United States Girls' Clothes: Neckwear Types: Floppy Bows

girls plaid dress
Figure 1.--Here Efy May Turnbull wears a plaid dress and lace collar with a relatively modest floppy bow. Note what lokks to be a pin in the bow. This was a tin-type portrait. As the original paper frame was saved, we also know the date the portrait was taken, June 19, 1882.

We are not yet sure about the gender conventions associated with floppy bows, but have begun to address the topic. Them may have changed over time as did the popularity of the bows. We note that in late 19th and very early 20th century that boys often wore floppy bow, sone times quite large ones. We see boys wearing floppy bows quite commonly when dressing up. It was not only boys who wore floppy bows, but we see many more bows wearing them than girls during this period. And the bows girls wore do not seem as large as the really huge ones that younger boys commonly wore. The chronology for girls wearing floppy bows may also be somnewhat different for that of girls. After World War I, the floppy bow becme less commonly used, but we do see younger boys wearing them in the 1920s. They seem less common for girls.







HBC





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Created: 12:08 AM 9/19/2008
Last updated: 12:08 AM 9/19/2008