Figure 1.--This boy in the 1880s or early 1890s photographed with his sister has a plaid bow with an Eton collar, which he wears with a kneepants suit--an unusual combination. We are not sure what colors were used in plaids like this.

Some bows were solid colors. It is clear that both black and white material was used for the bows. Less clear is what colors were used. Unfortunately the black and white photography of the day makes it difficult to fully assess the bows. Very few paintings from the era provide useful information.Thus information on bow colors will have to come primarily from research on period fashion periodicals. This research is just beginning and results of the findings will not be available for some time. Some mothers presumably chose colors coordinated with the color of the boys's suit. Fauntleroy suits, besides black, came in blue, brown, green, burgandy, and grey. The bows might have been in lighter, matching, or darker shades. Assessing the photography, lighter shades does not appear to have been a common alternative. Less clear is whether some mothers choose bright colors like a red to add a little color to a black or dark colored suit. I know that the waist sash was used this way, but I'm not sure the bow was. As far as I can tell, some colors were not commonly worn, especially yellow and oranges.

Black

HBC at this stage is unsure just how common black bows were. Black or dark blue bows were commonly worn with middy blouses, I am not sure, however, how common they were for Fauntleroy suits. What appears in an old photograph as black, may well be a dark shade of one of the many colors of bows worn with Fauntleroy suits, especially red. We see quite a number of portraits where the bows certainly look black. An example is a Reading, Pennsylvania boy photographed with his brother in the 1890s. His bow looks black, but we have a suspision that it may have been a color like red. Unfortunately we have no way of acurately determining this.

Blue

Blue is one of the colors worn to match with one of the colored shades commonly used with Fauntleroy suits. Usually dark blues were selected to match the usual dark blue velvet of the Fauntleroy suit.

Brown

Brown is one of the colors worn to match with one of the colored shades commonly used with Fauntleroy suits. HBC has no information on the popularity of this color, but it probably reflected the popularity of green Fauntleroy suits.

Burgandy

Burgandy is one of the colors worn to match with one of the colored shades commonly used with Fauntleroy suits.

Green

Green is one of the colors worn to match with one of the colored shades commonly used with Fauntleroy suits. HBC has no information on the popularity of this color, but it probably reflected the popularity of green Fauntleroy suits.

Grey

Although I know there were grey Fauntleroy suits, I do not know for a fact that there were matching grey bows.

Pink

Boys also wore pink bows. We do not at this time know how common this was. We have noted pink sailor suits, but have not yet noted pink Fauntleroy suit. While the balck and white photograph makes it practically impossible to tell how common pink bows were, available portrairts do show that some boys wore them. This suggests that modern color conventions were not yet established. We do not know, however, to what extent that pink bows were worn by girls at the time. We also are unsure as to with what color suits the pink bows were worn. The pink bow we have seen was being worn with a brown Fauntleroy suit.

Red

Red was a color often used to add a splash of bright color to an otherwise colorless outfits. Boys in much of the the 19th century did not tend to wear colofull clothing. Although the skeleton suits of the late 18th and early 19th centuries might be worn in a bright red, the Fauntleroy suit was commonly worn in a dark shade of velvet or other materials for less expensive suits. The best example hgere was the Fauntleroy suit which was often black or oither dark colors. Other boys' suits were commonly dark, muted colors. We believe red bows were a particularly popular choice for black Fauntleroy suits, but we can not yet conform this. We are less sure how common red bows were with other outfits.

Figure 2.--This boy in the 1880s or early 1890s wears a small elegant white bow with his large lace collar.

White

While the available photography provides few clues on colors, it does confirm that white bows were worn. The white bow on an white lace or ruffled collar gives rather an elegant look. Some mothers did not like white collars as the fancy bows they liked to ties did not show up very well against the white collar. A good American example is the Sanborn boy about 1890. He wears a white bow with a large pleated white collasr.

Other

As far as I can tell, some colors were not commonly worn, especially yellow and oranges. This is, however, an unconfirmed suposition at this stage of HBC's research. As boys did not generally wear clothes in these colors, matching colored bows were not needed.

Created: 7:37 PM 7/4/2007
Last updated: 7:37 PM 7/4/2007