Figure 1.--This portrait was painted by Wjbryant of an unidentified Massachusettes boy in 1853. Note the modest size. Only after the Civil War did larger collars begin to become popular. Click on the image to see the entire portrait.

The lace collar as a specifically boys's fashion did not come about until the late 19th century. Some boys wore elaborate collars, both open and closed, with skeletiob suits in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but these appear to have been more commonly ruffled rather than lace collars. We begin to notice lace collars on boys in the mid-19th century. At this time they were generally small modest-size collars. The size of the colars and the popularity began to grow in the 1870s. The fashion became very popular of course after the publication of Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1885, especially in America. Boys began to be seen with large lace collars. There are many examples of boys wearing lace collars archived on HBC. A good example is Martin Allister Wambold in 1886. There were even larger collars in the 1890s, but these were usually ruffled collars rather than lace collars. Many but not all boys also wore large bows which tended to cover up thei lace collars. The use of large bows continued throughout the period that large lace collars were popular and after and depended on the mother's fashion sence rather than any chronological pattern. By the mid-1890s, less expensive, but still large ruffled collars began to replace the lace collar for boys.

Created: 3:05 AM 10/28/2004
Last updated: 12:10 AM 1/9/2007