Figure 1.--This brother and sister are wearing identical white dresses with long black stockings. Notice the boys short hair in contrast to the dress he is still wearing. The only other difference is the girl's perky hair bow.
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Figure 1.--This brother and sister are wearing identical white dresses with long black stockings. Notice the boys short hair in contrast to the dress he is still wearing. The only other difference is the girl's perky hair bow. |
A fashionable combination which mothers for penerations have elected has been to dress
brothers and sisters alike. Usually this was done with an older sister and younger brother-but not always. In some cases the outfit of an older brother was coordinated with that of his younger sister. HBC has not yet been able to draw chronological trends in the fashion of dressing brothers and sisters in identical or coordinated outfits. To some extent this was affected by breeching. The popularity of coordinating the oiyfits of brother and sisters has varied among countries. HBC has not yet been able to assess national differences in this respect. There has been a major shift in
this style. In the 19th Century it involved dressing the boy and girl in similar
girls clothes: dresses, frocks, and smocks. It has rarely meant dressing
them in similar boys clothes, but in more recent years the outfits have been
coordinated in many ways. This style was generally for younger boys, most commonly boys up to 5 or 6 years old. Brothers and sisters have been dressed in a variety of styles. Usually but not always the girl wears a dress or skirted garment. Boys on the other hand
have worn much more diverse garments. Often brothers and sisters wore different garments, but the outfits were corrdinated by being made of the same material. Most commonly these outfits were dresses for the girls and various short pants for the boys. Usually this was for children of approximaetly the same age, or a younger boy and older sister. Usually mothers coordonated the clothing of their boys and girls. Less common was coordinating hair styles. This usually ment letting a boys' hair grow long and not cutting a girls' hair short. This was most common in the late 19th century and early 20th century before World War I (1914-18). When the hair was coordinated, usually the children were dressed differently.
A fashionable combination which mothers for penerations have elected has been to dress
brothers and sisters alike. Usually this was done with an older sister and younger brother-but not always. In some cases the outfit of an
older brother was coordinated with that of his younger sister.
HBC has not yet been able to draw chronological trends in the fashion of dressing brothers and sisters in identical or coordinated outfits. To some extent this was affected by breeching. Thus it was relatively easy to dress brothers and sisters in coordinated or even identical outfits if the boy had not yet been breeched. Even so we have relatively few examples of this in paintings and photographs. After breeching, boys and girls clothing was so different that there it appears to have been realtively little effort to dress boys and girls in coordinated outfits. This is our initial assessment of 19th century trends and would welcome reader insights. This pattern changed after the turn of the century for two reasons. First, Boys less commonly wiore dresses when small and some of the outfits they did wear like tunics and rompers were ameanable to wear by both genders. Second, as the century progressed, girls began to wear a variety of previously boysish styles or garments, again provide more opportunity for coordinating brother and sister outfits.
The popularity of coordinating the oiyfits of brother and sisters has varied among countries. HBC has not yet been able to assess nationalmdifferences in this respect.
There has been a major shift in
this style. In the 19th Century it involved dressing the boy and girl in similar
girls clothes: dresses, frocks, and smocks. It has rarely meant dressing
them in similar boys clothes, but in more recent years the outfits have been
coordinated in many ways.
This style was generally for younger boys, most commonly boys up to 5 or 6
years old. Sometimes older boys were dresses like their sisters, but rarely
boys over 8 or 9 years old. The girls involved, however, have sometimes
been teenagers.
Brothers and sisters have been dressed in a variety of styles. Usually but
not always the girl wears a dress or skirted garment. Boys on the other hand
have worn much more diverse garments.
Figure 2.--After the turn of the century, brothers and sisters were less likely to wear matching dresses, but they might both wear white dresses with different styling. The boy here wears a more boyish looking Russian dress while his younger sister wears a fancier dress. Note that the boy is also wearing a hairbow. The image was sisned at the bottom. Aime Dupont, N.Y. |
Some parents liked to dress the children alike or in coordinated outfits. This convention was limited depending on the gender and age of the children. Often the approach was used with different outfits for the boys and girls. Sometimes styles could be coordinated. Here a popular choice was sailor styles. One of the limitations here during the 19th century was that girls did not wear pants (trousers) and only younger boys wore dresses. The age at with boys wore dresses, however varied from family to family. Thus we do see some mothers who dressed the entire family in dresses, sometines identical dresses. Brothers and sisters until the turn of the century might wear matching dress with few or very little differences. Younger brothers paired with older sisters were the most common, but sometimes it was an older brother. After the turn of the century, boys were less commoly attired in dresses and the dresses that were worn were plainer. Thus mothers might outfit a girl in a typically fancy dress with the required huge hairbow while the boy might wear a plainer Russian blouse outfit. There were other alternatives such as smocks. This was not a common approach in the 19th century, but we do see some instances of it in the photographic record. More common was age grading, but we do see anumber of families with all the children in dresses.
Some very young boys wore pinafores. Thus was not a common way of dressing brothers and sisters alike.
Smocks were a very common way of dressing all the children in a family, or all the younger ones, alike. This varied greatly, however, from country to country.
HBC has not noted photographs of brothers and sisters in matching rompers. We have noted photographs with the girls wear ing matching dresses/smocks and rompers. A romper suit in fact, except for the bottom can be quite similar. A good example is a 1957 French romper/dress pattern.
The kilt was initially a boys' garment. HBC has noted, however, girls wearing them by the 1890s and they may have done so earlier, not extensively. The fact that kilts were not worn by girls and the kilt outfits differed so greatly from dresses mean that there was relatively linmited opportunity to coordinate ouitfits.
Girls of course did not wear Eton suits, although we have seen the Eton collar used as fashion statement on girls' blouses and dresses. We have not yet seen this style used to any extent in coordinating brother-sister outfits.
Boys began wearing sailor suits in the mid-19th century. At first it was an exclusively boys' outfit. Subsequently some sailor styling was employed in girls' cloothing. We have not seen, however, large number of girls wearing outfits looking ike traditional sailor suits. This changed after the turn of the 20th century when more and more girls began wearing middy blouses with skirts. There were alsomsailor dresses. The middy blouse with bloomers was widely used as a girl's gym uniform. These outfits were style like traditional sailor suits. As a result, there was increasing possibiities of coordinating brother-sister outfits. There were probably more girls wearing middy blouses in the 1920s than boys, at least in America. There were sustantial variations among countries. We have noted coordinated brother-sister sailor outfits as late as the 1950s, but rarely see them since the 1960s except infants.
Some play clothes such as smocks and rompers were worn by both boys and girls. Other outfits were quite detinct, but could be coordinated. Beginning in the 1960s, girls began adopting boys' styles for play--especially jeans. With the onsent of the more casual styles, however, little thought was given to coordinating outfits.
Figure 3.--Matching sweaters are an easy way of coordinating a boy's attire with that of his sister. Sweaters with bold patterns are most destinctive. |
One particularly easy way to coordinate brother-sister outfits was with matching sweaters in bold colors. The boy's pants can then be coordinated with the girl's skirt. Matching kneesocks can complete the outfit.
Often brothers and sisters wore different garments, but the outfits were corrdinated by being made of the same material. Most commonly these outfits were dresses for the girls and various short pants for the boys. Usually this was for children of approximaetly the same age, or a younger boy and older sister.
Usually mothers coordonated the clothing of their boys and girls. Less common was coordinating hair styles. This usually ment letting a boys' hair grow long and not cutting a girls' hair short. This was most common in the late 19th century and early 20th century before World War I (1914-18). When the hair was coordinated, usually the children were dressed differently. HBC knows of few instances when both hair and clothes were coordinated, although it was not unknown.
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