Figure 1.--This unidentified English boy wears a smart douled breasted jacket suit with short pants and knee socks. He looks to be about 12 years old. We are not sure what the badge on his lapel represents. All we know for sure is that the snapshot was taken in 1935. We would say he came from a comfortable middle-class famly that was staying at a hotel.

We are not sure just when the first double breasted pea-coat appeared or when double-breasted styling was picked up for use in men's fashions. We think that during the Regency, some jackets were made with double breasted styling. This mean the early-19th century before the advent of phhotography so we do not have a phoographic redord. We note English boys wearing suit jackets during the 1870s. We suspect that they were also worn in the 1860s, but do not yet have a dated example. The 1870s example here loks like double-breasted decorative styling and not an actual double-breasted jacket. The popularity of double-breasted jackets varied over time but we see numerous examples in the late-19th and early-20th century. Unlike the early-19th cetury, there is a extensive photographic record in the late-19th century showing that the double-breasted style was popular at the time. Our English archive is not as large as our American archive, but we are slowly expanding it. We believe that there were social class connotations here, but that is a subject on which we are still working. After World War I, the single-breasted jacket became the major style, and we see quite a few in the inter-War era. After World War II, however, we see fewer boys wearing these jackets. And in the post-War era by the 1960s double-breasted jackets largely out of style.

The 19th Century

We are not sure just when the first double breasted pea-coat appeared or when double-breasted styling was picked up for use in men's fashions. We think that during the Regency, some jackets were made with double breasted styling. This mean the early-19th century before the advent of phhotography so we do not have a photographic record. We note English boys wearing suit jackets during the 1870s. We suspect that they were also worn in the 1860s, but do not yet have a dated example. The 1870s example here loks like double-breasted decorative styling and not an actual double-breasted jacket. The popularity of double-breasted jackets varied over time but we see numerous examples in the late-19th and early-20th century. Unlike the early-19th cetury, there is a extensive photographic record in the late-19th century showing that the double-breasted style was popular at the time.

The 20th Century

Our English archive is not as large as our American archive, but we are slowly expanding it. And we have a substantial 20th century archive. Just as we see double-breasted suits in the late-19th century, we continue to see them in the early-20th century. We believe that there were social class connotations here, but that is a subject on which we are still working. After World War I, the single-breasted jacket became the major style, but we continue to see quite a few double-breasted suits in the inter-War era. Many boys ore suit jackets or blazers to school. This was the case of not only private schools, but also mny state schools, These jackets and blazers were almost always single breasted. The double-breasted jackets were suits purchased for dressing up and not for schoolwear. This meant that there was a social-class aspect to the boys wearing them. After World War II, however, we see fewer boys wearing these jackets. And in the post-War era by the 1960s double-breasted jackets largely out of style. This occurred at the same time it was becoming geneally less common for boys to wear suits.

Created: 5:52 AM 9/28/2009
Last updated: 7:30 AM 4/4/2018