Figure 1.--These American brothers wear similar tunic suits, except that the older brother has kneepants and the younger brother knicker-style pants. Note the ruffled collars and large white bow. The only real difference is that the younger brother has not yet had his curls cut and wears a hairbow his mother has lovingly added. The photograph was taken at Morristown, N.J, probably during the 1890s.

Mothers also liked to dress brothers alike, even if they were not twins. This sometimes created complications, especially if the boys were not about the same age. The older brother may have objected as many mothers did not want to dress kittle boys in big boy clothes. Thus the outfits chosen were often the ones suitable for the younger brother.

Chronologies

I think the idea of dressing boys alike has been a popular fashion for centuries. Many historical paintings shows brothers in identical outfits. I believe that this was a particularly popular style in the 19th century. This was in part because mothers has great leeway throuhout the 19th century as to how their sons were dressed. We believe that this fashion is less common than it used to be. Iy has not yet, however, disappeared. Modern boys have much more say as to how theybare dressed. Few boys wanted to be dressed like their younger brothers, especially if there is more than a couple year's difference between them. Of course another factor is that families are

Garments

A wide variety of garments have been used to dress brothers in coordinated outfits. They have included dresses, smocks, sailor suits, tunics, suits, and a wide range of other garments. In many cases the basic garments were the same, but minor changes were made to identify the older and younger boy. No other garment was so commonly used to dress brothers in than the sailor suit. There are countless images of brothers wearing sailor suits. A good example are two American brothers at a birtday party about 1930. Sometimes all the brothers, occassiionally sisters too, wore sailor suits. Often the boys all wore the same style suit. More commonly the younger boys might have more juvenile style sailor suits like a sailor tunic suit. In some cases the youngest boy might wear a sailor dress.

Age Appropriate Differences

While dressing their sons identically, many mothers conceived of a variety of small devices to differentiate between brothers of different ages. The variations could be made in countless different ways. Some times they chose similar outfits, but with some different garments like bows or shoes. Sometimes the outfits were the same, but the hair styles were different. Sometimes the same basic garments were the same, but there were small differences like short pants of different length. Another option was different outfits, but in similar colors.

Hair

Hair was one of te most cimmon ways of identifying the younger boy. Some mothers might cut the curls of their older boys or perhaps add a hairbow to the younger boy's hair. The younest boy would be the most likely to still be in curls or wear some sort of fancy hair style. The age at which mothers may the cut off from the curkls for the younger boy to shorter hair styles varied. Often curls were cut at about 5-6 years old, but this was not always the case and older boys did wear them.

Collars

A very common way of differentiating boys wearing suits was to have the younger boy wear a large wide collar or even a ruffled collar. Brothers might be dressed in similar outfits, but the younger boys or boys might wear large larger collars or ruffled or lace collars.

Bows

Younger boys might also large floppy collar bows. The larger the bows were reserved for the younger boys or to signify a younger boy. Brothers might be dressed in similar outfits, but the younger boys or boys might wear large floppy bows.

Suits

Often brothers might be dressesd in identical or similar suits. This practice was especially common in the late 19th century, in part becaise 19th century families tended to be larger than 20th century families and there were more likely to have several brothers that could be dressed similarly. The younger brother or brothers may wear a different, but often coordinated suits. In some cases the suits might be similar, but as described above the details may be varied for the younger boy by adding a large collar or bow. Quite a wide range of suits are involved here. The suits most likely to be involved are sailor suits, Fauntleroy suits, Norfolk suits, tunic suits like Buster Brown suits, and many other outfits.

Figure 2.--The mother of these American boys has used identical or silmlar styles along with age appropropriate styling. The two older brothers here wear identical knicker sailor suits. The next younger brother wears a sailor tunic suit. Notice the younger boys top curl.

Pants

Pants or trousers were often a device for deifferentiating boys wearing the same suit styles. Younger boys often wore short pants. Sometimes brothers might both wear shorts, but of different lengths. Often the the boys in short and long pants suits wore different styles of suits. In some fmilies the boys might have similar suits or suits of the same color, but one boy wearing shorts and tge other wearing knickers or long pants. The differentiation was not always an attempt at age differentiation. Some differences such as one boy wearing kneepants and the other knickers may not be attempts to differentiate, but due to some vagery of buying or making clothes.

Interpreting Old Photographs

It is sometimes difficult to tell when assessing old photographs whether the children dresses identically arebrothers or sisters. This can be especially difficult if the children are in dresses or smocks. It is likely, however, if the children are wearing keepants or knickers that they are boys. While modern women wear pants, this was decidedly not the case for women and girls in the 19th century.

Created: November 23, 1999
Last updated: 8:23 PM 2/2/2005