Figure 1.--This 1911 color photograph was taken in 1911 using the French Autochrome proces, one of the first color pricesses. Here two sisters are sitting in a garden tying roses together. Their dresses are a light purple color. Biys did not wear clothese dine in this are other comparable colors. Actually autochrome created trabnsparebcies not prints. (Photographer: Etheldreda Janet Laing>/a>).

There were substantial differences between boys and girls clothing. One of the major differences between boys and girls clothing. One of the major differences was color. Unfortunately much of these differences was lost in the black and white photograohy of the day. Some information is available in paintings, but the number of images was amall fraction of the phoyographic images. Girls' clothing involved a much wider range of cloors than boys clothing. We see mabny bright colors andc pastel hues. The greatest array if colors was ysed in dresses. Other garments like blouses abnd shirts, pinafires, and smocks usualy did not employ the brugter colors. oys tended to wear dark muted colors. Girls also wore clothes with these muted colors, but boys did not wear the brught colors and pastel hues popular with the girls. We see coloorized imagfes aalmost as early as phoyography appeared. It is only with the 20th century, however, that we begin to see actual colored images, althiough it was not until the late-20th century that we see any substbntual number of these color photiographs. Some authors use the modern associations between colors and genders as a way of determining gender in old paintings. There is much reason to believe, however, that the blue-for-boys, pink-for-girls idea is a fairly modern one, even a 20th-century convention. Other colors such as the idea that wedding dresses must be white are fairly recent, many dating to the Victorian era.

Created: 8:20 AM 3/4/2023
Last updated: 8:20 AM 3/4/2023