Figure 1.--This unidentified and unattributed portrait shows an English boy wearing what looks to be a dark green velvet dress in the 19th century, probably the early-19th century. There is no collar, but a wide square open neck. Also notoice the voluminious sleeve treatment. As in America, some English boys had their curls cut before and others after breaching. Click on the image for more information.

There are many elements that go into the contruction of a dress. The neckline is a very important element of a dress. Some dresses had open necklines of various depth. Others has close necklines with or without collars. Open necks were very common in the early-19th century, but closed necks, often with collars were more common in the late-19th century. Other impoortant elements include the shouder treatment, sleeves, boddice, waistline, skirt, and hem as well as other parts of the dress such as lining. The back and front are usually quite quite different. Generally dresses button at the back, although we note some boy dresses in the late 19th century that buttoned at the front. A dress might also have a back-tieing bow. Dresses might be done to coform with the fashions of the day whicvh were often incompstable with the needs of a young boy. Or they might be practical, simple garments with vety few fashionable influences.

Necklines

The neckline along with the bodice are integral to the overall dress design. They are the two most important elements determining the look of any dress. A fashionable dress is designed for women. And in a woman's dress a neckline is cosen to emphasizes or deempohasize the the bosom. Of course this has nothing to do with a boy. But boys did at times wear fashionsable dresses conforming with the fashions of the day. Open necks were very common in the early-19th century, but closed-necks, often with collars were more common in the late-19th century. Open neck collars were done to various depths. and shapes. We see some dresses done with low necklines like fashionable ladt might wear. We see rounded, "V", square, and rectangular and countless refimenents of those basic shapes. Higher cut nckline around the neck were more common. There are three basic styles: on the shoulders, off the shoulders, sand strapless. Children open-neck dresses were normally done as on the shoulder dresses. The neckline was decorated in various ways with lace or other decoration. Closed-neck collars were also done in awide range of designs and with various decorations. Closed neck dresses along with high necklines were common for children. Some had collars that might be buttoned.

Bodices

The bodice of awoman's dress is desined to delineates the torso. A woman's fifgure, primarily her boosom and waistline, determine the design of the bodfice. On a boy's dress it simply follows styles determined by women's fashions. The bodice served, however, the very practical purpose of holding the garment, usually from the shoulders. Each component of a dress is affected by the design of the bodice. It is essentially the foundation of the entire dress. It affects the construction and fit of the dress. Theoretically the bodice should be must be tailored to the length of the wearer's torso. For children this is complicated by the fact that they are growing. This problem was in part solved by the fact that before the 20th children, garments were more expensive in relative terms. And families were larger. Thus children also inherited hand-me-downs from older siblings and relatives.

Sleeves

The sleeves begin at the shoulders. There were various ways to deal with sleeves. Dress designers experimented with the various options. And thus shoulder treatment varied considerably. We do not think that there were any gender connotations here, at least in the early- and mid-19th century. This may have changed in the late-19th century as the convention of boys wearing dresses began to go out of style. Baloon or puff shoulders were very popular for children's dresses. And at times were employed for women's dresses. There were also plain shoulders and sleeveless dresses. The sleeves were done in different lengths, basically short, elbow, forearm, and long. Here seasonality is a factor. The sleeveless and shorter lengths are popular for the summer while the longer lengths are used more for winterwear. The width of the sleeves also vary. They are done as narrow, wide, and full. Sleeve trens also varied chronologically. We see very wide sleeves in the mid-19th century. We see huge ballon sleeves popular for women in the 1890s. We do not yet have a large enough archive to develop these trends, but hope to eventually do so.

Waistlines

The neckline and bodice of a dress frame the wearer's face as well as the neck and shoulders, the waistline is another key element of dress design. It determines the overall silhouette. The waistine is one of the modst important focal points of any dress and sesigned to either show off or hide the woman's figure. For children this is essentially stylistic as children do not have figures until they reach puberty and boys were of course breeched well before this. We note dresses with both defined waistlines and without any waistline. Dresses are dome with a range of differet waistlines. There are Empire, high, natural, low, and dropped waistlines. An empire waist is a seam tucked just under the chest. Empire dresses were popular in the early-19th century. It was a style of French origins referrng to the Nsapoleonic Empire. A high-waist is positioned somewhere across the rib cage. O nchildren this would be about 1 inch above the natural waistline. A natural waistline is a seam located right at the child's actual waist. A Basque waistline is made from two curved seams that form a �V� just below the natural waistline. It is not normall used on children's dresses. There are also kidney shaped or S-shaped waistlinesas well as other waist treatments. A low waistline in a child'd dress is about 1 inch below the natural waistline. The dropped waist is a horizontal seam that is more than an inch below the natural waistline. The sropped waistline was very fashionable atvthe turn of the 20th century. The princess dress is constructed with two vertical seams that taper to the hem without any defined seam at the waist.

Skirts

The drape and detail a dress skirt significantly affects the look of a dress. It is the most destinctiuve features of a dress. Both shape and fabric contribute to the look of the dress. The skirt can be done in seceral different ways: hand pleating, petal-backs, side-drapes, side-swags, curved seams, layered hems, and other approaches. Skirts were done in various shapes: full, circular, narrow column, and others. The narrow column was often used for childen's dresses. The skirt provides various dunctions: volume, surface interest and movement, and thus sifnificantly affects the style of a dress. A major factor here was length. This was affected by two major factor. First was women's fashions. This through the 19th century was long, covering the abkles. Second was age. yoinger children could wear long dresses, but they were also allowed to wear shorter-skirts, various lenhs beginning below the knees.

The Back

The back of a dress is important for a womsn's overall look. It is less important vfoir a child's dress, except for the most formal creations. Most dresses buttoned at the back and this was especially common for children's dresses as mother had to help younger children dress themselves. Decoration need not be restricted to the front of a dress, although it is usually not extensive in te back of a cgild's dress. Details, such as rusching, gathers, twists or folds can be continued in the back. Many childrens dresses did have waisline strands died in a bow at the back. They served little practical purose and were essentally ornsamental.

Trains And Bustles

Fashionable women's dresses might have trains and bustles. Children's dresses did not have trains. Busles were fashionable for women in the lsate-19th century. They were rare for younger children. We do see some older girls wearing formal dresses with small busrles.

Created: May 17, 2002
Last updated: 11:06 PM 3/19/2015