Canadian Mail Order Catalogs and Advertisements with Boys Clothings: 1907


Figure 1.--Eaton's had several pages on suits, showing that boys still very commonly wore suits. One page shows the variety of styles of knee pants suits that were fashionable. The styles seem very similar to the United States. Norfolk styling seems especially popular. Canadian boys up to the age of at least 14 years wore knee pants suits. These styles show both single and double-breasted models. These are dress-up clothes for boys from about 10 to 16. The sizes are chest circumferences.

The Eaton catalog provides a great deal of information about Canadian boys' clothing in 1907. We note a wide range of different styles. We note a range of headwear illustrated in the Eaton's catalog. The styles included boaters. Caps included English school peaked caos and flat caps.There were several pages on suits, showing that boys still very commonly wore suits. One page shows the variety of styles of knee pants suits that were fashionable. The styles seem very similar to the United States. Norfolk styling seems especially popular. Canadian boys up to the age of at least 14 years wore knee pants suits. Notice that knickers are not yet a major style. These styles show both single and double-breasted models. These are dress-up clothes for boys from about 10 to 16. The sizes are chest circumferences. Notice that all the suits are depicted exclusively with high-top shoes and long black stockings. We see black long stockings as a mainstay in many catalogs during the 1900s.

Headwear

We note a range of headwear illustrated in the Eaton's catalog. Staw hats were especially popular for the summer. Younger boys might wear broad-brimmed sailor hats. Popular hat styles for older boys might include The styles included boaters. One Eaton's page offered a varity of straw hats including sailors and boaters. Caps included English school peaked caps and flat caps.

Skirted Garments

Younger boys commonly wore a variety of skirted garment in the 19th century. This convention began to change in the 1890s and after the beginning of the 20th century century began to go out of style. This ocurred both in Europe and North America. The Eaton's catalog is one way we can track these conventions. We no longer see boy dresses in the 1907 catalog. We also do not see kilt suits, although probably reflecting how popular kilt suits once were, Eatons does continue to use the term. The one exception to this shift away from skirted garments is tunic suits which were very popular and prominantly featured in the 1907 Eaton's catalog. Eatons does not call them tunic suits, but rather kilt suits and Russian suits. They are, however, what HBC refers to as tunic suits. We note American catalogs also had various terms for tunic suits. In addition to tunic suits, we also notice a skirted middy blouse outfit which Eatons also calls a kilt suit.

Rompers


Blouses and Shirts

Boys wore both blouses and shirt waists in the 1900s. The principal differences between blouses and shirt waists was hat blouses did not have tails and shirt waiss did not have collars. Younger boys wore blouses. Some were still quite fancy. Eatons had a selection of boys' blouses. Older boys wore shirt waists--an early form of shirt that came without a collar. Various collars could be attached. This was apractical arrangement at a time when washing was still a huge chore. Men annd boys might just change the collar rather than the whole shirt. Eatons had a selection of boys' and men's shirt waists.

Sailor Suits

Sailor suits were a popular choice for boys. They became popular in the late-19th century and coninued to be widely-worn in the 1900s. There were two different styles, including both tunic suits and regular straight-leg knee pants suits. There were also tunic suits in the wash suit selections. There was one long pants suit. This was the most traditional of the various suits offered. Styling varied quite a bit. The styles seem quite similar to popular styles in the United States. Sailor suits seem to have been popular with boys, in part because they were not as fussy and fancy as the blouses which were an important alterative outfit. Eatons offered quite a range of different styles of sailor suits in its Spring-Summer 1907 catalog.

Wash Suits


Suits

Eaton's had several pages on suits, showing that boys still very commonly wore suits. One page shows the variety of styles of knee pants suits that were fashionable. The styles seem very similar to the United States. Norfolk styling seems especially popular. Canadian boys up to the age of at least 14 years wore knee pants suits. These styles show both single and double-breasted models. These are dress-up clothes for boys from about 10 to 16. The sizes are chest circumferences. In the 1907 catalog there is a variety of knee pants suits in chest sizes 29-33 (which is roughly up to size 16 or perhaps even 17). No long trousers are shown for boys with chest sizes smaller than 34 (which is about 18 years old). These are called "Young Men's and Youths' Suits" and the offerings are rather sparse--only about half a page. So the impression we get is that in 1907 in Canada (an by extension the United States), all boys wore knee pants until at least 16 and some boys wore them until age 17. This means that a boy's first long trousers would not be acquired until the final year of high school and maybe not even then. We see high school graduation pictures of high school boys with a mixture of knee pants and long trousers in the first decade of the 20th century.

Coats and Reefers

We notice a variety of coats worn by boys of different ages in the 1900s. There were several different types, including sailor-styled reefers, overcoats, and raincoats. A word for ovecoats was toppers. Eatons offered reefers for younger boys as well as overcoats and raincoats for older boys. We note the various coats and reefers offered by Eatons in 1907

Pants

Pants or trousers were mostly offered as part of suits. Notice that knickers are not yet a major style. Canadian parents could also purchase boys' knee pants separately without their being part of a suit. The relative importance of suits suggests that most parents bouught sits rather than pants separately. The choices was much more limited than suits, but they were available. An example is the knee pants offered in the Eaton's Spring-summer caalog. The illustration for the knee pants shows boy wearing with suspenders, which agrees with the prominence of suspenders as a boy's item on the "Furnishings" page. There were no knickers offered separately. The youngest size for long pants was age ??.

Furnishings

Many mailorder catalogs had a page with miscelaneous items, sometimes called furnishings. These are items like belts, collars, neckwear, suspenders, waists, and sometimes underwear. The composition varies from catalog to catalog. We have separate sections for some of these items, but others are best dealt with in a miscelaneous or furnishings page. They are very useful pages because these items provide a great deal of useful information about how children dressed at the tome. Ofen these items are hidden or covered over in photographs, thus the catalogs complement the photograhs archived on HBC. We have a furnishings page from the Eaton's Spring-Summer 1907 page.

Hosiery

Black long stockings were the primary hosiery worn by Canadian children in 1907. We see black long stockings as a mainstay in many catalogs during the 1900s. Notice that all the Eaton suits are depicted exclusively with black stockings. The Eaton's boys' long stockings on offer are exclusively black. Notice that black long stockings are the only hosiery Eaton's offered for boys, even in its Spring-Summer catalog. Apparently there was no market for any other color. Eaton's offers no short or knee socks for boys. The photographic record confirms that boys mostly wore black long stockings. Eaton's had a separate page for women's and girls' hosiery. Black long stockings were also widely worn by girls. This page also included the infants' hosiery. We are not sure yet about the age equivalents of he sizes indicated. We are not sure how common in Canada it was to separatecchildren' hosiery by gender. American catalogs generally offered children's hosiery on the same page, although some of the offerings might be specificall for boys or girls.

Footwear

We note boys mostly wearing high-top shoes in 1907. The Eaton's Spring and Summer catalog (page 79), offers six styles of boys' footwear. They are all lace-up style rather than button shoes. The six styles are shown in two categories of sizes: 1 to 5 (for smaller boys); 11 to 13 for youths' or teenage boys. All but one of the six styles are high-top shoes which come up over the ankle. The styling was all quite similar. Only one style is an "Oxford" or low-cut style. High-top shoes were obviously much more common that low cut shoes for boys of every age durng the 1900s. This can be seen clearly in the various catalog illustrations.

Underwear

Most of the underwear choices are two-piece longjohns with very little choice in the union suit (or "combinations") department. This is very different from contemporary catalogs at Sears and Wards, for instance. Also there are no underwaists for boys shown in this catalog--another big difference. There is one suspender waist, but no supporters are shown attached, although a version could be ordered with supporters for a slightly highr price. Eatons offered a range of underwear garments in its Spring-Summer 1907 catalog.

Nightwear

We note boys wearing both night shirts like their fathers as well as the new pajams. Nightshorts were the standard sleepwear in the 19th century. We are not sure when they first appeared in Canda. Pajamas were a British fashion introduced from India. We note a few offerings for sleepwear in the Eatons Spring-Summer 1907 catalog.






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Created: 4:15 AM 3/14/2008
Last updated: 6:07 AM 4/28/2008