Figure 1.--.

Boys wearing tunics at the turn of the century might wear long hair. This was a popular style in both France and America, although only a small number of boys wore hairbows with tunics. In America most boys wore hairbows with ringlets while in France curling hair was less common. Hairbows were most commonly worn with sailor tunics and were less common with Russian tunics or Buster Brown tunic suits.

HBC assumed at first that the child on this page might be a girl. A HBC contrinutor believes the child is a boy. The primary reason why he thinks the child is a boy is that it is a formal portrait which would dectate the subject wearing their best clothing. This is a very dressy outfit for a boy but I can't imagine Mom dressing her daughter in it for a formal portrait. I think when girl's wore these outfits it would be for play I think your point is very well take. I would take issue that girls only wore these outfits for play. HBC tends to agree. The contributor is right that they would probably not be a girl's best outfit--while it could be a boy's best outfit. HBC bekieves that these sailor tunics were not just worn for play by girls, but also for informal occasions. Somehow the child seems to me to be a girl, but I think that is because of the asociation of girls and hairbows. But as we know hair bows were worn by boys. Your point is very persuasive.

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Last updated: January 3, 1998