Figure 1.--Dresses for boys and girls in the 1880s and 90s often had copious lace trim. Many modern observers stress the sanitary reasons for outfitting boys in dresses.
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Figure 1.--Dresses for boys and girls in the 1880s and 90s often had copious lace trim. Many modern observers stress the sanitary reasons for outfitting boys in dresses. |
Several authors do in fact stress this practical and sanitary explanation for attiring boys in dresses. These modern assessments have to be taken with considerable skepticism. Many make sence, but what seems logical and obvious to modern readers may are may not be the primary reason for this well estanlished convention. Observers in different countries report many of the same assessments. It seems that these practical factors were important, but this does not mean of course that this was the exclusive factor as some of these modern observers suggest.
Sandy Miller spoke to a group of children about her book Dressed for Any Occasion on a C-SPAN. I only saw a small portion of the program. Anyway she had several comments about boys wearing dresses. She said that the reason boys stopped wearing dresses around the time of World War I was the invention of rubber pants about this time which allowed boys who were not yet potty trained to wear pants for the first time without having them become soaked.
Margo Anderson writes that she believes that the change over to pants for boys, while probably based on societal issues, was enabled by a technological innovation: that of rubberized training pants, and later, disposable diapers. During the Renaisence Faire one year, her toddlerson developed a severe diaper rash that meant that he needed to wear just cloth diapers, no plastic pants or disposables. Any pants we put on him got wet instantly and stayed that way, but his loose cotton smock dried in the air.
Another modern observer writes, "The custom of dressing little boys in petticoats dated back to the Middle Ages and was commonplace in Northwest Europe. Adult-style male clothing was first put on at the age of six or seven; being 'breeched' was an important event in a boy’s life. Costume historians have offered various reasons for this custom: that small boys wore female-style clothes because they were still in the nursery under the care of women, or because bad fairies were thought to steal boy children but to have no interest in girls. These explanations seem a little lame, particularly since boys’ clothes were usually differentiated from those of girls in some way, for example, by different headgear. Sometimes male toddlers even wore miniature swords over their petticoats. A more convincing reason is simply that, before zips and elastic, men’s legwear took time and manual dexterity to take off and put back on. Breeches in the 17th and 18th centuries normally had a minimum of five buttons, often more; the earlier medieval and Tudor hose, fastened to an upper garment with a complex system of eyelets and laces, were even trickier. A small boy in such clothes would have been a toilet mishap waiting to happen. It made sense to dress little boys in petticoats which only needed to be hitched up in an emergency, and not to give them hose or breeches till they were competent to manage them." [Victoria Dennis, Times (London) November 29, 2002.]
Another observr writes, "Before Pampers and rubber pants, running hot and cold water, washing machines and tumbler dryers, it was easier to let toddlers wear skirts or be naked from the waist down. By keeping them in dresses, the complications of hand-making endless small sizes of tights, knee britches, etc. was avoided. The age at which boys were breeched and had their hair cut varied according to period and class but was usually between five and seven. This age was lowered over time as hygiene and clothing improved. My father, born in 1901, wore dresses until he was three; my brother, born in 1935, into an age where rubber pants over a nappy was the norm, wore rompers or knitted shorts from about six months on; my son, born in 1969, went straight into Babygros. " [Jill Jackson, Times (London) November 29, 2002.]
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