Figure 1.--Here we see two American boys in what looks like a home portrait. The boys are susposed to be admiring their sailboat, but are not doing so. The boys wear classic Fauntleroy suits with fancy clouses and large floppy bows. You can see the back of the younger boy on the left. Notice that his blouse collar is trimmed in lace. It has a back flap like a middy blouse. The photograph is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1900.

The shapes of the collars on Fauntleroy blouses could be quite different in the front and back. This was not the case as much for the oin-on lace collars. Many Fauntleroy blouses were done with collars that had back flaps like sailor suits. They were not sailor collars, but had the back flaps anyway. I'm not sure just why this was. I think it probably reflected the great popilarity of sailor styles. Some sailor outfits, mostly sailor tunics, were done with lace trim, but the Fauntleroy blouse was an entirely different style. We are not yet sure just how popular the back flaps were, but think that they were fairly common. They were mostly done with lace or ruffled trim around the edges. We think some of the backs were more rounded, but am not yet sure about this. Images showing the backs are fairly rare as mothers understandably wanted their voys to face forward in formsl studio portraits.

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Created: 6:53 AM 8/21/2008
Last updated: 6:53 AM 8/21/2008