogrphy was developed is much more difficult to research than the era beginning in the 1850s when photographs begin to appear in large numbers. In addition, some of the images we have been able to obtain are not dated or identified. This complicates our assessment, but as best we can determine the dresses worn by boys were essentially the same as those worn by their sisters. Rhe empire dresses popuilar in the early 19th century began to be replaced by more fuilly cut styles and bright colors were very popular. We also notice dresses with loe cut bodices and bows at the sleeves.

The 1840s

The 1850s

The 1860s

We note quite a few images of younger English boys wearing dresses in the 1860s. Some of them suggest a beginning attempt to differentiate boy and girl dresses. Sone of these images are easy to identify as boys, especially the ones in wgivh the child has short hair. Some are more difficult. Here we see an example of a 1860s boy. This CDV was taken at the Studio of R. Totherwick, Berwick upon Tweed ,probably in the late 1860s (figure 1). This boy wears a dress made to look some whatlike a plaid kilt. The choice of plaid was an effort to make the outfit look more boyish. The outfit here is clearly not a kilt, but a dress. Dresses worn by boys earlier in the 19th century were essentialy the same as those worn by their sisters. Here we see an effort to create a boyishly styled dress. The boy also wears pantalettes. The boy is unidentified, but looks to be about 5 years old. Notice the stick he is holding which would be a kind of riding crop or whip. This is one of several indicators that the child is a boy.

The 1870s

Boys wore dresses that were similar or identical to the omes girls wore, including dresses with low neck limes. Agood example is Godfrey Arthur Harding Rendall , an English boy that lived near Harrow.

The 1880s

The 1890s

The 1900s

After the turn of the 20th century the fashion of dressing boys in dresses declined rapidly. We still see some boys wearing dresses, but only very young boys. Not boys by age 4 or even 3 years were wearing kneepants. This varied from family to family. Boys that did wear dresses tended to wear plain ones, not the frilly ones their sisters might wear. This varies somewhat for boys from rich families.

Created: June 30, 2003
Last updated: 1:14 AM 4/16/2008