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We notice quite a range of outfits worn by younger boys. Actually the first dedicated chil's outfit was the skeleton suit. There were, however, many others including outfits for both pre-school boys and boys in the primary years, especially the early primary years. We see both suits with jackets and outfits without jackets. This was normlly blouses and pants that matched or would coordinated. Two of the best know such outfits were the sailor suit and Fauntleroy suit, but there are many others such outfits. The styles and age conventions have varied widely over time an from country to country. The Fauntleroy suit was especially popular in America. Romper suits like the ones worn in France were not very popular in America. The sailor suit on the other hand seems to have eaily crossed national frontiers. They have included both pants outfits as well as skirted outfits like tunic suits amd kilt suits.
We see many American boys wearing blouses with knee pants during the late-19th and early 20th centuries. It was a popular summer outfit for boys. Usually the blouse was made out of a different lighter material material than the pants. The blouse was often, but not always white. Less commonly we note boys wearing blouses made of the same heavier material as the pants. We note the blouse suits were often made with bloomer knickers rather than knee pants. These outfits seem very similar to tunic suits with the boy wearing a blouse rather than a tunic. We see these suits mostly in the early-20th century before World War I. We see them done in fabrics with various patterns. This appears to have been a dressup outfit. We sometimes note detachable collars and floppy bows.
Buster Brown suits were popular for younger children in the early 20th Century. I'm not sure who introduced the style or precisely when. I'm not sure if it was a style picked up by the Buster Brown comic strip or an entirely new style created by the cartoonist. It does appear, however, to have been most popular after the turn of the century. Toddlers at that time often wore dresses or smocks. One of a boy's first suits was often a Buster Brown suit.
Buster Brown suits were worn by boys from about 5 to 8 years of age, but some mothers dressed older boys in them for a few additional years. HBC believes that Buster Brown suits were primarily an American style, thus there is no specifically Amderican Buster Brown page.
We are not sure what the proper name for these button-on suits is. Nor do we know what they were called in the 1860s when they were most common. They were probably just referred to as suits, meaning the shirt or top matched the pants. We assume that the style was a European import, but are information is still quite linited. We are not entirely about the chronology of these button-on suits. We see them in the 1860s, but are unsure about the 50s and 70s at this time. We have a fairly good collection from both decaded and we do not see these suits being worn very commonly. We have found quite a number of CDV portraits from the 1860s. Most are undated, but look like the 1860s. The early CDVs from the 60s are quite destinctive. They look rather like one-piece suits, but I believe they were two pieces that buttoned to gether. They were suits in the sence that the top matched the bottom, but there was no jacket. Rather the top was a shirt liked top to which the pants buttoned. The suits were often decorated with piping, embroidery, and buttons. We do not, however, notice the elaborate decoration that became popular in the 1880s. While many of these suits were done with decorative trim, we also notice plain suits with limited decoration. We are not sure about the colors. We notice these suits done in a number of styles. Both the tops and pants varied. We notice both long pants and bloomer knickers. We are not yet sure about the age conventions. We do see younger school age boys wearing these suyits, but I suspect that they were not all that common at school.
We notice a variety of fancy styles in the 19th century for younger boys. The principal jacket style by mid-century was the cut-away jacket. Suits with cut-away jackets appeared in the mid-19th century in a range of different styles. Many of these were very plain. The portrait here is an example of a very plain suit (Figure 1). Other suits were detailed with military styling. Piping, stripes, and embroidery were commonly employed in the detailing. The most striking such suits were the Zouave suits. Of course the best known suit style in the late-19th century was the Fauntleroy suit, one without military styling. The cut of the jacket varies as to how sharply the two sides separated. There were also differences in length. Fauntleroy cut-away jackets were especially small to show off fancy blouses to the best advantage. Cut away jackets were connected at the top in various ways. Some buttones near the collar. Others had tab connectors. Many cut-away jackets had breast pockets. The cut-away jacket suit was worn with and without vests and with a variety of blouses, both plain and fancy blouses. We are not sure about the age conventions involved as we ave few catalog from the mid-19th century. We see to see boys from about 3-8 years of age wearing these suits, but this is just an initial assessment. These jackets were normally worn with shortened leg pants, both kneepants and bloomer knickers. Quite a number of Ameican boys wearing these cut-away jackers are archived on HBC. A good example is Charles Fox in the 1860s.
Portaits show that the Eton collar and Eton suits had crossed the Atlantic as early as the 1840s. I do not know, however, just how popular the style was. The American primitive
show here for a variety of reasons. HBC is fairly confident that the style of their suit and
collar was inspired by the English Eton suits, the shape of the collars, the short black
jackets, the long grey trousers all point to this. The image also shows how common it was
during the first half of the 19th century for boys, even very young ones, to wear long pants
after breeching. Eton suits and more imprtantly Eton collars were widely worn by American boys at the turn of the 20th century. What is now referred to as a Eton suit in America, a short pants suit with a shirtvjacket for younger bous, firstvappeared in Ametica during the 1920s. It was first weorn with an Eton collar, but by the 1950s, Peter Pan collars became more common.
While few American boys in the 19th Century wore proper Scottish kilts with Highland regalia, many more boys wore the kilt suits that were popular in the late 19th Century. While Higland kilts were most popular with families that had Scottish conections, there does not seem to have been any relationship between kilt suits and Scotland. Mothers of many varied ethnic backgrounds chose klit suits for their boys. These suits were only worn by boys. HBC believes that the kiltsuit was more common in Americ than Scotland and England or other European countruies, but further investigation is needed.
The Little Lord Fauntleroy suit it one of the most recognizable boys' style--if not exactly loved by those who actually wore them. It was in fact an American creation, although leavily influenced by European--especially French styles. It is perhaps strange that America's first step on the world fashion stage was such an elaborate boy's suit, seemingly un-American style. HBC does not have a separate American Fauntleroy suit page, but uses the main Fauntleroy suit page as most of the information there deals with American boys.
We do not know a great deal about Oliver Twist suits. They were outfits for younger boys that appeard at about the time that the Fauntleroy suit went out of style. The were primarily worn buy pre-school age boys during the 1910s and 20s. The term Oliver Twist probably derives from the fact that these were button-on outfits, a style popular during the 19th century era in which the Dickens nvel is set. At least that is the inly common feature we note in the Oliver Twist outfts offered in catalogs. Other features such as sleeves, collars, and detailing varied widely. Very large collars were popular with many of these suits. String ties with tassels wee another popular feature. These suits were generally offered in sizes up to 4 or 5 years old, occassionally a bit older, but this was not very common. They were done in a wide variety of colors.
Sailor suits were introduced as boys' wear by Queen Victoria in the when she and Prince Albert dressed the young princes in sailor suits after they were breeched. The style eventually spread to the Continent. The style gained momentum when Queen Vicyoria's daughters and grandaughters married into most of the important royal families throughout Europe. The style also spread to the new American Republic as well as France which became a republic again in 1848. British naval uniforms have strongly influenced naval uniforms around the world. The silor suits for boys soon began taking on the styles of the national navies. American boys by the 1880s were commonly wearing sailor suits and by the 1890s it was a standard as in Europe. This all begam as sailor suits. Sailor styling soon spread to other American children's garments for both boys and girls. We see sailor dresses, sailor tunics, sailor kilt suits as well as sailor headwear and outerwear like pea coats. Thus included both clear sailor-styled garments and garmednts with just some dailor touches.
The skeleton suit was a European fashion which developed in the late 19th century, in fact the first specialized boys' fashion. Previously boys after breeching had simply worn scaled down adult fashion. American boys at the timer, at least boys from affluent families simply wore imported European styles. HBC know of no uniquely American features. As skeleton suits were worn before the developmentb of photography, we have no photographic images. They do appear in paintings and illustrations. We have found few American examples, although it was popular in Europe for many decades.
We have found some suits that we are not sur how to identify. There were a wide range of suits, espcially for younger boys. Styles for older boys as for men ewere more stbdardized. For younger boys this as sufferent becuse moyhers were often let their fashion style run morehn was possible or older boys. We will pot then here. Perhps readers will have some thoughts.
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