Figure 1.-- Here we see two children from a prominent Melbourne family wearing dresses in 1852 (figure 1). The children are 6 and 11 years old. Notice the differences in the dresses. The girls wears a colorful low-neckline dress. The boy wears a grey dress with a boyish looking dress.

HBC has few details on chronological trends at this time. Our Australian archive is still fairly limited. The number of early photographs was limited in Britain nd even more so in colonies like Australia. While we have noted some 19th century garments including dresses, unfortunately many of the available images are undated. We know that Australian boys wore dresses throughout the 19th century, especially boys from affluent families. Here we see two children from a prominent Melbourne family wearing dresses in 1852 (figure 1). The children are 6 and 11 years old. Notice the differences in the dresses. The girls wears a colorful low-neckline dress. The boy wears a grey dress with a boyish looking dress (figure 1). European boys of course only began arriving in Australia during the early-19th century and the numbers were still limited by mid-century. Only with the apperance of the 1860s do we begin to get ny number of images. After the turn of the century, especially by the 1910s, it became less common for boys to wear dresses when they were little--following the overall European pattern.

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Crerated: 10:19 PM 11/24/2017
Last updated: 10:20 PM 11/24/2017