Figure 1.--Harlan, the younger boys in "Life with Father" wore a variety of outfits. Here he wears a lace collar and velvet Fauntleroy jacket with a kilt. I understand he wasn't too happy about his costumes.

Life with Father is set in 1880s New York. Through a series of reminiscences, a man recreates a childhood spent with his eccentric Victorian father. A financier rules his numerous family, consisting of his wife and his four sons, with the meticulousity of a bookkeeper.This comedy's plot is simple: get Father baptized. It was quite a well done film about a large New York family in the 1880s. The family was an affluent one. It was a well done period costumed film, with a lot of different period outfits shown--especially for the two younger boys.

Filmology

Life with Father was based on a book by Clarence Day Jr. based on his childhood in New York.

Costuming

The youngest boy Harlan (Derek Scott) had quite an impressive wardrobe. I understand he was not to pleased with the outfits he had to wear, especially the kilts. He wears a kilt suit, a Fauntleroy jacket and lace collar with a kilt, velvet kneepants with a Fauntleroy blouse, and a regular kneepants suit. The only outfit he did not wear was a sailor suit, but his older brother, Whitney (Johnny Calkins) wore a simple one.

Harlan had an enormous broad-brimmed sailor hat with streamer to wear with his Fauntleroy blouse. The only outfit he did not wear was a sailor suit, but his older brother wore a simple one. His brother also has a wide-brimmed hat--but not as large as Harlan's hat.

Conventions

One interesting aspect of the film was Harlan's clothing. He wears both kneepants suits and kilt outfits. One question HBC has pursued was the conventions involved with breeching. It is not clear if a boy was breeched by buying him a pair of kneepants for play or dress wear, but having him wear his dresses and kilts until he had outgrown them or wether an entire new wardrobe of clothes were purchased. A further complication is wether the process was different as the child moved from dresses or kilts.

Figure 2.--Harlan wears both kilt outfits and kneepants outfits in "Life with Father." I am not positive that this was commonly done in the late 19th Century.

The movie has Harlan wearing both kilt outfits and kneepants outfits. His everyday attire appears to be kneepants. However he has two dress outfits. One is a blue kilt suit worn with a Balmoral cap with tassles when he goes shoping with his mother. The other is the Fauntleroy kilt outfit pictures above. He also wears a Fauuntleoy blouse and velvet kneepants at the end of the movie when he goes to church for fathers baptism. One does not know how accurate the film was, but it suggests that a boy might continue to wear his kilt outfits after breeching. Another film, The Magnificent Ambersons, suggests the same.

I'm not sure if the producer just wanted Harlan wearing different costumes or if boys at the time wore kilts and kneepants for a variety of activities. Notably in one scene, Harlan and his older brother Whitney both wear kneepants suits. Whitney always appears in kneepants outfits, but Harlan sometimes appears in a kilt and other times in a Fauntleroy blouse, suggesting that breeching was more of a process than a single day when all of his clothese were changed.

Reader Comments

I caught the end of Life With Father which starred a young Martin Milner of the 1960s Adam 12. a police drama series starring Milner a rookie sidekick. I was a big fan of this American series even though my dad wanted me in bed early for school next morning but perhaps decided that if his second son watched the coppers fighting crime then he would grow a good person. William Powell played the rumbucius father in very Edwardian attitudes and Irene Dunn was his rock of Gibralter and the four sons were actually dressed correctly for those times especially to two youngest boys because the 3rd boy wore knicker suits'sailor suits with short trousers and the 4th boy and youngest child wore kilts and 'knickers and a skirt too with long stockings and a 6 year old Milner was the 4th boy"

Created: April 17, 1999
Last updated: November 30, 2002