American boys wore blouses and shirts with many different collar styles. Some collar styles were very ptominant. Others more modest. Younger boys in the late-19th century might wear lace collars. We also note plainer Eton and Peter Pan collars, although that term was not yet used. By the turn of the 20th century, ruffled collars becamme more common. A good example here is a boy in Washington, Pennsylvania about 1905. Many school age boys in the late 19th and early 20th century wore Eton collars when dressing up. By the 1950s preppy styles were popular, Many boys wore shirts with button-down collars. Collarless "T" shirts became increasing popular in the latter patof the 20th century. One reader writes in 2006, "I have great difficulty getting my son who is in 5th grade to dress up. He doesn't even like collared shirts and insists on wearing T-shirts to school because of peer presure. He tells me, 'Mom the other guys don't wear those shirts."
The button-down has small buttons at the tips of the points. Few boys and men currently wearing button-down collars are aware of its historical origins. And we are not entirely sure ourselves. We know that the origin is English even though that button-downs are not commpnly worn there. The button-down collar was apparently developed by English polo players in order to prevent flapping during a match). Polo players at first wore formal cotton dress shirts, but had the collars buttoned down to stop them flapping about during the game which was distracting to the players. We are not sure when this occurred. We note button down collars being worn at English public schools. But it was in America that the button-down collar became a major collar style. By the 1950s preppy styles were popular, Many boys wore shirts with button-down collars.
Collarless "T" shirts became increasing popular in the latter patof the 20th century. One reader writes in 2006, "I have great difficulty getting my son who is in 5th grade to dress up. He doesn't even like collared shirts and insists on wearing T-shirts to school because of peer presure. He tells me, 'Mom the other guys don't wear those shirts."
We note some boys with embroidered collars. Here we have coolars that overlsap with oyher collar types. We note embroidery on a larege range of different collars. This included small and large collars as well as collars dome with points like Eton collars and rounded like Peter Pan collars. The embroidered designs varied. The embroidery might me just on one area of the collar. In other cases the embroidery was done all over the collar. The embroidery seems to have been done in colors, although the black-and-white photography of the day provides few details about other collars. We note some embroidery on lace collars. Much of the embroidery was probably done by mothers and other female relations. Embroidered collars were generally done for younger boys. They seem most common in the 19th century, especially home embroidered collars. We so note some in the 20th century. Tghey may have been more common for boys as boys were more likely to wear collared garments.
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We also note plain, but very prominant Eton collars. The Eton collar was worn by a wide range of American boys on many different styles of clothes. The Eton suit is the most common, but it was just one of many styles. I'm not sure when Eton collars first worn in America. Based on available paintings and photographs, it looks like collars with an Eton look were being worn by the 1840s, but the more formal Eton collars appear to have been worn somewhat later, about the 1870s. This chronology is, however, just a guess on my part at this point. Many school age boys in the late 19th and early 20th century wore Eton collars when dressing up. The Eton collar is generally considered a dressy collar for formal clothes. American boys about the 1920s began to wear some Eton collars on play clothes and a variety of informal ouitfits.
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The Fauntleroy collar is surely the most destincive collar ever worn by boys and syurely the mostb un boy like and unsuitble for boys. It was only possible because boys at the time had little to say asbout the clothdese they iore. It was all decided by mother. There are two types of Fauntleroy collars, detachable and attached collars. And two basic styles--lace and ruffled collars. The detachable collars could be both lace amd ruffled. The attached collars, meaning coming sewn onto blouses were almost always ruffled. Lace was too expensive to be produced in quantity and sewn onto mass-produced, store bought blouses. Both the lace and ruffled collars were done in countless different shapes and styles. While the Fauntlery collars asre primarily associated with lace coolrs, mosdt were primasrily the less xpensive and easier to oroiduce ruffled colllar. Some ruffled collars had lace trim. Many of the mass produced Fauntleroy blouses had back flags like sailor blouses. Not all lace and ruffled collars were Fauntleroy collars. We see both before the Fauntleroy Craze (1885-1905), but they were relatively small. . They were the primary collars worn with Fauntleroy suits. We note any large white collar even Eton collars being reffered to as Eton collars. But the only true Fauntleroy collars were lace and ruffled collars, primarily worn during the Fauntleroy Craze
Younger boys in the late-19th century might wear lace collars. It is a collar style common associated with the Little Lord Fauntleroy suits which became popular in the 1880s. They were worn before that, but it was in the 1880s with the population of Mrs. Burnett's book that they became really popular--at least with mothers. Nowhere was the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit more popular than in America. In many ways the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit was one of the first detinctive American styles, although fancy velvet suits for boys were first worn in Europe. The American Fauntleroy suit was generally worn with a lace or ruffled collar. Boys still in dresses also sometime wore lace collars. HBC is unsure if the popularity of the Fauntleroy suit in America meanbt that the lace collar was more commonly worn by American boys than European boys. We have not yet developed a specificic section for American lace collars, but most of the images in the general lace collar section are American images.
We see some verry large coolars in the eraly 19th century. They bare oftren assiciated with Lord Byron and fancy styles that bevame popular aftrr bthe Napoleonic wars (1795-1815). We also nnotice some modestbsized Etin collars. Boys at mid-century wore very small collars in various styles. Because of tgher growing photographic record, we can follow this in some detail. It is often hard to tell what style because they are so small and bseem to virtually peak out above the jackets, often collar-buttoning jackets. We see collar size growing (1870s). This changed dramatically by the 1880s when large collars became very popular, especially for younger boys. They were done in a range of different styles. They are sometimes called Fauntleroy collars because of their size and theybwere sometimes worn with Fauntleroy suits. Some were huge. They were worn both with and without floppy bows. They were mostly worn in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. After the turn-of-the 20th century we see anoteable decline in the orevalence and size of the Fauntleroy collars. We never see collars again that came anywhere near to the size of the Fauntleroy collars, although collar sizes have varied and could be larger for younger pre-school boys. We note large collars were popular in the 1970s along with wide ties. this was the case for both boys and adults. By the end of the century, collars had returned to more normal sizes.
This of course was a Chinese style, but we see shirts with these collars appearing in mail order cstaslogs (1970s). Very few American boys wore them.
We notice some collars that are combinations of different collar types. We are not sure if these collars had a specific name at the time. Until we lear more we will call them mixed collars. Here we are talking primarily about the large collars boys wore in the late 19th century. These included both Eton-style pointed collars and Peter-Pan style rounded collars. A basic problem with our assessment is that the huge floppy bows often worn with these collars cocvers fulkly or partially ciovers them up, mking it impossible to tell if they are Eton or Peter Pan collars. In addition to the basic style and lrge size, we notte lace, ruffles, or other decoration added to the collar. This might change the shape of the collars. Some had back flaps like a sailor collar, but the fromt were no necessarily done with a front-"V" like a sailor collar. Some of these collars are difficult to see because they were often worn with large floppy bows which obsure the collar in period photographic portraits. A good example is H. Harry Crowell in 1890.
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We also note Peter Pan collars, although that term was not yet used. Collars that look much likr Peter Pan collars can be found on noys vlothing thoughtout the 19th century. It does not appear cpmmonly, however, until after the turbn of the 20th century, when elborate lace collars had declined in popualrity. Boys wearing dressing outfits increasinly wore ruffled collars, but less formak clothes might be worn with Pete Oan collars. The Eton suit for younger American boys which became popular in the 1920s were at first worn with Eton collars, but gradually the Peter Pan collar replaced the Eton collar. Other styles such as shortalls and button-on suits were also worn with Peter Pan blouses h\giving them a dressy look.
We see boys wearing both rounded and pointed collars in the 19th century. It is often hard to make out at mid-century because the collars were so small and covered by jackets. We see quite a range od styles in the late 19th century. Boys often wore blouses with large collars. By the 20th century boys began to less commonly wear blouses, especially after World War I. The pointed collar became the standard collar for a boy's shirt, at least school-age boys. Boys wore quite a few different types of shirts, both different designs, colors, and patterns. The button-down collar became very popular in the 1950s. Boys shirts since then have been made both with button-downs and plain ponted collars. The basic collars forthese shirts was the pointed collar, a nore slebder pointed collar than the Eton collar. The size of the collar varied over time with general fashion trends. Collars became quite large in the 1970s.
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We believe American boys from affluent families, following the European fashion. wore ruffeled collars in the early 20th century. This would have been mostly boys in fashion-concious large cities. The style was probably not as common as in Europe. Some were worn open collars. While fancy, the open collar was well suited for children. This changed by mid-century when collars were almost always worn closed. We see ruffled collars them at mid-century, although they were not real common and tended to be very small. As young boys and girls in the 19th century were often dressed alike in dresses, the collar was sometimes used to diferentiate boys from girls. Often the girls neckline might be cut lower while boys might have higher even though fancy collars. There were no definite rules on such matters, however, and mostly it was up to the fancy of the mothers. Ruffled collars became a major fashion statement in the latec19th century as the result of the Little Lord Fauntleroy craze. Lace collars were popular with early Fauntleroy suits, but gradually ruffled collars became more common. By the turn of the 20th century, ruffled collars becamme more common. A good example here is a boy in Washington, Pennsylvania about 1905.
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One of the most popular styles for boys was the sailor suit with the destinctive sailor collar. On of the most popular blouse styles for American boys in the late-19th and early 20th century was the sailor collar. The sailor collar was originally a Briitish import. It was based on the uniform of the enlisted British sailor. It was soon adopted by Ameica and most European countries. We first note middy blouses and sailor blouses in the 1870s. There were a range of different styles. For some reasons many mothers wee not satisfied with acttual uniform styles. Along with the "V" front came a back flap. The sailorcollar was influential that many blouses were mafde with back flaps in the lare 19th and early 20h centuries. Gradually traditional styles, meaning like navy uniforms, became more standard. Although originally a boys' style, the sailor collar became popular fr girls as well. While the traditional styles were fairly standard, there were a range of different dtyles mor influenced by fashion. After World War I they were mostly worn by younger boys and a range of different styles developed.
We note a few portraits of American boys wearing scalloped collars. Thus we do not yet know much about tem. Collars at the mid-19th century tended to be very small and difficult to see. Collars were still generally small in the 1860s, but we see a few some larger collars. And s few were scalloped collars in the 1860s. They were made rather like Peter Pan collars, only with scalloped edges. They do not seem to have been a major style, We note very large collars in the late-19th century. Some may have had calloped edges, but this would seem to be be a minor part of the popular fancy collars. We note some in the early 20th century, but after World war I mostly very young pre-school boy wearing blouses for formal occassions. Our limited archive of these collars makes it difficult to assess the style in detail. This relative also scarity is also an indicator that they were not very common.
There have been enormous changes in collar sizes over time. We note reallyn lkarge collas in the raeky and late 19th century. There were really small collars at ,od-century (1850s-60s). Some were so snall, peeakingh just boutdside the jacket that we are not entirely sure that there was any collar at all. These small, collars were done in many different styles. They are difficult to asess as so many portraits wrev taken with the boys wearing jackets that covered most if not all of the collars. Collar buttoning jackets were very popular at the time. We never see such small collars again. Collars were tended to be very small in the 1860s. We later see relatively small collars in the 19690s, but nit nearly as small as collars in the 1860s.
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These large sports collars were an especially popular style in the United States. This was a popular open-collar style that appeared in the 1910s and was particularly popular in the 20s and 30s. We continue to see them into the early 1940s. It looks somewhat like asailoir collar, but I am not sure that was the origin. The open-neck sports was a substantial break with former styles which commonly required boys to not only, button their collars, but wear elaborate neckwear. Open neck collars were part of the revolution allowing informal styles that followed World war I. It was also popular in Europe. In Germany it was called a Schiller collar. We are not entirely sure of the chronology, but we note them particularly in the 1920s-30s. It was a comfortable style that was popular with boys. We see large numbers of boys with these sports collars in the photographic record. We note these shirts being worn both for casual play wear as well when dressing up with suits. The idea of casual wear was still relatively new. Some mothers had not precisely mastered the concept. Thus we see mothers adding neckties for dtressy occassions. The sports collar was not made for a necktie. Thus the combination has rather a strange look. The collars varied somewhat in size and shape. They were usually white shirts, but we have noted colored and striped shirts. We are not sure where the sports collar originated.
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We have noted older boys and men wearing wing collars. We do not know a great deal about this style. It was not a style commonly worn by boys, but we do notice some boys wearing them in the late-19th century and very early 20th century. The collars varied in size. We do not see many younger boys wearing them as it was an adult style. Many parents at the time preferred more juvenile styles for children. The boys wearing these collars were teenagers of varying ages, mostly older teens. A wing or wingtip collar is a small standing collar with the points stiffly starched and pressed to stick out horizontally, resembling "wings". It was commonly worn with men's evening dress, both white tie or black tie. But we notice them being worn by boys for less formal occassions. We see many American boys wearing these wing collars. They were commonly worn with neckties tied in very large knots--these large knots were called Windsors. They may have been worn with other neckwear, but we usually see them with Windsor knots. Because of the age of the boys and the period they were common, boys wore them with adult-styled suit jackets and long trousers.
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