Figure 1.-- This American tin-type shows an undentified boy, orovably about 5 years old. He is tightly grasping a heavy chair--a way of holding steady for the portrit. The boy wears a kilt suit. The top, howevr, is not a jacket, at least no jacket like we have ever noted. It looks more like a tunic, although there are some jacket features. He has a round lace collar abf plaid front. We note a kilt botton with box pleats.There is no information associated with the image. We would guess that it was taken in the 1870s.

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.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main American kilt suit top page]
[Return to the Main American kilt suit type page]
[Return to the Main American kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main kilt page]
[Lace collar] [Floppy bows] [Cut-away jackets] [Kilt suits] [Stiped long stockings] [Shoes]
[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 9:00 PM 6/25/2018
Last updated: 9:01 PM 6/25/2018