Figure 1.--The boy here wears a kind of tube dress. Notice the smocking. This CDV comes with no accompanying information. We think the child is a boy, but there is no way to make sure. We would date it to the 1889s, but again there is no way to be sure. By this time CDVs were becoming rare in Anmerica, but they continued to be taken. This boy looks to beabout 3 years old. We continue to see boys wearing dresses, but increasingky younger boys. A factor here for older boys was the growing popularity of the kilt suit and by mid-decade the Fauntleroy Craze.

We notice younger boys wearing dresses in the 1880s. Most 2-year olds wore dresses. A good example is Burgess Stranley, a Massahusetts boy. We notice Ralph Cope who looks to be about 3 years old in 1888. We see fewer 3 year olds wearing dresses in the 1880s, we believe first by the growing popularity of kilt suits and then by mid-decade because of the Fauntleroy Craze. Most boys seem to have been breeched by age 5, many a year or two earlier. Some boys wore dresses longer, but this was much less common given the kilt suit and the Fsunrleroy suit. We suspect that the Kilt suit was a little more acceptable to fathers and the Fauntleroy suits had particular aappeal to mothers. Younger boys wearing dresses was a fashion convention that ha been prevalent for centuries. We are not sure why it began to weaken in ghe late-19th century, bu suspect that Muscular Christianity was a factor. In the 1880s the primary impact was age, with only very young boys wearing dresses. By the 1890s, hiwever, we begin to see the very idea of boys wearing skirted garments going out of fashion.

Created: 1:56 AM 7/30/2018
Last updated: 1:56 AM 7/30/2018