Figure 1.--This CDV shows a proud father and son. The boy looks to be about 4-years old. This was proably his first suit after beaching. Notice how long the knee pants were. Also notice the elaborate leaf embroidery on the boy's pants. The portrait is undated. We would guess that it was taken in the 1870s, but the late-60s is possible.

Generlly speaking, men's suits are not highly decorated, at least beginning on the 19th cemntury. They are often quite plain. And any decoration if it exists is almost always on the jacket rather than the trousers. This in part is why suits are generally described based on the style of the jacket where most of the styling and decoration is located. There are two major exceptions to this, spaced a century apart. We notice pants for younger boys with extensive embridery in the 19th century, primarilyh in the 1870s. We think this began in the late 1860s, but because so few available CDVs were dated, we can not be more definitive at this time. So far we have primarily noted this in England. We can not say this was only in England, we se some examples in America. As far aswe czan tell, nowhere else but England was it so prevalent. But even in England it was not that common and was atyle for children from affluent families. Working class children did not wear these heavily decorated pants which would have been expensive. The only other example of decorated pants are jeans worn a century later, primarily in the 1970s. Here wee asre primsarily talking about girls. Decorations included applique, bangles, bows, embnroidery, fabric, frills, hem bands, lace, patches, asnd studs (especially sparkly rhinestone studs). The posibilities were endless. Boys of course also commonly wore jeans, but were mich less likely to decorte them.

Created: 7:02 PM 3/30/2022
Last updated: 7:02 PM 3/30/2022