American Little Lord Fauntleroy Blouses--Hair

Figure 1.--This tintype hows threechikdren about 1-12 years old. The boy is probably about 5 years old. He wears a constrained Funtleroy blouse and a large plaid floppy bow. It is very difficult to date tin types. We suspect it was taken in the late-1890s, in part because the ringlets are short and there is whicker furniture. .

The iconic impage of Fauntleroy styling is with boys wearing ringlet curls. Actully only a minority of boys with Fauntleroy outfits had their hair done in ringlets. Actually it was a small, but not tiny minority. This comes out clearly in the photograaphic record. Most boys with Fauntleroy outfits including the blouses had short hair. The boy here is a good exmnple (figure 1). Here age was a factor, the younger the boy, the more likely his hair would be done in ringlets. But gain it needs to be stressed that only a ninority of boys, even boys wearing Fauntleroy suits hd theit hir din in runglets. This includes both boys wearing full Fauntleroy suits as well as boys just wearing the blouses. We suspect that boys who were photyographed in Fauntleroy blouses also wore the full suits. Just eearing the blouse seems more of a summer option. The cost of the small-cut away jackets would not have beem nmuch of a determent to the mothers purchsing the fancy blouses. After ll the boys just wearing the blouses are wearing the knee pants that went with the suit. We see more images of boys with ringlets wearing the full dsuit than just the blouses. We suspoecty this was a calendar matter. In tghe lte-19th century when these blouses were poopular, theAmerican population was much more concentrated in th northermn part of the country where warm summer weather was limiited ton only a few months.

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Created: 1:24 PM 8/10/2022
Last updated: 1:24 PM 8/10/2022