|
Clothing advertisement from the 1860s are very rare, especially ads with illustrations. This was largely because of the state of lithography. Lithography was still fairly primitive. There may have been some newspaper ads, but again we have not found any. The primary source for 1860s clothing is fashion magazines.
These informed consumers about fashion, but provided no way of purchasing garments. They did provide patterns for home sewers and a way of purchasing more. Mail order was only being invented. We begin to see mail order catalogs in Europe offering a wide range of products, including clothing. One of the first was Pryce-Jones in England (1861). They began selling by mail order on a large scale. Pryce-Jones was began as a shop assistant. He ended up becoming a multi-millionaire with 4,000 workers and 250,000 customers. He even sold Queen Victoria some of her underwear-a woven flannel item. [Pugh] The establishment of the Uniform Penny Post in England (1840), and the extension of the railway network laid the foundation to turn Pryce-Jones small rural concern into a well-known company that Americans would begin emulating in the 1870s. The big mail order houses had not yet opened. There may be some store catalogs, but we have not yet found any. Mail order in America faced problems. First was the huge size if the country. Second, he rail system was still growing. Third, the Post Office did no not handle packages, except for small ones. Fourth, delivery did not extend into the rural areas where most people lived. One of the most popular magazines of the 1860s was Demorest's Illustrated Monthly, and Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, Demorest's Illustrated Monthly . Demorest's called itself 'The Model Magazine of America'. It also stressed its 'Splendid Engravings, Original Music, Mammoth Fashion Plates, Entertaining Poems & Stories, Valuable Recipes, Full Size Fashionable Patterns & Other Valuable Novelties'. Ellen Louise Demorest was an American fashion arbiter. She began as a successful milliner, who appears to have invented mass-produced tissue-paper dressmaking patterns. There are no illustrated advertisements for actual clothing which could be ordered during the 1860s. There were fashion magazines illustrating fashion, but they did not offer actual garments for sale. The big mail order houses had not yet opened. There may be some store catalogs, but we have not yet found any. Lithography was still fairly primitive, but improving. There may have been some newspaper ads, but again we have not found any. The primary source for 1860s clothing is fashion magazines. These images might be used to sell patterns or just the images from which skilled seamstresses could use to create garments. American boys were increasingly wearing suits. Younger boys wire dresses and other skirted garments. we begin to see more kilt suits. Cut-away jackets were popular for younger school-age boys. Other styles were collar-buttoning jackets and lapel sack suits. Most boys wore long pants. Younger boys wore both bloomer knickers and straight-leg knee pants. Straight leg knee pants became increasingly popular in subsequent years. Boys wore long stockings with shortened-length pants. We note both long stockings and stocking supporters. Unfortunately we have some images but are often not sure of the sources which of course are need to fully evaluate the images.
This kilt suit drawing appeared in 1861 (figure 1). Unfortunately we are not sure about the source. It may have been Harper's. The kilt suit was a very popular style for younger boys and continued to be worn throughout the second half of the 19th century. The Civil War broke out when Confederate units fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor (April 1861). We are not yet sure about the impact of the War on fashion. Certainly with the blockade fashion concerns declined, in part because of the Federal naval blockade. In the North the economy boomed so the declining interest in fshion that often occurs during a war did not take place. Many parents, especially well to do parents, had more money to spend on clothes. Boys clothese were affected by military styling.
We note younger boys after breeching wearing knee pants in the 1860s. The pants tended to be long, ct at calf level. Boys wore stokings with knee pants, although we are not sure how long they were. As knee panys as stockings became more common, the problem appeared of how to hold them up. We are not sure who first convceived of stocking supporters. And the first ones may have been for women rather than children. We note one early stocking supporter patented by E.F. Putnam, a lady, in 1863. Ms. Putnam does not indicate the age or gender of who would use her stocking supporter. We note several other patents throughout the late 19th century. Most 19h century patents were submitted by men. Note that Ms. Putnam does not provide her first name.
The Civil War ended when Generl Lee surendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant (Aoril 1865). The ware had been a terrible bloody affair, but the northern economy was booming. The War had greatly stimulated American industrial development. We are still assessing the impact on fashion. We suspect that the mass production of uniforms in the North was a major empetus for ready-made clothing.
One important source of fashion information in the mid-19th century is Godey's Lady's Book. The September 1868 issue had a variety of outfits for younger children, both boys and girls. Younger boys and girls wore the same dresses. There wee dresses for somewhat older girls and kilt suits for the boys. Of course fashion magazines are not as good an indicator of popular fashions as catalogs, but are still a useful for source of information, escpecially because catalogs in the 1860s were not as common as they were to become in subsequent years.
'Harper's Bazar' illuistrated a groups of boys suits in 1869. They showed boys wearing cut-away jackeftrs ascwell as tunics looking like long shirts. We note Scotish influences, including plaid fabric and Glengary caps with sreamers. The boys are shown wearing mostly bloomer knickers and white long stockings. One boy has wide knee pants. It should be noted that these seem more like styles for bioys from fashionable city families than the larger part of the population which was stillm ovewheamingly rural. We are not sure about the age range, although one of the suits is for a boy 6-8 years old. In the 1860s only younger boys wore shortened length pants. The photographic record shows some of these styles, but long pants and knee pants were more common. After the 1860s we seen fewer boys wearing bloomer knickers, with long pants and straight-leg knee pants predominasting. A reader has provided more 1869 illustrations. We believe that these were advertisements for patterns, but unfortunately we don't know what company made the patterns offered here yet. We note children's drawers. We also note night shirts which were worn by children as well as adults. Pajamas were not yet available.available.
Pugh, David.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing catalog/magazine pages:
[Return to the Main American 19th century mail order chronology page]
[Return to the Main American mail order chronology page]
[Main photo/publishing page]
[Store catalogs]
[Fashion magazines]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor hats]
[Sailor suits]
[Dresses]
[Kilts]
[Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits]
[Rompers]
[Tunics]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
[Coats]
[Long stockings]
[Underwear]
