Figure 1.--This new style cabinet card is undated. But the outfits and the mount style suggest the early-20th cetunry. We would guess the early 1900s. Ideally we would use dated images, but unfortunately have found too few pertiment dated images. |
|
Long hair for boys declined after the turn of the century, especially after the fitst decade of the 20th century. Some boys did wear long hair in the 1900s, in some instances with hair bows. This had become much less common by the 1910s and was rarely seen after World War I (1914-18). The trend for girls was different. As hair bows disappeared for boys, they seem to becone even more common for girls. The early 20th century seems to have been the peak time for girls wearing bows, especially the first two decades. We note girls wearing enormous hair bows. Much larger than the hair bows we saw in the 19th century. Boys hair bows always were small. Girl in the 19th century wore larger hair bows, but nothing like the huge hair bows we see in the early-20th century.
We are not entirely sure about the colors of the bows because of the black-and-white photography of the day. White was a popular color, but we also see black and colored hair bows, but have no idea about the actual colors and chronological trends. The girl's hair bow here could be white, but it loks a little off color. It could be a very pale pastel color (figure 1). We also see girls wearing hair bows after World War I in the 1920s. There were still some quite large hair bows in the early-20s. While hair bows were very common, the size of the bows gradually declined as the decade progressed. We see far fewer hair bows in the 1930s. Note that Shirley Temple at her peak as a child star with ringlet curls in the late-20s and early-30s did not wear hair bows. And no child stars had a greater impact on fashion than Shirley.
Navigate related Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site pages:
[Return to the Main hair bow chronology page]
[Return to the Main hair bow page]
[Return to the Main boys' hair bow chronology page]
[Hair styles]
[Collar bows]
[Dresses]
[Kilt suits]
[Kilts]
[Fauntleroy suits]
[Fauntleroy dresses]
[Sailor dresses]
[Pinafores]
[Smocks]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Bibliographies]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Boys' Clothing Home]