Figure 1.--Here we see and unidentified brother and sister. The photographer is Berlin of Blairsville, Pennsylvania. The portrait was probanly taken in the 1880s. The little girl holds a straw hat. Her brother wears a kilt suit. Notice the top is done more like a shirt than a jacket, but the material used is the same heavy suiting used for the kilt skirt. He seems to be wearing some kind of shirt under the top, we can see just the tip of the collar, but we see no paert of the sleeves. A reader asks, "It is possible that the white material we see at the collar is the collar of the under waist or undershirt or top of the union suit?" We are not sure what boys wore under the tops seen here. This is one of the questions we hope to pursue as we develop this section.
There were two basic types of kilt suits. This was based on the top not the actual kilt skirt. The kilt sjkirts varied, but the top determined the type of suit. The first type was a jacketed style. This included a suit jacket/coat and optional vest. The suit jackets varied. The jacket and vest were not destinctive to kilt suits and were the same style that could be worn with knee pants. The vests were very common. An exception was the Fauntlleroy kilt suit which was worn with a fancy blouse rather than a vest. We suspect that during the summer that many boys just wore the jacket without the vest. Some may have even dispensed with the jacket as well. We suspedct that when some boys were breeched that mother just bought the knee pants ro relace the kilt skirt and not a whole new suit. The other type of kilt suit was a heavy blouse that was made in the same material as the kilt skirt. It looks like a shirt and was not worn with either a jacket over it or shirt-like garment under it. The top was not a lightweight shirt but made in suiting material, often the same material as the kilt skirt. We do not know if there were terms in the 19th century for these two different kilt suit types. Both were popular styles and we see countless portraits of both types. We believe that the jacketed suit was the most popular, but we can not yet confirm this. We are slowly expanding our archive to more fully develop details about both types. We also notice a third type--tunic tops. Thuis was, however not a major style.
The first type of kilt suit top was a jacketed style. This included a suit jacket/coat and optional vest. The suit jackets varied. We note quite a range of jackets includibg cut-away jackets, collar-buttoning jackets, and lapel jakets. The jacket and vest were not destinctive to kilt suits and were the same style that could be worn with knee pants. The vests were very common. An exception was the Fauntlleroy kilt suit which was worn with a fancy blouse rather than a vest. A good example is Roy Swanson in the early-1900s. We suspect that during the summer that many boys just wore the jacket without the vest. Some may have even dispensed with the jacket as well. We suspect that when some boys were breeched that mother just bought the knee pants to replace the kilt skirt and not a whole new suit.
Old photographs are a wealth of information on 19th century fashion. We are able to detect popular styles in a way that was not possible before the invention of photography. Another issue is that ready made clothing was just developing at mid-century. As a result, we see a much great variety of outfits than would be the case as ready made became standard (late-19th century). Before this e see a variety of outfits that can not be easily categorized, essentially merging major styles. An exmple here is a kilt suit which looks to be done with a tunic top rather than a jacket. Tunic suits at the time along with kilt suits were a popular style. But tunic suits were mostly done with pants, often bloomer knickers, but sometimes long pants. We have not found many examples of tunics being worn with tunic tops, but we have found a few examples. The examples we have found so far come from the 1870s.
The other type of kilt suit was a top which looks like a heavy blouse, shirt, or short jacket that was made in the same material as the kilt/skirt. These tops varied. Some bloucesd. The portrait here shows one of the blousing tops (figure 1). Others seemn to button onto the kilt skirt. They look like a shirt/blouse or short jacket. All were collar-buttoning syles. They were not worn with suit jacket over it. We are less sure what was worn under it, but ir appears to be some kind of long-sleevved shirt, often a white shirt. The top itself was not a light-weight blouse or shirt, but made in suiting material, usually the same material as the kilt/skirt. We do not know if there were terms in the 19th century for these two different kilt suit types. They were both probably called kilt suits or even kilt outfits. Both were popular styles and we see countless portraits of both types. We believe that the jacketed suit, meaning a lapel suit jacket, was the most popular. They were not worn with vests, because as they were collar buttoning, the vest could not be seen. We can not yet, however confirm this. We are constantly expanding our archive to more fully developb details about both types.
We see some boys wearing what might be seen as a jersey or light-weight seater type. We hesitate to call them sweaters in that sweaters were more of a 20th century garment. It is difficult to make out just waht the garment is because the top is often obscured with large added detachable collars and neckwear like floppy bows. This was not on of the more commonn tops, but we do see a number of these tops. We think this may have been a low cist approach to the kilt-suit style. We are not sure about the chronology here, but it looks like they were mostly seen in the 1880s-90s. We are just beginning to work on this style. Age does not seem to have been a factor.
