Figure 1.-- This family portrait is undated, but looks to have ben taken in the 1890s, we would say about 1895 because of the ladies' dress styles. We are not sure who the ladies are. Surely one is the boy's mothers, the others my be aunts or older sisters. The boy looks to be about 10 years old. He wears an Eton collar with a lapel cut-away jacket with we what we first thought were knee pants. At first we thought he was holding a cap. But on closer examkinatuin it seems to be all the extra material used for knickers. This cabinet card was take at the Hellis & Sons studio, 26 Westbourne Grove, London.

We notice some photographs of boys wearing suit pants that are difficult to classify. Perhaps HBC readers can help us here to figure out the details. Photograpgic evidence is very important, but sometimes it is difficult to assess the clothing with just a photograph. This is where vintage clothing is particularly helpful in helping to see just how garments were contructed. We note one 1890s portrait which look like a combination of knee pants and knickers (figure 1). They are not like any knickers/knee pants we have ever noted in America. Nor do we know how common this construction was in England. American knickers tended to have button or clasp closures. This does not seem to be the case here. Hopefully readers will be able to expalin the construction involved here. This family portrait is undated, but looks to have ben taken in the 1890s, we would say about 1895 because of the ladies' dress styles. We are not sure who the ladies are. Surely one is the boy's mothers, the others my be aunts or older sisters. The boy looks to be about 10 years old. He wears an Eton collar with a lapel cut-away jacket with we what we first thought were knee pants. The pants here are difficult to describe. We initiall thought he was holding a cap. But on closer examkinatuin it seems to be all the extra material used for knickers. When the boy stands up, all this extra material would fall down and we think look like standard knickers. Notice that there is no closures on the lower pants of the pants, looking like straight-leg knee pants. While we are noit entirely sure what we have here, the portrait does provide some idea as to how English suit trousers were constructed at the time. His out fit is complered with long stickings and low-cut shoes. Low-cut footwear ws very rare in Smetica at the time, but much more common in Britain.

Created: 7:54 PM 8/23/2014
Last updated: 7:54 PM 8/23/2014