Figure 1.-This English CDV portrit shows a brother nd sister all dressed up. The childrn look to be about 10-13 years old. The girl wears a hat, dress with a bottom fringe, and white stockings. Her little brother wears a cut-way jacket, vest, bloomer knickers and dark long stockings. He looks to be abiut 10 years old. Notice how plain the suit is, except for a satin strip om the sleeve. He has a cter hair part. The portrait is undated but the plain set paired with ponted corners suggests it was taken about 1870. The studio was J. Aitken at the Exhange arcafe in Hawick.

We are not yet sure just how common the various types of suit pants worn with cut away jacket suits were. we are still assessing the photogrphic record. Our English archive is smaller than our American record. Our 19th century English archive is too limited to form any valid assessment yet. We note all these different types of trousers being worn: long pants, knickers, bloomer knickers, and straight-leg knee pants. Bloomer knickers, meaning draw-string closures rather than buckles, seem very popular, much more popular than in America. We see knee pants in both America and England. We see the same variety of trousers in America for which we have many more images. We are just not sure how common the different types were in England. We think prevalence in the photogrphic record is a good reflection of actual prevalence. so as we acquire more images we should be able to answer this question. These were not trousers specifically adopted for cut-away jackets, they were just the standard trouser types worn by the boys at the time.

Bloomer Knickers

Bloomer knickers, meaning draw-string closures rather than buckles, seem very popular, in England. They were much more popular than in America. We note English boys about 4-10 years old wearing cut-away jackets and bloomer knickers. Bloomer knickers seem the mot cimmon kind of pnts that engkidh boys ire with cut-away jackets. The boy here is a good example (figure 1). He looks to be about 10 years old. Another example is the Grange/Smith boys in the 1860s. These boys were on the upper cusp of the age range for cut-away jackets. Most of the cut-away jackets we have found in the photograohic record show English boys wearing bloomer knickers with cut-away jackets. There was no fomal rule for this. It was up the parents, but portraits of boys older than 10 years of age were rare. Cut-away jackets were also commonly worn in Ameriuca, but not with bloomer knickers. Bloomer knickers were much less common in America, although we do see some in 1860s. The other major occurnce in America was the tunnic suits that became very common after the turn-of-the 20th centutry. They were also worn by British boys, but not nearly as commonly. In the mid-19th century, European fashion was still setting Ameeican styles. It is interestung to see differences developing. We are not sure just why.

Knee Pants

We see knee pants in both America and England. We see the same variety of trousers in America for which we have many more images. Knee pants were dominant in America in the second half of the 19th century. We see boys wearing various types of pannts in the 1860s. After that we mostly see knee pants, first with the younger boys wearing cut-away jackets and gradually with the older boys wearing lapel jackets. We see knee pants in England as well, but the bloomer knicers were far more imprtant. This was especially true when the boys gradyuted to motre dult suit tyles. .

Long Pants

Some English boys wore long pants with cut-awy jackets. It was not very common, but we do see some exmples in the photoigraohicv record.

Created: 3:25 AM 4/3/2016
Last updated: 7:45 PM 8/12/2022