Figure 1.-- This English CDV show four chrmingly posed unidentified siblings about 6-14 years old, two boys and two girls. Notic th older girl is a bit fed up wih her younger brothers. The portrait would have been taken about 1870, we would guess 1868 or 69. The girls wear identical voluminous dresses with colored pantalettes bd whiye long stockings. The boys may also be dressed identically, but their hair parts are different. We only see the suit that the boy in front is wearing. He wears a cut-away jacket with bloomer knickers, white long stockings with high-top shoes. The photographer is Robert W. Thrupp in Birmingham. He was patronized by the Queen and Princess of Wales. They would have travelled to Birmingham, he probably traveled to them.

We notice bloomer knickers, especilly in the mid-19th century. By bloomer kniclkers we mean pants that were closed at the knee hem by a drawstring like a blouse. Proper knickers were closed with buttons or clasps. The bloomer knickers were worn by younger boys, often with cut-away jackets. Our initial assessmnt is for boys about 4-10 years of age. With only a limited number of images to work with, we cannot yet be definitive. We mostly see them being worn as part of suits and not stand alone garments. Unlike proper knickers and knee pants, bloomr knickers were wlways closed at or near the knees. We see a lot of these bloomer knickers, at the mid-19th century. A good example is an unidentified English boys wearing cut-way jackes with bloomer knickers about 1870. Notice that the younger boy wears pantalettes. Bloomer knickers were worn rather like knee pants and were more popular in England than in America. We see a few in America, mostly the 1860s, other wise we mostly see knee pants and long pants. It was a major difference between Anerivn and English fashions. The only time we see many American boys wearing these bloomer knickers was when tunic suits were popular (1900-20). Britiish boys in contrast commonly wore these bloomer knickers for an extended period. We see them wearing both bloomer knickers and knee pants, but the bloomer knickers were highly common. For example most English Fauntleroy suits were one wih bloomer knickers rather than knee pants. American Fauntleroy suits were done almost exculisively with knee pants.

Created: 5:14 PM 8/12/2022
Last updated: 5:15 PM 8/12/2022