*** American kilt suits: headwear








American Kilt Suits: Headwear

kilt suit headwear
Figure 1.--This little American boy looks to be about 4 years old. He was from Selingsgrove, Pennsylvania. The photographer was Ulrich and the card had unusual edge perforations. The cabinent card is undated, but was probably taken in the 1870s, probably the late-70s. He wears a rounded-crown hat with his kilt suit. It looks like a sraw hat. Note the polkadot hat band. There were no streamers.

American boys wore Kilt suits with a variety of headwear, both caps and hats. The only general observation we can make at this time is the diversity of headwear worn with kilt suits. We are not entirely sure about the different varities of headwear worn or their relative importance. Headwear was commonly worn in the 19th century, so most boys would have had a hat or cap worn wih his kilt suit. Part of the reason that our information is incomplete is that outdoor photography was not yet common place and studio portraits commonly do not show the head wear. We have begun to collect some images. Given the time that kilt suits were popular, we suspect that at least some boys wore rounded-crown hats. As sailor styles became more popular, some boys must have worn wide-brimmed sailor hats. Sailor styles were so popular that they were often worn with other styles than sailor suits. Another option surely were Scotish styles like balmorals and glengarys as well as Tam O'Shanters. 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.

Berets and Tams

Berets and tams are related garments. They do not have peaks, but are somewhat reated to caps as a more informal headwear style than hats. We note younger American boys wearing tams in the 19th century. We have not found many examples, but in the 19th century we do see tams. In the 20th century berets were more common, but kilt suits had gone out of style. Complicating this, girls in the early 20th century commonly referred to berets as tams. There is a difference. Tams were fuller and floppier than berets. We do not see boys wearing berets in the 19th cenurry, with or without kilt suits. Tam is short for Tam O'Shanter which as Scottish connections. Thus some mothers would have seen it as appropriate for kilt outfits like kilt suits. It was thus a popular choice among especially fashion concious mothers, however, the photograpic record suggests it was not one of the more common choices.

Caps

Our initial assessment is that hats were more common with kilt suits than caps. This presumably reflects the fact that hats were more common than caps throughout the 19th century. We do, however, see quite a number of boys wearing caps and they were wearing several different style. We expected to find mostly Scottish style caps, the balmorals and glengaries, but find that other styles as well as hats were more common. In fact, the most notable aspect of caps was the diversity if cp styles worn. And we see several styles that we were somewhat surprised to find boys wearing with kilt suits. Jockey caps seems a little jrrig to be worn with kilt suits, but of course 19th century mothers had other fashion ideas than what may seem suitable to our modern eyes. We are still working on the relative popularity of the different styles. There does not seem to be any one type of cap or small number of caps associated with kilt suits. The styles worn seem to be the same as those worn by older boys that had been breeched.

Hats

American boys wore Kilt suits with a variety of hats. Men also commonly worev hats at the time, but different styles. As with caps, we notice a wide range of hats. Some of the hats were quite large, certainly larger than the caps. Some of the youngest boys had the largest hats. Given the time that kilt suits were popular, we suspect that at least some boys wore rounded-crown hats and that is confirmed by the photograohic record. As sailor styles became more popular, some boys must have worn wide-rimmed sailor hats, a style related to the ronded-crown hats, only with a wider brim. Sailor styles were so popular that they were often worn with other styles than sailor suits. There were other headwear worn, such as different styles of straw hats. We also see some boaters. Most of the hats we have fojund were straw hats. The rounded-crown hats hats varied and the folde brim hats were all fabrics. But we see mostly straw hats in the photographic record.

Sailor Styles

One of the most populat headwear styles for boys in the late-19th century 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. We see boys wearing many other types of headwear with kilt suits as well as sailor styles. 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. As sailor styles became more popular, some boys must have worn wide-brimmed sailor hats. Sailor styles were so popular that they were often worn with other stylles than sailor suits. This was probably common in the 1880s and 90s when these hats were particularly popular.








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Created: 4:06 PM 1/27/2008
Last updated: 10:56 PM 3/7/2019