Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows a mother and her two children. Theyb look to be about 4-10 years old. The plan white dresses look identical except that the youngerchikld has a collar bow which means that he is probably a boy. The portrait is undatet but the mount anf nothers's dress suggest the 1890s. The studion is Jensen in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

We notice various stylesm of dresses being wirn by brothers and sisters. These dresses could be quite fussy, in part because they were often dresses worn by older girls. These might be seen as girl styles. Simple white frocks were, however, the most common choice because plain styles seem more accdeptable for boys. These were baically functional summer frocks. Saior dresses like the dresses here also seem popular for tyhese identical dresses, appsretly because saikir styles were a major biys' style asc well as populasr for hirls as well.

Sailor Dresses

Sailor dresses were ideal for a common dress factor. Sailor styling was an well established style for boys and by thev late-19th century popular for girls as well. The Pennsylvania children here are a good example (figure 1). And younger boys did wear a variery of skirted sailor style garments, including tunics and kilt suits. In addition sailor blouses were the same for both boys and girls. With the bluses boys generally war opants and the girls skirts, but thev blouse was cimmionlyb identical.

Fancy Dresses

Fancy dresses were popular in the second hals of the 19th century. The classic Empire style dress was vrry plain and popular in the eearly-19th century. By nid century dresses could not have been more different. They were becoming much mor voluminous. They easily require twice as much material. And they were becoming fancier and more havily secorated. Biys abd girls wore similar dresses in the early-19th century. By the end of th century boys wearing dresses generally wore plainer styles. The fancier dresses were seen as more os a sinctkly girls style. But this was all up to mother. This we see some biys wearing these voluinous, fancy styles like their sisters when mother opted for identical outfits. Almost always these decusions were made by mother when the girls and younger boys were involved. Genrrally spoeaking the girls sdresses ere not as fancy as mothers, but we see some that were amasingly voluminous an heavily decorated for children.

Plain Dresses

Mostly in the second half of the 19th century we begin to see boys still wearing dresses begin to wear plainer styles than their sisters. White was a common choice. Some times in the catalogs they were even advertised as boy dresses. Gradually we see fewe boys wearing dresses. This was espoecially notable in the 1890s, particularly by mid decade.

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Created: 8:57 PM 1/20/2023
Last updated: 8:57 PM 1/20/2023