Figure 1.--This CDV pprtrait shows an unidentified boy wearing a heavily embroidered jacketed dress. Notice the heavy pleating. The photographer was M, Auty in Tynemouth. This is a pictureaque village located at the mouth of the River Tyne along the northeast coast of England. It is only a few miles from Newcastle. The boy looks about 4 years old. The CDV is undated, but was probably taken in the 1880s. Click on the image to see a portraot of who we believe to be the same boy in his public school uniform.
At the begiining of the 19th century, brothers and sisters appear to have worn identical dress stles with little or no differences. Gradually some detinctive dress styles developed for boys. A basic trend was that boy dresses tended to be simpler. Sailor styled dresses appear to have been very popular for boys, but were not exclusively wor by boys. We also notice girls wearing sailor dresses. We have noted portraits of English boys wearing sailor dresses. Some look rather like middly blouses worn with skirts while others are clearly one-piece dresses. Here it is not always easy to tell the difference. We also notice jacketed dresses. The dress the unidentified Tynemouth boy here is wearing is a good example (figure 1). Dress styles are not something we know much about. Hopefully we can develop more information as our English archive expands. Hopefully readers who know more about dresses can help us here.
Empire Dresses
This was a popular style in the earl-19th century. Little boys wore them along with girls and women. They were commonly done in white.
Sailor styled dresses appear to have been very popular for boys, but were not exclusively wor by boys. We also notice girls wearing sailor dresses. We have noted portraits of English boys wearing sailor dresses. Some look rather like middly blouses worn with skirts/kilts. These might be called kilt suits. Other slirted outfirs are clearly one-piece dresses. Here it is not always easy to tell the difference. Our archive of 19th century Engkish images is limited so we have not yet been able to address much information about sailor dresses. We are not sure when they first appeared. We do not even know if the first sailor dress were worn by boys or girls. Some were styled traditionally, but there were other sailor-inspired dresses. Sailor dresses for boys seem popular in the 1890s, but declined sharply in the 1900s. They continued popular with girls for some time.
Jacketed Dresses
We also notice jacketed dresses. The dress the unidentified Tynemouth boy here is wearing is a good example (figure 1).
