Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentified brothers in a tinted portrait. They wear long-sleeved blouses. The yonger boy wears a collared blouse with a tie. His older brother wears a collarles blouse. Both blouses have ebroidered decorations. Nte the loops on the blouses for the suspende straps. Both boys wear brown susppender pants. All we know about the portrait is that it was taken in 1947.

We have a much larger archive of 20th century images so we can follow fashion trends in much greater detail. We see boys, including school age boys commonly wearing blouses in the early-20th century. Trends in the 1890s continued in the 1900s. Younger boys might still wear fancy or large collared blouses (1900s). The portait here is a good example of the fancy blouses still worn (figure 1). Older boys wore plainer blouses. Eton collars continued to be common. One major change ealy on was the apearance of the Russian blouse a plain, paractical style for boys. The large fancy Fauntleroy collars began to decline in popularity during the 1910s, especially during World War I (1914-18). The war was a factor in the emrgence of more informal, practical clothing, especially for children. Soft, attached collars began replacing detachable collars, including Eton collars (1920s). Schoolwear was blouses for girls and shirts for boys. And we see blouses without collars. Part of the increasing trend toward informal dress. As in America, boys began to increasingly wearing shirts rather than blouses (1930s). We still see some yonger boys wearing blouses. But mostly it was girls and women wearing blouses. American boys began complaining about wearing blouses, seeing them as type of girl's shirt. We suspect a similar dynamic was at play in England. We still see some younger boys wearing blouses when dressing up at mid-century. There were also social class factors involved. Which is why blouses gradually decline in the phoographic record. Most English boys wore shirts and increasingly casual shirtss (late-20th century). The major exception was younger boys participating in formal occassions like weddings.

Created: 9:29 AM 5/10/2019
Last updated: 9:29 AM 5/10/2019