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Boys and girls in the 19th century wore different destinctive garments. This became less common in the 20th century, pecially the late-20th century. But this was very pronounced in the 19th century. Boys for the most part wore pants. Girls wore skirted garments, with only a few excetions. The only major deviation was that younger boys might wear dresses. This all complicated rhe ability to dress brothers and sisters in matching outfits. This was a convention that some parents for what ever reason appreciated. Identiical outfits we not very common because only younger boys wore dresses. But corinmated outfirts were another matter. Outfits could be coordinated in several ways. One way was to make them in the same material/fabric. Most commonly these outfits were dresses for the girls and various short pants outfits for the boys. Some times the same trim such as buttons, cuffs, and collars were used. Tops coud be made similarly or even identically even if bottoms (pants and skirts) could not. Tps could have differentiated collars and sleeves. Usually this was for children of approximaetly the same age, or a younger boy and older sister. One popular material for brother-sister outfits was plaid, a material seen as acceptable for both boys and girls.
Boys and girls in the 19th century wore different destinctive garments. This became less common in the 20th century, pecially the late-20th century. But this was very pronounced in the 19th century. Boys for the most part wore pants. Girls wore skirted garments, with only a few excetions. The only major deviation was that younger boys might wear dresses, but this convention declined anc ended in the early-20th century. This all complicated the ability to dress brothers and sisters in matching outfits. This was a convention that some parents for what ever reason appreciated.
Identiical outfits we not very common because only younger boys wore dresses. But corinmated outfirts were another matter. Outfits could be coordinated in several ways. One way was to make them in the same color or with the same trim. Another was to use the same material/fabric.
Often brothers and sisters wore different garments, but the outfits were corrdinated by being made of the same material. One popular material for brother-sister outfits was plaid, a material seen as acceptable for both boys and girls. Interestingly, plaid has been seen as suitable for both boys and girls since Queen Victoria first dressed the future Edward VII in a kilt during the 1840s. Through all the subsequent fashion changes, this conventon for plaid has remained constant, altough today is more used bv girls than boys. Plaid skirts woud become a girls school staple.
These identical material brother sister outfits were mostly coordinated rather than identical outfits becuse of thev strong gender conventions in fashion.. Plaid seems to be the most commonn materail used, but wev do seev other patterns--none nearly as important as plaid. We see some eamples of both boys and girls wearing dresses in the 19th century, but they are not very common and they are usually only yonger boys--but they do exist. And there arevsomev withn children close in age. Some in the 19th century are identical dresses, but others are clearly boy dresses--dresses with destinctive styling to differentiate them from the dresses their sisters are wearing. Most commonly these outfits were dresses for the girls and various short pants outfits for the boys. Most commonly these outfits were dresses for the girls and outfits for the boys, especially tunic suits. After World War I by the 1920s we commonly see short pants outfits for these brother sister outfits. The Dutch example here is a good examople (figure 1).
Tops coud be made similarly or even identically even if bottoms (pants and skirts) could not. Tops could have differentiated collars and sleeves. An outfit could be cordinated with minor changes for the tops, like standard short sleeves for the boys and puff sleeves for the girl. Colars could also be chnged such as pointed tiops for the boy and OPeter Pan collars for the firls, but the rest of the garment basically the same. Often the left-righ buttoning cionventiion was used for bots nd girls. White the bottoms were usually pants fir boys abd sjirts fir girls. The use if the aame material lwves a unmistakingly coordinated look.
Some times the same trim such as buttons, cuffs, and collars were used. Some outfits had differentiated collars. Generally boys worn pointed collars an girls rounded Peter pan collars, but boys also sometimes wore Peter Pan collars.
Usually the matching material outfits were for either children of approximaetly the same age, or a younger boy and an older sister. We have not noted boys older than about 8 years old wearing these coordinated outfits. But we do not have alot of examples.
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