Figure 1.-- This cabinet card portrait shows an unidentified English brother and sister. Theylook to be about 6-10 years old. The boys wears a velvet cut-away jacket and large, gleaming white detachable Eton collar. In American he more likely would have worn a Fauntelroy collar. His big sisrer wears white dress with an undefined waist. The boy has short hair done with partial bangs, called a fringe in Britain. His sister has long hair, done in waves. The portrait is undated, but the mount to us helps date in to the 1890s, although the early-1900s is possible. Notice the props. The hirl has a hoop nd stick. The boy has a whip. The studio is C. Katterns in Northampton.

The collar is most associate with shirt-like garments (shirts, bloses,shirt-waists ect.), but are optionally found on many other garments (dresses, smocks, tunics, coats, and other garments), The collar fastens around or frames the neck. There are other fashion elements associated with the neck, such as revers and lapels. The destinguishing feature of the collar is usually being fashined from a separate piece of fabric, rather than a folded or cut part of the same piece of fabric used for the main body of the garment. This is especially true of suit lapls. The modern collar evolved from the ruffle created by the drawstring at the neck of the medieval chemise--a standard garment and not surprisingly, a shirt-like garment. It evolved into the Elizabethan ruff and and successors like the whisk collar and falling band. We do not notce any specically child styles Perhas the earliest was the Eton collar. At the same time se see opwn, fancy collars, but men as well as boys wore them. Various collars were worn with the skeleton suit. Collars at mid-century tended to be very small (1840s-60s). The Royal Family introduced the sailor collar as a boys' style (1840s) which girls soon copied for their own. Then we begin to see somewhat larger collars (1870s) With the Fauntleroy Craze we see an explosion of collar sizes (1880s). We do not see boys commonly wearing decicated collar styles until the late-19th entry. They were destinguisable from adult coolars by both size and fancy construction. There are both types and styles of collars. The different type are done in the same styles. The principal collar types are attached and detacable. Separate or detachable collars have exist along with attached collars (since the mid-16th century). This permitted starching and a range of other fine finishing. The attached collars are by far the most common. They are for the most part permanently stiched to the main body of the garment. Detachable collars appeared at the end of the medieval era, but the modern detachable collar appeared in the mid-19th century, an American innovation. Detachable collars want out of style after World War I as more informal styles became popular and home laundry methods improved. Gradually after World War I, boys' and men's styles began to merge, although this took several decades. .

Garments

The collar is most associate with shirt-like garments (shirts, bloses,shirt-waists ect.), but are optionally found on many other garments (dresses, smocks, tunics, coats, and other garments). For boy, the most common garment is a shirt orshirt-like garment. Of course if children in general are discussed, garments like dresses and blouses are just as important. The collar fastens around or frames the neck. There are other fashion elements associated with the neck, such as revers and lapels. The destinguishing feature of the collar is usually being fashioned from a separate piece of fabric, rather than a folded or cut part of the same piece of fabric used for the body of the garment. This is especially true of suit lapels. Several styles of boys garments did not have collars such as the skeleton suit, the cut-away jacket, and the collar buttoning jackets. They were, however, often worn with shirt-like garments that did have collars.

Chronology

The modern collar evolved from the ruffle created by the drawstring at the neck of the medieval chemise--a standard garment and not surprisingly, a shirt-like garment. It evolved into the Elizabethan ruff and and successors like the whisk collar and falling band. We do not notce any specically juvenile styles. Perhas the earliest was the Eton collar. At the same time we see oewn, fancy collars, but men as well as boys wore them. Various collars were worn with the skeleton suit. Collars at mid-century tended to be very small (1840s-60s). A good example is an unidentified Lincoln boy in the 1860s who looks to be having his beginning school portrait taken. He has a small rounded collar. Detachable collars appeared at mid-19th century. Assessing shirts and blouses is a little difficult because so mny boys are wearing suits, but we can see the collars. The Royal Family introduced the sailor collar as a boys' style (1840s) which girls soon copied for their own. Then we begin to see somewhat larger collars (1870s) With the Fauntleroy Craze we see an explosion of collar sizes. We do not see boys commonly wearing decicated collar styles until the late-19th entry. They were destinguisable from adult collars by both size and fancy construction. Gradually after World War I, boys' and men's styles began to merge, although this took several decades.

Types

There are both types and styles of collars. The different type are done in the same styles. The principal collar types are attached and detacable. Separate or detachable collars have exist along with attached collars (since the mid-16th century). This permitted starching and a range of other fine finishing. The attached collars are by far the most common. They are for the most part permanently stiched to the main body of the garment. Detachable collars appeared at the end of the medieval era, but the modern detachable collar appeared in the mid-19th century, an American innovation. We have, however, done some work on collars worn with shirt waists. Detachable collars want out of style after World War I as more informal styles became popular and home laundry methods improved.

Styles

We note a range of collar styles worn by English boys. The styles were done in both detachable and attacted types. Two of the most important are Eton and sailor collars were created in England (19th century), but spread to many other contries. The lace collar was a historic style, but became used for boys, especially during the Faunteroy era. These are the best known collars. The Eton and lace collar were primarily done as detachable collars. The sailor collar was primarly an attached collar. The Eton and sailor collars were both widely worn by British boys. The Eton collar was a major style worn by English boys during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The stiff, pointed Eton collar was won by a huge number of English boy for many decades. It beganas a school tyle, but became a sandard style for decades when boys dressing up. It of course was not just an English style, but no where else was it so widely worn. The Eton collr rapidly began declining until after World War I, although was still seen in the inter-War era. The sailor collar was another hugely popular style. Interestingly despite having the world's lrgest and most powerful navy, there were quite anumbr of countries in whch the sailor collar and sailor styles were more popular than in Britain. Another important style is rounded the Peter Pan collar. Although the lace collar is better known, it is the ruffled collar that was especilly prevlent during the Funtleroy era. Almost all of the really large Fauntleroy collars were ruffled, not lace collars. These collars were especially popular in America, but among European countries where Fauntleroy styling was the most common. Some ruffled collars had lace trim. The lace collar was especially popular in the late-19th century and was commonly worn as a pin-on style.

Age Trends

As was common in the 19th and early-20th century, collars were often strongly influenced by age. Basically the fahion trend was trend was large collars for boys. This varied somewhat chronological which also affected collar size. Often the dmaller the boy, the larger the collar, at least in relative terms. These large collars were done in various styles. There was some ovbr lap in gender, at least for younger boys. We see rather plain styles such as Eton collars and collars done in the Eton style. Peter Pan collars were also populr. In addition to the plan collars we also see more elabotate styles like ruffled and lace collars. Sailor collars were also affected by age. Open collars were also used for boys, but this varied chronologically. Here age was no so much factor as chronological trends. A major age impact was school, especially as public education became inportant after the mid-19th century. Basically as boys begam school the began to wear more mature collar styles, especialy after the first few years.

Neckwear

Neckwear is stronglu associated with collars. We see boys with and without neckwear. The more formal the dress, the more we see neckwer, but even when fressing formally, many boys did not have neckwear. This is a topic we hav not yet addressed in etail.

Gender

Created: 8:49 PM 6/12/2016
Last updated: 12:05 AM 4/19/2019