French Boys Garments: Cut-away Jacket Suits


Figure 1.--Here we see three French boys wearing cut-away jackets. The two boyswith matching embroidered jackets must be brothers. We are not sure about the thoird biy as they are all about the same age. The boys look to be about 7-10 years old. The studio was Victoire in Lyon. It is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1860s.

Cut-away jackets were a popular style for younger boys after the mid-19th century. They were worn throughout Western Europe and North America. We are not sure where the stgyle originated, France was one of the many countries where they were worn. We are not sure to what extent they were worn in the 1850s. We do not yet have French Daguerreotypes even though they were invented in France. They were made in much smaller numbers than in America. We do see cut-away jackets in the 1860s. Some were heavily decorated with embroidery and edging. Buttons were also used as part of the decoration. The pattern of the garments varied. They were usually short cut jackets, but we see some longer ones. There wee several styles. The classic Fauntleroy suit was done with cut-away jackets. The angle the jackets were cut away also varied. And we note both sharp and rounded corners at the waistline. The jackets were made wihout collars. They either buttoned at the neck or had a tab attachnmnts. They were worn both with and without vests. Early cut-away jackets commonly had the vests. We see boys up to about 10-years of age wareing these jackets. They seem most common in the 1860s and 70s, but we see them into the 1890s. As far as we can tell they were almost always worn with matching rather than contrastiung trousrs. They were worn with various trousers, including long pants, bloomer knickers, and knee pants. Long pants seem common in the 1860s, but shorter cut pants gradually became increasingly common, reflecting the general trend in trouser styles.








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Created: 11:04 PM 4/23/2012
Last updated: 11:04 PM 4/23/2012