Figure 1.--Here we see a Welsh boy from Cardif. The boy is unidentified, but looks to be about 4 years old. The portrait was undated, but we would guess was taken about 1905-10. He wears a tunic suit which was popular at the time. I'm not sure how it was referred to in Britain.) Notice the pin on lace collar mother has added. He is photographed with a wonderful toy train which I assume was a studio prop. (It seems a bit large to lug around to the studio for the portrait.) The train looks big enough that the boy could sit on when playing. Image courtesy of the MC collection.

Our Welsh garment section at this time is very limited. We have no information on Wales bfore the 19th century. The limited numbers of items that we have found confirm our initial assessment that Welsh boys by the 19th century commonly wore essentially the same garments as worn by English boys of comparble social class. We note women wearing folk costumes, but this does not seem very common for boys. We would be interested in any insights that our Welsh readers may be able to offer. We do not have very many Welsh images, but will add the ones we find here which show fashions virtually endestinguishable from English boys. All of the garments popular in Engalnd were also worn in Wales.

Headwear

We do not know much about Welsh headwear in the 19th century. Styles in the cities basicakly followed Ebnglish styles. We are less sure about the towns and especially villages. We notice girls and women wearing tradituiinal styles, includiong elaborate cbonnets. We are less sure about boys. We see Welsh boys wearing a variety of headwear in the 20th century. There were several particularly popular styles. As far as we can tell the styles werw largely the same as in England. We note boys wearing various types of sailor headwear. Flat caps popular at the turn-of-the 20th century. School caps were a major style in the late-19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Boys commonly wore their school caps with their suits. This was something that was common in England as well until the 1960s.

Skirted Garments

We are just beginning to assess skirted garments in Wales and out archive is still very limited. We do not notice references to skirted garments in the literature as we see in the rest of the Celtic Fringe, especilly Ireland and Scotland. Perhaps our British readers will know more. Wales was conquered by the English and closer to England than the other Celtic regions. Thus it was more thorouglky Anglicized than the other areas. Amd except for the folk outfits welsh women wore, only if an image is identified, such as stufio logos, can we tell if an imge is Wels. We notice not destinctive Welsh skirted garments, other than folk outfits. And we do not see boys wearing those oufits. We see Welsh boys wearing a range of skirted garments. The styles nd material eem identical to the very trends in England rather than some kind of Celtic Fringe tradition. We have no information to suggest that kilts may have been somewhat more common in the 19th and early-20th century than in Englnd. We do not yet have enough informatgion to make any valid assessment. his is just our prelininary assessment with still limited photographic evidence.

Sailor Suits

We notice Welsh boys wearing saiklor suits like those worn by English boys. We do not have a lot of images, but those we have found seen similar to what we see English boys wearing at comparable periods. The earliest Wlsh portrait we have found looks to date from the 1860s. The extent the sailkor suit was worn erarlier we do not know. Thie similarity of the sailor suits worn by Welsh an English boys would seem likely as the basic inspiraion was the same British Royal Navy. We note both traditionally styled sailor suits as well as more imaginaitevely syled suits.

Suits

Norfolk suits as in England were very popular in Wales.

Hosiery

Hosiery trends in Wales were essentially the same as in England. We notice boys wearing long stockings and three-quarter socks in the late-19th century. Long stockings generally went out of style at the turn-of-the 20th century, although we see some girls wearing them until the early-1940s. Boys after World War I commonly wore knee socks. Boys might wear ankle socks during the summer or wear sandals without socks. Knee socks began declining in popularity after the 1950s, at least for boys. Girls continued wearing them as well as tights when they appeared (late-1950s). We do not see boys wearing tights. One Welsh mother, however, chose tights for her todler son. She found tights done in bright colors and patterns from an Irish catalog. They were, however not common for boys in Wales or elsewhere in Britain.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
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[Lace collar types] [Knicker suits] [Kneepants] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers] [Tunic] [School sandals] [Flat caps] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Three-quarter socks] [Strap shoes]

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Created: 9:11 PM 12/14/2005
Last updated: 12:32 AM 12/18/2015