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. As in America, some English boys had their curls cut before and others after breaching.

Many images of English boyswearing dresses look to be garments that just as easily could have been worn by girls with the same neck lines and styling. Boys wore the same dress styles that were fashionable at the time for girls. The boy here wears a dress withba low neck line just as his sister may have worn (figure 1). Later in the 19th century some more plain styles for boys developed. Not all mothers, howrver, used the plainer, less ornate styles. English boys, as did boys in other European countries and America, wore dresses when they were little until breched. The age of breaching varied from family to family and over time. The dresses for boys through much of the 19th century were indestinguisable from those worn by the boys' sisters. The styles were basically the same as those worn by English girls at the time. This did not change until the late 19th century when boy dresses became plainer than those worn by girls. Plaid was a popular fabric for boys' dresses, in part because it related to a boy's garment--the kilt. We do not know of any specifically English styles here. We do not know if the English pattern differed in any way with the general European pattern.

Created: May 17, 2002
Last updated: December 22, 2002