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Neckwear suddenly and dramrically chasnged when Mrs. Burnett published Little Lord Fauntleroy. There were changes in plasce earlier, but not sych dramatic changes. Mothers using their sons as fashion platforms began a satorial arms race without precedent in boys' fashion history. Middle-class mothers for the most part did not work. And floppy bows and huge lace and rulled collars were a key element in that effort. Besides Mrs. Burnett's book, something else was happening in America. Capitalism was changing a very rural country with a population of modest beginnings ino an industrial giant. Thus a large part of the population was experiencing a huge transformation in their life style and living standards. Pople with humble backgrounds were thrust into the prosperous middle class. And many of these increasingly successful people wanted to show off the change in their circumstances. One way to do this was to dress well. And mothers wanted to also dress their children well. The American boy was thus caught in the crosshairs of social change. This was espcially the case because children at the time did not have lot to say about what they wore. This was up to their parents. And mothers not only decided what their daughters wore, but for the most part what thetheir sins ore, esoecially pre-teen sons.
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