Fashion can often be used to date historical periods. This is true for both adult and children's fashions. Some fashions are very short term and can easily be used to date an image. Fashions such as pedal pushers, OP shorts, flare trousers, Afro hair styles, are very good indicators of dates. Other fashions such as kilts and sailor suits have proven much more long lasting. Even these fashions can usefully date images because of stylistic differences over time. Also embelishments worn with various styles, such as lace collars, bows, pantalettes, patterened kneesocks, can help date images even when the children photographed are wearing classic styles.

Figure 1.--Don't be confused. This is a boy, infact an English royal. Note the short dress, pantalettes, and short white socks. Can you determine the decade?

We have loaded some images on this page. Some are easy. Others are more difficult. At any rate, see if you can date the image as to what decade it pertains to. Then click on the image to see if you were correct. (The link will take you to the page where the image is discussed.) Good luck.

Incidentally, if you come accross an image (either one posted here or one you have) that would be interested to post on one of the quiz pages, do let me know.

Figure 2.--The Fauntleroy-type outfit and the pantalettes are clues here. The boy's curls also help to date the image.

Figure 3.--This English boy is the son of a famous poet. The tunic he wears with pantalettes, the relatively small collar, and the fact his long hair is not curled shhould help date the photograph. Note the Peter Pan collar, many years before Barrie wrote the book and the name for this style has been coined.

Figure 4.--I believe the two children playing around the wheelbarrow are boys. The long dresses the boys are wearing and the fact one wears a pinafore should help you date the image.

Figure 5.--The child between the two sisters in red appears to be a boy. The dress styles and the fact that they are still worn with pantalettes should help you date the image.

Figure 6.--The combination of long causage curls and stripped stockings help to date this image. Any idea?

Figure 7.--The plain suit and small collar should help date this image.

Figure 8.--This boy's short hair and pantalettes worn with a kilt should help you date the image. What do you think?

Figure 9.--I don't have the date for this image, but the Tam O'Shanner, Fauntleroy jacket and lace collar, kilt, and pantalettes combination make it fairly easy to date. Note that the boy wears short hair, an example of how varied combinations of clothes and hair styles were for the boys of this era.

Created: July 19, 1998
Last updated: July 19, 1998