Figure 1.--This new style cabinet card is undated, but would have been taken in the 1900s decade both because of the mount style and the gaxt that the boys are wearing knee pants rather than knickers. The children are presumably siblings about 6-12 yers old. The children are dressed for summer. The girl wears a white party frock. The boys wear white blouses, we think with stiff detachable collars and bow ties. Notice the long sleeves. The boys also wear white knee pants which definitely means summer. Notice the three buttons at the knee hen. Even though it is summer, all three wear black long stockings. The younger boy wears low-cut shoes which were not all that common at the time. The two older children have rings. The studio was Marion in Lowell Massachusetts.

Seasonality is an important factor in fashion and has been the cae since the Neoltihic era. Climate had an important aspect to demographic patterns. The American population was primarily located in the North. The warmer climate of the south restricted settlement. This did not begin to change until the introduction of air conditioning following World War II (1941-45). And fashion did not help with this problem. The formal fashion of the 19th century required man and boys in polite society to wear jackets. And this convention continued in the new century. This was hardly conducive to living in a warm climate. One compromise was to allow younger boys just to wear blouses rather than suit jackets during the summer. Short sleeve shirts and blouses had not yet been invented. This was something that men when dressed properly did not do. Women made more concessions to climate. They might wear light-weight dresses with short sleeves or no sleeves at all. Rompers and play tunics were other concessions to climate. This was the beginning of a trend toward informality that would become one of the most importnt fashion trends of the 20th century. And of course whiteand other light colors were worn for summer as we see here (figure 1). Sometimes we see white long stockings as well, but black long stoickings were so common that they were also worn durung the summer. The North had more moderate summers, but much more severe winters the further north you went. Thus warm weather clothing like coats and jackets as well as scarves and gloves were important. Heavy coats along with long underwear were the primary winter garments. A new warm weather item, the sweater began to become popular, especially for children and youths in the new century. They woukld become even more important in subsequent decades.

Created: 4:46 AM 3/20/2021
Last updated: 4:46 AM 3/20/2021