Figure 1.--This boy in the late 1880s wear a Fauntkeroy kilt suit with destinctibve lace collar and cuff trim. This boys looks to be about 7. Notice the high-top boots. It is unclear if he is wearing a skirt or kilt. The image is unclear, but does appear to have a slight plaid.

The classic Little Lord Fauntkeroy suit was made to be worn with knee pants. Many mothers with younger boys still in dresses and not yet ready for boyish pants, were so entralled with the Fauntleroy style that they began dressing their sons in various styles of Fauntleroy dresses. Latter they may have chosen Fauntleroy suits with skirts or kilts rather than long pants. Normally a Fauntleroy dress would have been worn by younger boys and a Fauntleroy suit with knee pants by older boys. A Fauntleroy suit with a kilt rather than knee pants could be worn by quite old boys.

Style

The classic Fauntleroy suit was a black or dark blue velvet suit with knee-length velvet trousers. Some mothers in the 1880s and the 1890s were enchanted with the Mrs. Benetts' Fauntleroy suit, but did not believe their boys, who were still wearing dresses, were quite ready to be breached. As a result, Fauntleroy suits appeared as one-piece dresses and interchangeable suits with blouses and jackets that could be worn with skirts or kilts rather than the knee-length pants that most boys saw as the only redeeming feature of the otherwise rather unpopular garb--at least with the wearer as mothers adored them.

I have slowly been acquiring information in this topic. In doing so I have found it necessary to be very precise about terminology:
Dresses: Young boys wore dresses throughout the 19th Century. Dresses are one piece garments without separate jackets and skirts. In many cases they were styles indistinguishable from their sisters with ruffles and lace. Some dresses were marketed as boys or girls dresses, but many were simplly labeled as children's dresses--suitable for boys or girls. Many mothers might choose the plainer styles for their sons, but others preferred the same more elaborate styles worn by their daughters. In such matters it was up to the preference of the mother. Often if a boy had an older sister, he would wear her old dresses. Thus the Fauntleroy-style dresses were not great departure. Such dresses appeared in the late 1880s and were popular until after the turn of the century. They departed from the style of making dresses for boys plainer than those for girls. Fauntleroy dresses were worn by the younger boys. An example is an American boy, Carl P. Weber, about 1895.

Figure 2.--Some kilt suits, like this Fauntleroy kilt suit were made in the double breasted style. It is often difficult to establish gender in old photographs. The double breasted style was primarily for boys.

Skirts: The skirt is distinct from a dress as it is only the lower part of the dress. The skirts worn by boys, however, were mostly bodice skirts with a top used to hold up the skirt. The top bodice, hiwever, was an undergarment and a blouse and jacket were worn over it. The boy had to wear a blouse as the boddice prevented him from wearing a shirt with tails that had to be tucked in. The skirt was made of the same material as the jacket to be worn with it and was destinguished from the kilt in that it was not plaid. I am not sure about the age range for Fauntleroy suits with skirts, but it was probably worn by older boys than Fauntleroy dresses.
Kilt: The kilt was very similar to the skirt. The ones made for boys were often boddice kilts and thus had to be worn with blouses. There were two types of kilt outfits.
1. Kilt suits: The suits were commonly called kilt suits, as the kilt-skirt usually matched the jackets as they were made of the same material--generally dark muted plaid rather than velvet. Thus these kilts, usually bodice-style kilts, looked more like skirts than kilts. Some of the kilt suits were in the double breasted style. The classic Fauntleroy suit had a small jackets worn open to show a fancy blouse, elaborately trimmed in lace and ruffles. The kilt suit, on the other hand a large, substantial jackets which was worn c;oused. Thus there was no need to wear it with fancy blouses like the classic Fauntleroy suit. Often a Fauntleroy kilt suit would be worn with a large lace collar attached to the jacket instead of a fancy blouse.
2. Fauntleroy kilts: The kilts worn with Fauntleroy jackets, however, could be quite bright plaids as they contrasted with the black or dark colored velvet jacket. As the kilt was not considered to be a girlish garnment, quite old boys were sometimes dressed in kilted Fauntleroy suits. Fauntleroy kilt had a skirt with a more distinctive Scottish plaid kilt, but was worn with a Fauntleroy jacket and lace collar.

Material

Fauntleroy dresses were made any any materials besides the velvet of the classic Fauntleroy suit. Deparment store catalogs of the 1880s and 1890s list flannel, cassimere, or even linnen.

Time Line

The Faultleroy kilt suit or plain kilt outfit was quite common in the late 1880s and 1890s. Some information is available on how Mrs. Benett dressed her son Vivian, but I do not know at what age he was breched and began wearing proper Faintleroy suits. The boys were quite close to their mother and dutifully wore what she so carefully chose for them. I do not know if either boy raised the subject of their attire with mother. Knowing how she loved to outfit them and presumably the amount of money she was making on marketing Little Lord Fauntleroy the issue may have postponed. Boys continued to wear Fauntleroy suits through the turn of the century and into the 1900s. After World War I, however, it became uncommon to keep little boys in dresses and the fashion disapperared.

Figure 3--This boy in the late 1880s wear a Fauntkeroy kilt with a modest lace collar, but a jaunty Tam O'Shanter. Notice the pantalettes he is wearing and high-top boots.

Hair Styles

Boys outfitted in Fauntleroy suits were often, but not always, kept in curls rather than boyish short hair. Interestingly, some mothers had their son's hair cut before he was breeched so that they might wear dresses with short hair for several years. Other boys were breeched at an early age and wore keepants for several years with long, often curled hair.

Figure 4.--These twin boys wore Little Lord Fauntleroy dresses as little boys. Their mother decided to preserve the moment that they began wearing kneepants rather than skirts. Note that the rest of their outfit was presisely the same. One wonders if the boys didn't argue about who would be the first to wear the pants.

Boys' Ages

Fauntleroy dresses and kilrs were generally worn by boys from about 2 1/2 to 6, but there was no set age. Store catalogs generally show the dresses through size 6 years. A Fauntleroy dress/kilt suit brough for a boy at 6, might well be worn at 7 or sometimes even 8 years of age. As noted in the dress pages, a particularly doting mother might keep her son in dresses several years beyond 5-6 years of age when most boys were breeched. It was all up to the individual mother and some sought to keep their sons in pretty clothes as long as possible. The age of 7-8 was about the age range range for the Fauntleroy suit worn with kneepants. Most of the older boys, of course, would wear the kneepants rather than the skirted version. And while most boys passed out of Fauntleroy suits by 8 or 9, many with particularly fashion conscious mothers wore Fauntleroy suits for several additional years.

Interchangeable Outfits

Many mothers chose Fauntleroy dresses with the idea that their son could be breeched and contunue wearing the jacket, blouse, and hat for several years. The breeching process would only require replacing the skirt that came with the dress with knee pants. The rest of the outfit remained just the same.

Attitudes

Attitudes toward Fauntleroy dresses are not altogether clear. One HBC contributor had some thoughts on the matter. He doesn't think Little Lord Fauntleroy dresses or kilts fit into the breeching paradigm. It seems to him that boys didn't wear dresses after being put into Fauntleroy suits. Remember in the movie the Magnificent Ambersons that the boy is first shown wearing a Fauntleroy suit with pants and later a Fauntleroy suit with a pleated skirt or kilt. I don't think mothers considered these to be dresses, but just variations on the Fauntleroy suit. It interesting that the original Little Lord Fauntleroy is never shown wear a dress or kilt. I think boys probably wore both and never went through a stage where they first wore kilted suits and later suit with knee pants.

The reader remembers reading a mention in a biography of a woman who grew up about the 1890s of a Fauntleroy suit. She had several brothers and the contributor remembers the line in the book, "..teaked Julian's long ringlets. Julian was 7 and wore a Fauntleroy suit and long curls." A family photograph in the book shows Julian in a skirted Fauntleroy suit. Obviously, his sister didn't consider this to be a dress.

Figure 5.--The noted English author E.M Forster is pictured here at the age of 5 years in 1884. This shows that Fauntleroy-looking dresses existed even before the publication of Mrs Benett's book. Her book helped to popularize the idea of fancy clothes for boys that was already underway. E.M. Forster also wears pantalettes. While they were becoming less fashionable, pantalettes were still worn by some boys as late as the 1890s. His rich aunt who left him a sizeable inheritance, reportedly liked to see him nicely dressed. Click on the image for information on Forster.

I think one aspect to bear in mind is the difference between dresses, skirts, and kilts. Dresses were one piece garments. These were worn by the younger boys. One a boy was breeched he stopped wearing such one piece dresses. However, Fauntleroy jackets could be worn with skirts, kilts, or knee pants. Thus a boy might have worn skirts and even more kikely kilts after he was breeched and stopped wearing dresses. I'm not sure about the skirts, but breeched boys might be dresses up in kilts for several years after they were breeched and commonly wore knee pants. Of course some mothers absorbed with the lore of the Higlands might have several different kilt outfits and dress her son in them after breeching.

Created: January 20, 1999
Last updated: 7:08 PM 1/14/2007