The skeleton suit was the first widely worn specialized style for boys.
Previously boys had just worn scaled down mens' clothes. The skeleton
suit on the other hand was made especially forvboys. It was
a boys' fashion staple for decades, but
there were substantial differences between the suits worn over time and in
different countries. Individual mothers introduced there own fashionable
modifications. The skeleton was not nearly as standardized as the
clothes worn by boys later in the 19th Century. Clothes in the early
19th Century were not mass produced, but rather made by individual
seamstresses. This led to the wide variations in suits.
Skeleton suits came in two basic styles,
one and two piece styles with numerous buttons in necessary places. They
were worn most prominently during the French Empire period and the
British Regency era Skeleton suits were widely worn by boys throughout
Western Europe and America. Well dressed boys wore skeleton suits in
the last decade of the 18th Century and the early decades of the 19th
Century, about 1790 into the 1830s. Precursors to the skeleton suits
appeared even earlier during the 1770s. The skeleton suit was
one of the first specialized
styles worn by children as opposed to scaled down version of the styles
worn by one's fathers. They were apparently called skeleton suits
because the boys at the age the suits were worn were so slender.
Skeleton suits
throughout this period had two distinctive features: high-waist,
and front buttons. An blouse with a variety
of collar styles, trimmed with lace or other elegant trimming was another
common feature on many suits.
The high waist was the single most prominent
feature of the suit. It reflected the high waists in clothing for men,
women, and girls. The first two decades
of the 19th century were the period in which the Empire fashion raised
waistlines of mother, daughter, and small boy up under the arms. Men's
fashions also had high waists, but not generally as high as those of
children and men. This
basically classic high-waist style was loosely patterned on ancient
Greek fashions.
The skeleton suit is considered by some students of clothing
design to charming and artistic and periodically influences fashions,
although not to the degree of the early 19th century. Some view it
and concurrent high-waist dress styles for girls as some of the most
charming children's costumes ever designed. While the high waist was
present in all
skeleton suits, other features of the suit varied over time such as
collars and pants length.
The skeleton suit was also a practical garment for a child. The open
collar style was comfortable. The suit was generally styled with
enough fullness to allow movement, but trim enough to maintain a
reasonably tidy appearance.
Buttons were a conspicuous part of most skeleton suits. Many classic
skeleton suits had two rows of ornamental buttons in front, often
ascending over the shoulders. The pantaloons also had elaborate buttons,
both as a front opening and to attach to a blouse to hold it up.
Skeleton suits were worn with a variety of collar styles, most
prominently open collars and high, closed collars. These were not a distinctive feature
of skeleton suits as such collars could be utilized on other garments. Some
skeleton suits had elaborate collars. These were not, however, the director
predecesors of the large, elaborate lace and ruffled collars of the Fauntleroy era.
In fact, by the 1850s and 60s boys' collars had become very small and plain, in mny
ways modern looking. It was not until the 1870s that larger, more elaborate collars
began to become fashionable again.
Early skeleton suits including the 18th Century precursors involved
open collars. Some of these collars were quite fancy with elaborate
lace and ruffle treatment. Some involved large collars, but nothing like the collars later in the 19th Century
which not infrequently enveloped the boys' shoulders.
Despite the elaborate style, the open collars often look quite
comfortable, in sharp contrast to the formal, closed collars of the late
19th Century.
Closed collars began to appear on skeleton suits in the 1810s. As
with many boys' fashions, the inspiration may have been the high collars
popular for military uniforms of the day.
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