Figure 1.--This unidentified American boy wears a Fauntleroy kilt suit. His hair is cut short, a little unusual for such a young boy. He wears a clasic velvet cut-saw jacke worn with wide white colla abd writ cuff ruffles. The portrait is undated, but was probably taken in the 1890s. Notice how long the kilt-skirt is. The studio is Chandler & Scheetz in Philadelphia.

One noticeable feature about the skirted garments worn by American boys was length. Many of the skirt lengths we see the boys wearing are very long. This included dresses, kilt suits kilts, and skirts. Sometimes they reached down to the ankles. This was stylish for girls and women in the early-19th century, but by mid-century only women were still wearing long leb=ngth skiets. Girls were wearing short skits meaing knee-length, often with pantalettes. We do not see this in Europe. And we are unsure why the skirt length was cut this long. It is possible that mothers brought long skirts so that they could be worn as the boys grew taller, but this would not explain ankle-length skirts. Boys would never grow into skirts that long before breeching. Adult women wore skirts to their ankles. Teenagers might wear longer dresses, but girls commonly wore shorter lengths. We are not yet sure about girls at this time. This is something we hope to assess in more detail, but our prelimary assessment is that very young little girls did not wear such long skirts in the late-19th century. Another possibility is that the boy inherited his older brother's kilt suit. This can not be determined in single portrait photographs. The length of skirts may have varied from family to family, but so many young boys wore these long-length skirts that it seemns to have been an actual style. The long skirts woren with kilt skirts seem especially strange as kilts were knee-length garments and their older brothers commonly wore knee pants. And for some reason, it was the youngest boys that had the longest skirts. The older boys still not nreeched wore shorter skirts. .

Long-Ankle Length

One noticeable feature about the skirted garments worn by American boys was length. Many of the skirt lengths we see the boys wearing are very long. This included dresses, kiltsuit kilts, and skirts. Sometimes they reached down to the ankles. This was stylish for girls and women in the early-19th century, but by mid-century only women were still wearing long length skirts. We do not see this in Europe. And we are unsure why the skirt length for boys was cut this long. It is possible that mothers brought long skirts so that they could be worn as the boys grew taller, but this would not explain ankle-length skirts. Boys would never grow into skirts that long before breeching. Adult women wore skirts to their ankles. Teenagers might wear longer dresses, but girls commonly wore shorter lengths. We are not yet sure about girls at this time. This is something we hope to assess in more detail, but our prelimary assessment is that very young little girls did not wear such long skirts in the late-19th century. Another possibility is that the boy inherited his older brother's kilt suit. This can not be determined in single portrait photographs. The length of skirts may have varied from family to family, but so many young boys wore these long-length skirts that it seemns to have been an actual style. The long skirts woren with kilt skirts seem especially strange as kilts were knee-length garments and their older brothers commonly wore knee pants. And for some reason, it was the youngest boys that had the longest skirts. The Philadelphia boy here probably in the 1890s is a perfect example (figure 1.) The older boys still not nreeched wore shorter skirts. .

Mid-Calf Length

Short-Knee Length

Younger girls and boys were wearing short skirts meaning knee-length, or more correcly usually just at or covering the knee. They were often worn with pantalettes and almpst always with long stockings. This varied somewhat chronologically. And by the girl's age. As far as we can tell, based on the 19th century images we have archived, the same length conventions prvailed for major different skirted garments: dresses, skirts, and kiltsukts. Highland kilts were different. They were not very common, but they were worn at knee length and with knee socks. Here they were simply following the well establish British convention. And the upper-class families choosing Highland kilts for their boys was well aware of the conventions involved. he other skirted garments were more prone to fashion trends. Intrestingly, the skirt length for boys often had nothing to do with fashion trends, although the shorter lengths seem nore attributable to fashion trends than the long ankle lengths. Tunics were alo somewht different, perhps, perhaps because they were strictly a boy's garment. And smocks were not very common. We seem for some reason, relatively few boys wearing skirted garments cut this short. At least that is our inital assessment. And this despite older boys, in some cases much older boys, were wearing knee pants. This apparently made sense to 19th century American mothers, but we can not understand the thinking here.

Created: 4:13 AM 6/12/2013
Last updated: 12:59 AM 8/12/2017