Figure 1.--This is Cyril at age 7. The photograph appears to have been taken at Cromer in 1892 while kis father was writing "A Woman of no Importance". I'm not sure if he would have called it a tam or beret. |
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We have some idea as to how the Wilde boys were dressed from available photographic portraits. There are a number of photographic portraits of the boys. We note both formal portraits as well as what look like family snapshots. While most people did not take familiy snapshots in the 1890s, wealthy people could afford the luxury, especially if a family member took an interest in photography. The photoigraphs show the boys wearing quite a range of different outfits. We note satin cavalier outfits, Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits, and other outfits.
Presumably the boys first wore dresses. We have no images to confirm this, but the convention was so common in the 1880s that the boys surely wore dresses when they were todlers. A good example of this convention is the Robartes family. We are unsure when they were breached. They appear to be wearing kneepants by about age 5 years. The boys were so close in age, we wonder if breaching and other fashion shifts were made at the same time.
One portrait shows Curil at age 6 wearing what looks like a satin cavalier outfit with large pin-on lace collar. I'm not sure what color it was or if Vivian had a similar suit. This satin outfits is rather like Gainborough's "Blue Boy". They were much less common than the Little Lord Fauntleroy suits that the boys also wore. I;m not sure what the conventions were for wearing this outfit. It may have been more of a outfit worn for a costume party rather than a suit worn for formal occassions like a Kittle Lord Fauntleroy suits. The lace collar here appears to have been the same collar worn with some of the boys' velvet Fauntleroy suits.
The boys were precisely at the time just as Mrs. Burnett published Little Lord Fauntleroy. Thus as boys they were affected by the resulting Fauntleroy craze. The Fauntleroy craze was strongest in America, but we see many upper-class British boys wearing Fauntleroy suits. (In America the Fauntleroy craze was much more widely based and was not as narrowly experienced as in Britain.) Photographic portraits show both boys wearing their very similar velvet Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. These outfits were presumably their dress up party outfits. Noitice that both the suits and collars are cut differently. We do not know if the boys were dressed in identical outfits, but they were clearly dressed in similar outfits. While their father apparently liked velvet suits, the boys were much less enamored of them. The boys look to be about 5-7 years old in the available photograohs of them wearing these suits. And the boys wore them with elegant lace collars, not the less expensive ruffeled collars that many boys wore.
The boys much preferred their sailor suits to their Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. Indeed, Vivian as an adult , remembered his favorite sailor suit. He wrote, "Not an ordinary children's sailor suit either but a suit made of real naval cloth by a naval tailor with a black silk scarf and a knife at the end of a lanyard." We always thought that there was a whistle on those lanyards.
The boys also wore berets and blouses with large collars and floppy bows (figure 1). Note the size of the beret here. I'm not sure if it would have been called a tam or a beret. Nor do I know what color it might have been. Cyril is wearing a stripped blouse with a polkadot floppy bow. I'm not sure what kind of collar the blouse had, It might be a kind of sailor collar with a back flap, or it could be some kind of large collar like a Peter Pan collar.
The boys began their preparatory school about 1893-94. I'm not sure yet what school they attended or what the uniform was at their school. Being about the same age, they attended school together. After the new appeared about their father, they were wisked off to an English-language school in Germany. Later they were split up with Vibian being sent to a Jesuit school in Monaco. We have no information on the school uniforms or schoolwear at their schools.
We note a portrait of Vyvyan in a heavy winter coat. He wears a fany hat with a feather. It looks to be made of buffalo (American bison) or some fabric made to look like it. We note toggels instead of buttons. We are not sure if you describe the style as double-breasted or hussar style. The boys often were dressed alike. We do not know if Cyril had a similar coat.
Holland, Merlin. A Wilde Album.
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