Figure 1.-- Here we see two unidentified English children. They look like a girl wearing a jacketed outfit with a pleated skirt and her little brother wearing a dress. We would guess that they are about 3-6 years old. Notice the hair parts. While undated, the medal awards on the back show that the portrait was taken in the 1880s. We would guess about 1885. The studio was Chaffin & Sons in Yeovil.

We have very little information about skirted garments before the 19th century. There are paintings, but compared to photography the number is very small and a more limited swath of the social-class spectrum. Only the well-to-do could aford a painted portrait. With the invention of photography (1839) do we begin to see examples after the mid-19th century. We see quite a range of dresses, kilts and kilt suits, pinafores, skirts, and tunics. These garments were worn in the early-19th century, but it is not until the advent of the CDVs we begin to have a substantial photographic record (1860s). This allows us to develop assessments of types of shirted garments, ages, gender, usage conventions, social class, and other important trends. Unfortunately this was the tail end of the era in which boys wore skirted garments. After the turn-of the 20th century, skirted garments rapidly went out of style for boys. Thus we have only a very narrow winow of the seberal centuries in which younger boys wore skirted garments, but at leat there is a very substantial photographic record of this fashion convention.

The 16th Century

Laslett J. Pott painted a scene from Shakespeare's 'King John' showing a prince wearing a tunic. This was, hiweever not a girl's garment. Girls and women wore long gowns. We note a portrait of George Cliffoed Earl of Cumberland and his wife and two sons, probably painted around 1580. Notice how the boys, not yet breached, are dressed identically. I have no idea what the older boy is holding, perhaps a sled.

The 17th Century

The 18th Century

We have very little information about skirted garments before the 19th century. There are paintings which provide some information, but compared to photography the number is very small and a more limited swath of the social-class spectrum. Only the well-to-do could aford a painted portrait. Thomas Jenkins painted portrait of a boy playing a chello or similar instrumnt dressed in a tightly laced dress (1750s). The dress is not differeng=ft from what girl would hacve worn at the time.

The 19th Century

For the early-19th century we have to rely on art work, just like the 18th century. We note boys wearing dresses and tunics in the early 20th century. Thomas Hazelhurst painted a minature of a boy from a well-to-do family wearing and Empit dress. probznoy in the early-1800s. An unkown artists painted a group of childre, we think in the 1810s. E.V. Ripingille painted a family with three children (1820s). The younger boy weas a long tunic. His older btother wears a skeleton suit. Frederick Yeates Hurlstone shows a boy wearing a bugundy tunic at the very end of the Regency (1830s). Edwin Dalton Smith painted a minature of a boy in a green dress wih baloon sleeves (1830s). We note another portait by an unknown artist of a boy wearing a blue dress (1830s). Kilt outfits cane in at mid-century sfter the Scotish loving Victoria becane queen (1837). She and Prince Albert began dressing the princes in kilts. With the invention of photography (1839) do we begin to see examples after the mid-19th century. We see quite a range of dresses, kilts and kilt suits, pinafores, skirts, and tunics. William Allsworth painted boys wearing dresses and kilts with Scottish regalia (1840s). William Beetham painted boiys wearing dresses and tunics (1840s). George Richmond painted a brither and sister wearing dresses wih pantalettes (1840s). Another boy looks to be wearing a velvet dress. Robert Thornburn pained a group of children with low ndclkines and baloon sleeves, we think in the 1840s, they look like boys. Joseph Nash painted a view of the Great Exhibition with a little boy wearing a tinic and pantalettes visiting (1850s). William Bromkley shows a rural boy wearing a smock (1850s). This was niot a child's garment, but widely wirn by English farmers at the time. Michael Frederick Halliday pinted a Scottish scene with a boy wearing a kilt (1850s). Charles Hunt painted a contrived scene of a well-to-do boy wearing a black tunic and pantalettes (1850s). Rebecca Solomon painted a domestic sdcene scene with a boy and his governess. He is wearing a burgundy velvet tunic with pantalettes (1850s). Frederic George Stephens painted a domestic scene with we think a boyv wearing some sort of sjirted garment (1850s). W.R. Walyers painted a child in a dress, but we are not sure about gender (1850s). Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted a Polish cojuntess and her two sons. The boys seen to be cwearinh tunics with lace collars (1850s). Skirted garments were worn in the early-19th century, but it is not until the advent of the CDVs we begin to have a substantial photographic record (1860s). This allows us to develop assessments of types of shirted garments, ages, gender, usage conventions, social class, and other important trends. Unfortunately we have only a few decades to work with. This was the tail end of the many centuries in which boys wore skirted garments. Felix Stone Moscheles paints a portrait of a boy with ringlet curls and wearing a lace trimed velvet dress with a Scottish sash (1860s). Helem Allingham painted boys wearing dresses, smocks, and pinmafores (1880s). Anna Kee Merrit paints the children of an artocratic family. Thr youngest child looks to be a boy wearing ahite dress. Julian Russel Story wears a wealthy boy wearing lace-trimmed dress a large green sash (1890s).

The 20th Century

After the turn-of the 20th century, skirted garments rapidly went out of style for boys. Thus we have only a very narrow winow of the several centuries in which younger boys wore skirted garments, but at leat there is a very substantial photographic record of this fashion convention.

Created: 12:26 PM 12/1/2016
Last updated: 11:44 PM 10/31/2022