Pinafores: Home Wear

Figure 1.--This American boy appears to wear a pinafore over a short sleeved dress or smock. Presumably this was his normal every day wear at home, before he was breeched. Boys were less likely to wear pinafores after breeching--even at home. Note the stripped stockings. The photograph was probably taken in the 1880s, but it may have been taken as early as the late 1870s.

Pinafores were essentially abbreviated smocks worn over other clothes for meals and play. Pinafores for children, especially boys, were generally an informal garment designed for informal home wear. For this reason, the available 19th Century photographic images probably does not reflect the actual extent to which they were really worn. Mothers usually dressed their children in their best party outfit for the formal photography of the day.

Conventions

It is not clear for me the cnventins of wearing pinafores at home. Several questions present themselves. Why for example did a mother decide on a pinafore rather than a plain everyday dress? Perhaps a pinafore was worn over an everyday dress as well. Why did a mother select a pinafore rather than a smock? Were there certain occassions that smocks were required and other occasions for pinafores?

I believe that social class also affected the use of the pinafore. I believe that pinafores were primarily worn bu boys in affluent families, nut this is just a suposition at this time.

Style

Many pinafores were made for everyday wear at home. These were made out of inexpensive materials with simple designs. These simple pinafores varied in style. Some pinafores in the mid and late 19th Century were more like aprons with bib fronts, primarily covering the front of the dress or smock. Other styles covered almost all of the dress or smock, except for the sleeves. This of course distinguishes the pinafore. A garment with sleeves would be a smock.

A varierty of stylistic features could be added to the pinafore. Lace trim could be added around te collar and at the arm openings. Trim could also be added at or mear the hem. Ofte the waist was elevated and smocking or trim gathering could be added at that point.

The available photographs may not reflect the actual styles commonly worn at home. Mothers may have wanted their sons to be photographed in their most elaborate pinny, rather than an every day pinny. Thus there are relatively few images available of boys wearing the plainer styled pinafores.

There does not appear to have been any significant stylistic feature distinguishing the pinafores worn by boys and girls. Boys' dresses or dress-like tunics, for example, usually had belts. This was usually not the not the case for pinafores--at least the ones worn at home. Some boys do seem to have sometimes added belts to their work pinafores.

Figure 2.--It was not just little boys who wore pinafores in the late 19th Century. This Philadelphia boy in a photograph taken probably in the 1880s wears a pinafore with fancy sleeves. He looks to be about 8 or 9 years old. Note that the dog has a little bow.

Clothing

Only limited information is available on the clothes boys wore with pinafores. Some information can be discerned from an analasis of available images.

Dresses

It is likely that most boys still in pinafores were boys still in dresses that had not yet been breeched. The boys pictured on this page for example, do not appear to have been breeched. This is apparent because if you observe the sleeves, they are not wearing boyish shirts or even blouses. If they had been breeched, almost certainly theu would be wearing shirts or blouses with long sleeves.

Pants

However a few available photographs show that some boys still wore pinafores at home after breeching. Almost always these boys are wearing kneepants.

Stockings

Most boys in pinafores wear long dark stockings. Some boys wear stripped stockings.

The fashion of boys wearing shorter socks did not fully develop until after the turn of the century, by which time it became less common for boys to wear pinafores. There are some country differences here. Little boys in dresses were more likely to wear short socks in Europe, well before the turn of the Century.

Shoes

Footwear varied. Boys and girls might wear strap shoes or pumps with bows (figure 1). Other children might wear the heavier boot-like lace up or button shoes.

Gender Identification

The lack of gender differentiation in pinafore styles makes it difficult to determine the gender of the individual children in available photographs. The only clue often available is the hair styles. Other clues such as pets and toys are other props are often not available or ambiguous.