Figure 1.--This American boy in a photograph taken about 1890 wears an elaborate lace trimmed Fauntleroy blouse with an elegant white collar bow. Note that he also has small black bows at the hem of his kneepants. Also notice the white buttons at the hem of the pants. Most knee pants had only three, usually dark buttons. |
Bows became enormously popular in the later half of the 19th Century. Bows are most associated of course with girls' clothing and hairstyles. Generally the largest, most prominent bows were used for girls.
Bows were, however, also extensively used on boys, especially during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century as mother's sought to add a little flair to their sons' outfits. The largest and most
prominent bows were collar bows used with boys Fauntleroys suits, some almost dwarfing the boy involved. Given the ingenuity of doting mothers, a wide variety of bows were also used with many other fashions,
from shoulder ties on dresses for boys before breeching to decorative shoe bows.
I believe the use of bows developed primarily in the latter half of the 19th Century. Here there were variations bepending on the type of bows involved. Bows were popular as hair adornments. I believe the use of bows developed primarily in the latter half of the 19th Century. Ringlet curls were common even before the turn of the 19th Century. Bowes were, however, not commonly worn with ringlets and other hair styles until after mid-century. They continue popular for girls into the 1920s, but became much less common by the 1930s. Bows for boys generally followed the much more common pattern of the bows worn by girls. The fashion of using bows for little boys
began at about the same time as those for girls. The fashion, however, ended somewhat earlier for boys than girls. Neckwear was anmother common use of bows.
Boys in the early 19th century often wore open collars. Neckwear and collars tended to be rather limuted and plain. The simple stock was common at mid-century. We do not begin to notice bows being commonly worn until after mid-century. Bows are noticeable in the 1870s and begin to become quite large in the 1870s. Bows seem much more popular for boys than girls. They were worn with a variety of outfits. They are espercially associayed with Fauntleroy suits, but that was just one oif the outfits they were worn with. Boys might wear large floppys bows with fancy blouses to dressip ij the summer. They continued to be worn in the 1900s, but began to decline in popularity in the 1910s.
We do not yey have detailed information on foreign laguage terms for bows. We do have the German terms. The basic word for bow is die Schleife/die Schleifen”. There are several related words for different kinds of bows. “Haarschleife” is a
hairbow, “Zopfschleife” is a bow on a pigtail, a classic item for a German girl. “Halsschleife” is a bnow worn as neckwear, very common in the late 19th century.
“Schuhbendelschleife” is a bnow worn on shoes. “Schleifchen” (diminishing of a “Schleife”) is a bow worn at the sleeve of a shirt/blouse/cloth/etc. I am not familiar
with this.
Ribbons are narrow pieces of fabric, commonly silk, cotton, wool, or other material, commonly synthetics in the modern era. Ribbns are commonly woven with selvage edges. They are used for trimming clothing and millinery. Ribbons for hair adornment is another common usage. They are also used for tying and for badges and awards. For children they are most associated with girls, but have been worn by boys as well.
Bow ribbons came any many different colors and patterns. White was a popular color.
I do not have a good understanding as to other colors used, but believe blue
and even red were used. I think yellow, orange, and green were less common. Many patterns were used. Polka dots and plaids were very especially common. Stripes were another popular pattern. HBC at this time does not know how these patterns varied over time and among countries. There may also been differences between genders, although floppy bows were more common for boys than girls.
Many different widths were used. This varied as to the use intended.
Collar bow rubbon could be quite wide. Hair bow ribbons could be
quite thin.
Boys during the late 19th and early 20th Century wore a wide variety of bows. The most commion were collar bows, however, doting mothers found a wide variety of other palces to adorn their sons with bows, from the top if his head to his shoes. There are even bows afixed to boys that HBC can't quite figure out. Sometimes a boy in fact might wear multiple bows. The most that HBC has noted has been three boys, but it is quite possible that some boys may have even worn more.
Many mothers began using larger bows on boys' collars during the 1870s. Previously most, but not all boys, had worn collars and bows of modest sizes. The small bows were usually black. As mothers began selecting
larger collars, they also selected larger bows. The Fauntleroy craze which began in 1885 intensified this process. A kind of arms race in boys bows began with mothers vying as to just how big a bow could be
employed. Collar bows not only got larger, but appeared in a wide variety
of colors and patterns. The fashion of large bows for boys did not begin to recede until the 1910s.
Figure 2.--The bows worn by some boys, even boys as old as 10, could be massive affairs. They of course required mother's help to tie in any reasonable style. Here the younger brother wears a large boy, one of several ways that their mother has diferentiated their clothes by age. |
Hair bows in particular are considered to be girls' wear, but some fashionable mothers used them on their sons as well. I'm not sure when this practice began, but it was firmly established by the 1870s. The
most common hair bow for boys was white. Only limited information is available on color because of the black and white photography of the day. It should be noted, however, that gender specific color conventions were
not nearly as deep rooted as they are today. It seems
to have been most pronounced in France, but has been noted in America as well as most Continental European countries. This practice also became
less common in the 1910s.
The least common bows used with boys clothing was pants bows. The usually appeared at the hem of a boys kneepants and were most commonly worn with
Fauntleroy suits. It was not only Fauntleroy suits, however, theybalso appeared on sailor suits and other kneepants. I'm not sure about the color, but believe that they were mostly black, or a color close to the color of the pants themselves.
In contrast to the collar bows, they were usually quite small.
Figure 3.--This boy is proabably French. He wears a rather ordinary kneepants sailor suit with dark, perhaps blue, three-quarter length stockings. His mother has insisted, however, on him keeping his curls and adding little bows to his shoes. |
Somewhat more common than pants bows was tieing bows on boys' shoes. This rather emulated a common 17th Century style. Louis XIV and other stylish pesonages of the era were so pictured. This was particularly
common for boys still in dresses or wearing fancy Fauntleroy suits, but boys in run of the mill sailor suits might also have shoe bows. This
was a particularly popular style in France. These bows were most commonly worn worn with strap shoes. Frequently the boys wearing these bows had long, often curled hair.
Bows were often used on children's dresses, both for boys and girls. Children in the mid-19th Century wore dresses with low neck-lines and
without collars. Bows were employed to hold the dresses up and for decoration. This style had become less popular by the 1870s, but did not disappear entirely.
The modern bow tie has evolved rimarily from the bow ties commonly worn by men at the mid-19th Century. These original bow ties were black
and were worn by boys in the era before Fauntleroy suits and sailor suits were popular. Some boys today wear bow ties, although they are not very common. They
were somewhat more popular in the 1940 and 50s. Boys today dress up less commonly
and do not usually wear bowties when they do.
Some boys wore bows that are a little difficut to figure out. Perhaps some HBC readers can help determine just what kind of bows are involved. This is sometines the case whaen more than one bow is involved.
The usage of bows in boys clothing has varied widely from country to country. The collar bows worn with Fauntleroy suits were enormously popular in the United States, but hair bows less so. The French also had
large Fauntleroy collar bows and commonly used hair bows as well. I believe that the Italians commonly used collar bows on boys clothes in
the 19th Century and continued this fashion into modern times by using
them with school smocks. I have acquired less information on Germany
and England. The English may be an exception. The practice of sending
boys of about 8 years of age away to boarding preparatory schools
with strict uniform
requirements rather removed the mother from decesins about how her son was dressed after reaching that age. While it was the boys from affluent families
that went to these preparatory schools, fashions trends for boys 8 and older were set by
the clothes they wore.
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