Figure 1.--This unidentified portrait is undated. We would guess it was taken in the 1880s. We do know it was taken in Naugatuck, Connecticut. The boy wears a plaid skirt. It seems to be done in very large pleats. What we are not real sure about is the top gaement. Is it a blouse or is it sewn on to the kilt. Note that the top does not blouse out at the waist. This suggests tus either that the kilt does not have a nodice or the top is sewn onto the kilt. It was very rare to see boys wearing dark blouses with skirts. We are also not sure about the color of the top.
Boys wore skirts and also kilts, both with and without jackets. We have less information about skirts than other skirted garments. This is in part because the great bulk of the images we have acquired show boys either wearing dresses are kilt-skirts with jackets as part of a suit. We have found, however, a number of portraits showing bows wearing skirts with just a blouse. We are not sure about the conventions here. This may have been an acceptable style or perhaps primarily a concession to the hot summer weather. We do not yet have sufficient information to build a meaningful chronology. Many of these images show boys wearing skirts done in a plaid or a plaid-like pattern. We think many of these portraits were taken during the summer and that the boys were just not wearing the matching jacket with the kilt-suit. We note many images of boys wearing blouses with kneepants during this period for similar reasons. We note some images, however, with boys wearing skirts that do not seem to be part of a suit. Either the boy is not wearing a suit jacket or the skirt is a pattern that seems unlikely to be done in a jacket. The convention was that a skirt could ve a loud pattern, but this was much less likely for the jacket. How common this convention was we are not sure. Also we have not noted boys in Europe wearing skirts, but this may be a reflection of our larger archive of American images. Again our assessment of this topic is complicated by the fact that the children in many available portraits are not identified.
We have less information about skirts than other skirted garments boys wore. They seem less prevalent that kilt suits. This is in part because the great bulk of the images we have acquired show boys either wearing dresses are kilt-skirts with jackets as part of a suit. These of course were formal portraits for hich the boys were dressed up. As these studio portraits are our major source of boyswear in the late-19th century, assessing the prevalence of skiets worn without jackets is difficult. Wearing the jackets with the skirts may have not been as common in everyday life. We have also found, however, a number of portraits showing bows wearing skirts with just a blouse or jackets that don't match the skirt. A factor with the popularity of skirts for younger boys may have been the simple construction making them easier to sew than pants. We notice both pleated and unpleated skirts. American mothers were not as sophistacated as British mothers. We suspevt that they may have called plained skirts kilts, especially if the were pleated. And sewing a rel kilt was more complicated for home sewer than a plain skirt. We suspect that this is why a number of boys had skirts rather than kilts.
Assessment
It is difficult to know from just a photograph is the boys are wearing a stand along skirt or the kilt-skirt to a kilt suit. The boy here may well have a matching kilt suit jacket (figure 1). In other cases the boy may be wearung a skirt with no matching jacket. This is diffiult to know with any certainty. We think that George Knapp in 1887 might be wearing a stripy skirt with no matching suit jacket. At least we have never seen a suit jacket with a bold pttern quite like his.
We are not sure about the conventions here. This may have been an acceptable style or perhaps primarily a concession to the hot summer weather. Adults of course were expected to wear jackets. This convention was relaxed for children, at least during the summer. We think many of these portraits were taken during the summer and that the boys were just not wearing the matching jacket with the kilt-suit.
We note many images of boys wearing blouses with kneepants during this period for similar reasons. Wether
mothers just bought or sewed a skirt or the boy just did not wear the jacket we do not know. Of course skirts wee relatively easy to sew at home while jackets were much more complicated. We note many skirts without kilt features, but we note them being worn with suit jackets as well as without jackets.
We have little information about the skirts worn by girls. We know that skirts were worn, bur we are unsure how commonly or how the skirts worn by girls and boys may have differed. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that our assessment is primarily based on photography and of course photography on;y became available in the 1840s, So we have virtually no information before this. Paintings and fashion illustrations primarily depict children in dresses. Thus we are not sure about the blouses and skirts children wore. We know that girls wore skirts, although most portraits depict them in dresses. This suggests that the skirt was more of an informal garment. Here we want to develop information on not only the skirts, but the blouses girls wote with them. And how they differed with the blouses and skirts worn by boys. A complication here is another event occurring in the 1840s. Queen Victoria began dressing the princes in kilts. This essentially created a male skirt garment. Not all the skirts worn by boys after the 1840s were kilts, but quite a large number either were kilt-like garments or had at least a degree of kilt styling. An element here was pleats which eventually became popular for girls skirts as well.
Kilts and skirts are different, but similar garments. A kilt is in fact a type of skirt. As we are just beginning to assess this topic we have treated together here, but as we acquire more information we will separate our discussion. It is not always easy to tell from available portraits. The most obvious feature is a front pannel. Note the front panneland wide pleats on the kilt here (figure 1). Kilts are also pleated garments. Kilts are often easy to identify, at least in Scoltland because they are worn with Highland regalia. This was much less common in America. While the front pannel is an obvious indicator that the gament is a kilt, pleating is more complicated. All kilts are pleated, although this may include very wide pleats. Skirts may also be pleated, but not all were pleated. Thus if the garment is not pleated it is a skirt, but a pleated garment could be a skirt or kilt. The topic is somewhat complicated by the fact that until the late-19th century, most clothes including children's clothes were made by seamstrisses or sewn at home by mother. This means that garments were not mass manufactured and could vary substantially.
Both kilts and skirts for boys as well as girls might be done with bodices. We are not sure how common this was, but believe bodice garments for younger children were very common. This affected what kind of blouse was worn which might be an indicator as to whether or not the child is wearing a bodice. Unfortunately it is very difficult to tell from the photographic record. This depends on the type of shirt garment worn. If you have a shirt that ws tucked into the waistband of the skirt, then you know that there was no bodice. If the boy was wearing a blouse, then there is not way of telling if the skirt had a bodice. Bloucing ment that the shirt garment was nit tucked in and thus the skirt could well hsve a bodice. It does not mean that it definitely did, but that it could. What we do not know is how commonly the shorts worn with blouces had bodices to hold them up. We suspect that it was very common, but we have only limnited evidence at this time.
We do not yet have sufficient information to build a meaningful chronology of skirts in America. Our information on the early 19th century is very limited. We do note boys wearing skirts in the 1860s. Certainly it must have been common earlier. Notably kilts and kilt suits were not very common in the 60s. This changed in the 1870s when we begin to see more kilts and fewer skirts. Just when skirts first became commonly worn by younger American boys we are not sure. we see boys wearing skirts in the 1880s and to a lesser extent the 1890s, especially the late 1890s. Here the photographic record provides great detail on the late 19th century. Skirts seem to have been an informal style, so they may have been under-represented in the photographic record. Skiers for boys were much less common after the turn-of-the 20th century.
We notice boys wering blouses with skirts done in various patterns. Many of the portraits we have found with boys wearing skirts show the skirts done in a plaid or a plaid-like pattern. Dark muted plaids were common. We note some solid color skirts and some with abold stripe at the hem. These are not nearly as common as the plaid one. Here we use the term plaid loosely. Some seem more like checks, but the trend is very notable. We believe that this pattern was particularly popular for boys because it suggested a kilt rather than a skirt. we are not entirely sure about the gender conventions. Girls might wear plaid also, but it was not nearly as common as for boys. We think girls more commonly wore dresses than skirts in the 19th century, but are not entirely sure of this.
We notice boys wearing both pleated and unpleated skirts. Many of the skirts we have noted were pleated. The pleats were done in various widths and numbers of pleats. We also notice skirts done with partial pleating, a plain front with pleats at the sides and back. Pleats of course were a characteristic of kilts and we suspect that many mothers referred to these skirts as kilts. It is a little unclear to us at what point pleated skirts should be called kilts. We can not yet substantiate this, but we think that pleating was a kilt influemce. We think pleated skirts began to appear after Queen Victoria helped to popularize kilts for boys when she began dressing the princes in kilts (1840s). We are not entirely sure when skirts began to be pleated. We have little information about the early-19th century, but after photography appeaed in the 1840s we have a fairly good record. We can thus track pleated skirts in America.
This is a tricky category because skirt-like suits look so much like kilt suits. And it is a distinction that was not made at the time. Kilt suits were not an exclusive American style, but more widely worn in America than any other country, including Scotland and England. But American mothers hd no idea what a kilt was. For the most part, American mothers saw a kilt as simply a skirt worn by boys. Many but not all mothers saw it as alaid skirt. Scottish and English mothers did know what a kilt was, but not American mothers. As a result you see many American boys weraring what were more skirt rather than kilt suits. The skirts might be plaid, but had no other kilt fearures. As far as we know, these garments were clled likt suits whether or not the skirted bottom had any kilt features. We see these as more correctly be called skirt suits. The conventions were not different, but as a purely fashion matter we think worth noteing.
An important subject is the garments worn with a skirt. The principal garment worn with skirt was a blouse. Here we are not including suit jackets or coats as this would be a kilt suit. We note many types and colors of blouses. We are not yet sure how this compared to kilt suits. Commonly the shirt or blouse worn with kilt suits is covered up by the coat or vest. In addition to the skirt and blouse we note a wide ange of accompanying garments, including headwear, neckwear, hosiery and footwear. Period portraits provide some information on these garments. The headwear was quite varied abd as far as we can tell was essentially the same as worn with kilt suits. The hosiery and footwear was also similar o that worn with kilt suits. Most boys wore long stockings and high-top shoes. One garment we do not notice American boys wearing with a skirt is a sweater. This contrasts with kilts because Scottish boys did wear kilts with sweaters.
County Trends
We have not noted boys in Europe wearing skirts. We have of course noted Scottosh boys wearing kilts. But skirts do bot seem very common in Europe. This may, however, be a reflection of our larger archive of American images.
Photographic Evidence
Again our assessment of this topic is complicated by the fact that the children in many available portraits are not identified. We do not know whether they wee boys or girls. Another problem is that childre were commonly posed sitting down in early portraits (1840s-50s) and the Daguerreotypist normally centered on the head and torso. So often we are not sure about skirts and pants. Also skirts without matching jackets were a kind of casual dress for younger boys. More formal outfits may have been worn for formal portraits.
