Figure 1.--This portait shows an American boy wearing a ruffled collar blouse and large floppy bow. The portrait is not dated, but was probably taken in the 1890s.

The floppy bow was a style worn by adults at the turn of the 19th century. It was popular during the Regency in Britain where it was worn by Beau Brummel. I think it was less common in America. Men and boys during the mid-19th century wore inconspicuous and usuall black stocks. Boys often wire no neckwear at all. This began to change in the 1860s when we notice small bows replacing stocks. We notice small bow in the 870s which graduallgrew larger. These bows by the 1880s grew markedly in size and by the late 1880s and 90s could be gigantic, sometimes almost dwarfing a small boy. Around the turn of the 20th century they began to fall in size. An ecample here is the Kemp brothers who wear moderate-sized bows in 1898. We see Harold Howes wearing a moderate-sized bow with an Eton collar and tunic suit in 1905. Floppy bows continue to decline in popularity during the 1910s. We see smaller and simplier bows. A good example is Floyd Van Horne about 1915. After World War I, floppy bows were no longer common, although small boys might wear them.

The 18th Century

The 19th Century

The floppy bow was a style worn by adults at the turn of the 19th century. It was popular during the Regency in Britain where it was worn by Beau Brummel. I think it was less common in America. While our informstion is limited on the early, 19th century, photograohy by the mid-19th cdentury provides us a great deal of informatuon. Men and boys during the mid-19th century wore inconspicuous and usuall black stocks. Boys often wore no neckwear at all. This began to change in the 1860s when we notice small bows replacing stocks. Collars continued to be fairly small in size. We notice mostly small bows in the 1870s which gradually grew larger as did collars. A good example is an unidentified Salem boy. A major change occuured in the 1880s. These bows by the 1880s and especially the 1890s grew markedly in size and by the late 1880s and 90s could be gigantic, sometimes almost dwarfing a small boy. This was of course part of the Fauntkeroy craze. These large bows were very common. Not all boys wearing large collars wore bows with them, but many did and often the bows covered much of the front of the collar. Large collars and bows are aestinctive aspect of late-19th century boyswear. A good example is H. Harry Crowell in 1890. Not all boys had these large bows. We note the Kemp brothers who wear moderate-sized bows in 1898. The large floppy bows, howver were very common. Around the turn of the 20th century they began to fall in size.

The 20th Century

We continue to commonly see large floppy bows in the early 1900s. They were very common in the 1900s and we still see very large ones, but perhaps not quite as large as in the 1890s. And the size began to decline afyer 1905. The popularity and size of the bows began to decline. A good example is a San Jose boy about 1905. Another example is Charles Dorff about 1905. The bows, however, had began to decline in popularity and size by the end of the decade. We see Harold Howes wearing a moderate-sized bow with an Eton collar and tunic suit in 1905. Floppy bows were clearly much less common by the 1910s. And floppy bows continued to decline in popularity during the 1910s. We see smaller and simplier bows. A good example is Floyd Van Horne about 1915. After World War I, floppy bows were no longer so common, although we do see some younger boys wearing them in the 1920s. They were still worn for special occassions like First Communion. We no longer see floppy bows to any extent by the 1930s.

Created: 11:09 PM 12/22/2007
Last updated: 9:46 PM 5/15/2008