Figure 1.--This CDV porttaitb of an unidentified unidentified Mons boy wears a cut-away jacket suit wuth knee pants abd long stiockings. Notice the gloves and bowler hat. He looks to be about 10 years old. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1880s, in part becuse of the dark green mount. The studio was Edouard Josz in Mons.

We have very limited information on Belgian suits during the 19th century. We suspect that styles were similar to those in France. Sailor suits were popular. We are less sure about Fauntleroy suits. Our Belgian archive has very few 19th century images. We are not sure why that was. Belgium was a heavily industrialized country with a prosperous economy, so we believe that there is a substantial photographic record. Commercial photography was invented in France (1839). So by mid-century there should be a substbgtial photographic record. We are unsure why we have no found many images. We do not yet have enough Belgian images to make any attempt at assessing 19th century trends. Boys would have been wearing skeleton suits in the early-19th century, but we do not have any images. And even after the development of photography, we found very few images. We are not sure yet about the jacket styles. We see both single and doubke-breastred jackets. Thhe bioy here wears a ut-away jackets. We are not sure about pants trends. We only know that by the end of the century that boys were wearing knee pants ssuits with long stockings.

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Created: 7:40 AM 10/14/2013
Last updated: 4:40 AM 12/9/2022