Figure 1.--This little American boy looks about 4 years old. He wears a soft sailor cap with his Faunyleroy kiltsuit about the tutn of the 20th century. |
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American boys wore a range of headwear with kilt suits. The only general observatin we can make at this time is the diversity of headwear worn with kilt suits. We believe they wore Scottish styles such a glengaries and tams, but we are not sure how common these were. Perhaps more common were sailor styles, both sailor caps and wide-brimmed sailor hats. There were other headwear worn, such as different styles of straw hats. We believe, however, that Scottish styles and sailor styles were probably the most common. Our primary source of information is studio portraits. Unfortunately headwear is not always included in portraits. We have found a few snapshots as well which usually do include the headwear. We are not sure how headwear styles worn with kilt suits may have varied with Europeans.
We see many boys with a kind of hat with the brim folded up looking more like a cap. It has some resemblance to the sambie cap of the 20th century, but the crown commonly emerges above the folded up brim.
We have no idea what to call this cap. Early caalogs are not very good at specifying names of different styled headwear. We see boys in kilt suits waring them as well as older school-age boy.
One of the most popular types of hats for boys in the 19th century were rounded-crown hats, both straw and felt hats. As they were so popular, many boys must have worn them with kilt suits. These hats had a variety of variations involving the brim and crown. Some have somewhat larger brims curved upward, beginning to look more like th folded brim hats. These rounded-crown hats were a style that was not very common in Europe.
Perhaps more common were sailor styles, both sailor caps and wide-brimmed sailor hats. We had thought that this was the most common headwear style, but we can not confirm this in the photographic record. Sailor hats seem to have been more popular than sailor caps, in part because by the time sailor caps had become fashionable, kilt suits were beginning to go out of style. There was, however, some overlap in the 1890s.
We see some American boys wearing Scottish styles such a glengaries and tams, but we are not sure how common these were. They were probably more common in Britain.
We are not sure just whay to call these caps. They look rather like adult smoking caps. We note some boys wearing kilt suits and Fauntleroy suits wearing them. We are not sure about the colors. A good example is an unidentified Kansas boy in the 1870s. He skirt without a jacket, but we believe that the headwear was similar whether the boys wore a kilt suit ot jusy a skirt/kilt with a blouse.
There were other headwear worn, such as different styles of straw hats. This included hats not done in sailor styles.
We note some boys wearing kilt suits with tams. In fact many of the boys we see wearing tams are dressed in kilt suits. This includes both regular kilt suits and Fauntleroy kilt suits. Some of these caps were quite large. The connection between kilt suits and tams prpbably occurred because the tam was a headwear seen as suitable for younger boys and these were the boys wearing kilt suits. The tams we have noted were dark ones, but we are unsure about the colors. A good example is an unidentified Wisconsin boy about 1890.
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