Figure 1.--Sailor suits suits were enormously popular in the 1890s. Many mothers were also smitten with ringlet curls for their sons. |
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Fashion has long been a European preserve. Men and women around the world have for generations emulated Europeans. Yet strangely enough, America has played a unique role in boys' fashions. European fashions in the 19th and early 20th centuries set the standards. This was true for both adult and children's fashions. Americans basically followed European fashions. It was in boys' clothes that America first made a fashion statement. For the first time, America in the late 19th century created a fashion that would be widely adopted in Europe. It is unclear to HBC why the first recognizeable American style emerged in boys clothing. Interestingly, that fashion was as far removed from the American spirit as one can imagine. That first fashion was the the classic Fautleroy suit which made its appearance in the mid 1880s. That style was followed by the turn of century by the Buster Brown suit. After World War I, American and European fashions diverged. Short pants were never as popular in America as in Europe. American boys more commonly wore knickers. It was after World War II, however, that American styles began to dominate childhood fashiions around the world. The smart,
wealthy set in America still looked for Europe to set fashions. But American boys knew what they wanted and it wasn't Italian strap sandals and English short pants suits. It was "T" shirts and blue jeans. By the 1950s this was a virtual uniform of American boyhood. In the next decade these styles spread to
Europe and eventually around the world. Even the Iron Curtain and the KGB was powerless against the relentless onslaught of American fashion. Today virtually any where you go you see baseball caps, "T" shirts, and jeans.
Fahion is intrincially linked with society and culture. The relationships are often not fully understood. This especially true in modern times, but even in histical period, these interelationships hve not been fully assessed, in part because historians have often looked on such matters as trivial. We have noted in building HBC that many foreign readers believe they have a good understanding of America, even those who have never visited America or met Americans. This is primarily American media, television and movies is almost unavoidable. Most Americans have never seen a foreign television program. Most foreigners are familiar with numerous American television programs, not to mention movies. This exposure gives many the impression that they are familiar with American culture. In fact, the American media convets many misleading impressions.
American boys' fashions basically followed European fashions. Most boys' clothing looked to Europe for inspiration, but often developed along different lines. One of the first true American boys' fashions was the Little Lord Fauntlerou suit, but it was inspired by European styles. After World War I, American boys fashions began to develop very differently than European fashions. American boys never wore short pants to the extent thast they were worn in Europe. nAmerican boys forst wore knickerscand later long pants instead of shorts. Eventually after World War II, it was American boys' fashiions that began to indluence European and other countries.
The basic garments worn by Amertican and European boys are fairly standard, caps, suits, jackers, sweaters, shirts, pants, hosiery, and shoes are fairly standard. The styles of these garments have of course widely varied over time and from country to country. Once striongly influenced by European fashions, American styled garments are now highly influential around the world. American blue jeans first penetrated the Iron Current years before American political and social ideas were able do so.
Many American boys clothing styles originated in Europe. European fashion has always been important in America, especially among the well to do. Affluent American mothers always wanted to dress their boys like little English boys. French fashions were also important, espcially forvyoungervboys. The Little Lord Fauntleroy suit was perhaps the first uniquely Ameican style, although it was heavily influenced by European sdtyles at the time. Only in the 20th century did American boys clothing styles begin tio significantly vary from European styles. The major difference is that American boys do not seem to have liked the short pants that became so popular in Europe after theybwere adopted by Baden Powell' Scout movement. American boys for the most part objected. While shorts were worn by youngervboys anf boys from affluent families most influenced by European fashions, most American boys wore knickers or long pants. Even Scouts and Cubs in America, for the most part, did not wear short pants, but mostly knickers. After World War II, the fashion flow reversed and it was American styles that began influencing European boys. By the 1940s, few American boys wanted anything to do with European fashions. Rather it appears to be that America has influence Europe. Long pants, jeans, "T"-shirts, sport shorts, sweat shirts, baseball caps, and baggy pants are all American styles. I can't think of an important American boys fashion since the 1940s that has been imported from Europe. Not that moms didn't like the European styles--American boys didn't like them.
Conventions for dressing boys have varied over time. One popular convention was to dress boys of similar age in similar or coordinated outfits. This varied from family to family. There were also many age associated clothing conventions these have varied over time as well as the populatrity of age graded clothing itself. One major such convention was dressing younger boys in skirted garments, but this convention declined after the turn of the 20th century. Another major convention was dressing boys in shortened length pants of various styles. Like breeching, obtaining one's first long pants became for many years a major milestone in a boy's life.
American boys wore generally short hair in the early 19th century. Bowl cuts were common in frontier America. Hair styles by mid century had become longer, often worn to or even over the ears. Some younger boys wore long-shoulder length hair, often done in ringlet curls but there were various styles. After the turn of the 20th century, short hair became increasingly common even with younger boys, especially after World War I. Very short hair vecame popular after World War II, especially in the 1950s. Boys wore crew cuts or buzz cuts. Destinctive national styles began to decline in importanmce with the appearance of the Beatles in the 1960s and longer hair became stylish for boys. Since the 1980s, boys hair styles in the United States and Europe have been remarably varied, although not destinctive by country. After the turn of the 20th centuiry close cropped hair has become increasingly popular both in America and Europe. HBC has not pursued U.S. hair styles in detail yet. This is primaruly because we focused on the general hair style page. Most of the images there and discussion is really about American hair styles, although we have begun to add more European information. As a result, we only have a few pages specifically about American hair styles. There is a page on 1960s hair styles and a HBC reader had provided details on his 1980s experiences. There are a few other pertinent pages and we will link them here as they come to muind.
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Boys have been photographed both at work and at play showing varying fashions over time. Boys have traditionally learned various crafts. Poor boys have earned money shining shoes. School and play became increasingly important in the 19th century. Images exists of boys playing games. American boys have been photographed with bicycles, marbles, group games like hide and seek, mummeldipeg, and others. Important activities include art, choir, dance, music, pets, school, Scouting, sports, and much more. Chemistry and erector sets used to be of great interest. Today of course it is the computer. Especially important activities for American boys are hunting and fishing, although this has declined somewhat as America continues to urbanize. School was an especially important childhood activity. And school portraits are an especially important
source of impormation about period fashions.
Many images exist of American families. These images are interesting because they show the fashions that all members of the family wore over time. The family portraits also add some cultural context as they provides clues as to the social status or occupation of the parents--until recently mostly the father. Most of the portraits are of the privlidged classes, but by the late 19th centuries falling prices at photographic studios had brought the family portrait within in the reach most American families. Thus family portaits provide wonderful historical records of fashion. They also offere fascinating insights into the strucure of the American family.
America of course has a very recent art history. Here some of the most valuable work was done by primitive or naive artists in the late 17th and early-mid 19th century before the advent of photography. These artists, while their perspective was often weak, commonly did provide very detailed reproductions of clothing in their portaits which is of emense
value in assessing historical fashion trends. Of course the greatest American portratist has to be John Singer Seargent, but unfortunately he painted only a small number of children.
There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to
how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references
are those in contemprary works. There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature. Of special interest to HBC is the large number of boy characters in American literature. Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating literay accounts which help describe characters and cultural trends.
To fully understand modern fashion trends, it is necessary to assess the mass media. Thecmedia was used to introduce new styles. The clothes worn by the rich and famous were influential. Gradually the styles worn by movie and then TV stars or just the styles pictures on television became important. In some cases certain styles that boys wore were not depicted in the mediam in some cases out of concern over the reactions of children and teenagers--potential patrons.
HBC is both a fashion and a history site. We do not believe that fashion can be viewed in avavuume. In addition, fashion offers a great deal of useful historical information. We have been expanding our background information on American history as HBC develops. This is to help put fashion changes into context as well as to assess how historical trends are reflected in fashion trends. Fashion trends and influences are also a visible reflection of interactions between countries. We also like to highlight the role that children were involved in and impacted by historical developments.
America has a wide diversity of ethnic clothes. The most Well known is the clothing of native Americans. Although the native American costumes are now no widely worn daily, they are worn at the native American pow-wows and other events heald around the country. Other ethnic costumes are mostly worn for ethnic events based on the ethnic costumes of the various costumes from which emmigrants came. There are a few exceptions such as the Amish who do wear their destimctive dress for every day wear.
No assessment of America would be complete without considering the immigrants that played such an important role in the American saga. All American except for Native Americans have immigrated from other countries. Most of the early immigrants came from the British Isles. Immigrants followed from every European country. Immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Svandinavia, and Africa played key roles. Blacks brought from Africa as slaves also played an important role. Important immigration also came from China and Japan. While these immigrants played a major role in the building of modern America, we think that their influence on fashion was relatively limited. Most of the children wanted to wear American clothes and lear Englisg so that they could fit in as quickly as possible.
No examination of historical boys' clothing styles in America would be complete wihout an examination of slavery which was a legal institution until 1863-65. HBC has very limited information on slavery and how slave children were dressed at this time, but it is an issue we hope to persue. There are limitations here as there are few photographs of slave children until he arrival of Federal troops in southern slave states. Soe of the photogrphs that were taken are of light-complexioned children. These are course are the offpring of white masters and slave women. These children often became houuse servants are were quitely shipped north by theie fathers.
The automobile by the 1920s had become an intrical part of the merican life style. Henry Ford with the Model T had made the car an affordable item for most Americans. In the prosperous 1920s many American families purchased cars. And with many families the car was a prized possession. Countless American children were photographed by the family car. It was in the 1920s that a family vacation in their car became an American institution and motels and roadside cabins sprang up all over america. These portraits by the fimely car provide interesting time-line views of children's fashions. Until the 1960s virtually all of the cars involved were American-built cars.
American mail order catalogs help to illustrate destinctive Americam clothing styles and changes over time in those styles. The available catalogs and advertisements provide a great deal of useful information both on garment details and chronological trends. At this time we have added most of the infirmastion to the chronology secrion, but we will eventully cross index the chronological entries in the garment section.
HBC has begun to collect information on interesting sites with useful information about clothing and history and related topics. We know many of our readers have specific interests and often want to pursue them in greater depth than they are currently covered in our web site. Hopefully they will report some of their findings back to HBC. Please let us know if you find important sights that should be linked here.
The great majority of images on HBC are single shot portraits or snapshots. We have a few sectiins where we have a set of images on the same boy or family to see how fashions varied over time. What we do not have, however, is how the various garments intereacted with each other. Getting dressed is a relatively simple matter today. Earlier it was more complicated. Children might wear buttin on clothing. There were also undewaists to hold up pants and stocking supporters to hold up long stockings. Underwear also used to be different and without central heating a more important part of a child's wardrobe. We thought it might be useful to take a family of three boys abd show how they might be dressed over time. The boys are Tom (age 4), Carl (age 7) , and John (age 12). We have chosen a middle-class family living in a northeastern city under comfortable circumstances. As a historical tool we also add images of how the boys might have dressed if they were not from a middle-class family. We will show how the boys dressed at different stages from underwear to overcoats. Our intention is to show this during decades to illustrate how the process of dressing and the fashions would have changed over time. We are using HBC as a source of information for the garments illustrated. This is a joint undertaking with Album1900.
We have found some images tht we cannot identify other than they are American. We can use the image to make assessments, such as chronological period or gender. These are images, however, that we have had difficulty assessing. We would welcome any insights that readers may be able to offer.
Here we have gathered details about American boys describing their clothing and boyhoos experiences. This information has come from a variety of sources. Some pages are based on available portraits with or without personal deails. Other pages are biographies of both known and unknown individuals. that American HBC readers have contributed details about their boyhood for the more recent decades. We have also added summaries of published accounts. Perhaps you have always wondered to write your aithbiography. Here is your chance. You are welcome to draft an outline and add details as you see fit. All we ask is that your account include details about your boyhood clothing.
HBC is compiling lists of sources that we have consulted or hope to consult in the process of compiling our assessment of American boys' clothing. Some of these sources are specifically about fashion and clothing. Others deal with childhood in general, but may include information about clothing as well.
Bremner, Robert. Ed. Children and Youth in America, 2 vols. (1971).
Griswold, Robert. Fatherhood in America (1993).
Kett, Joseph. Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the
Present (1977).
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