Figure 1.-- Many mothers, we think often the mothers, liked to dress all the children identically. This meant mostly the younger children because girls in the 19th century did not wear pants, but younger boys did wear skirted garments. A major alternative was the sailor suit. By substituting pants for skirts, the girls could be dressed almost identically like the boys. Here we see an unidentifie brother and sister in matching sailor suits. Except for the girl's pleated skirt, they are dressed identically down to the black long stockings and high-top shoes. Note the very feint striping on the collrs and cuffs. The children look to be about 6-10 years old. The portrait is not dated, but looks like the early 1910s. The boy's knickers help date the portrait to the 1910s, but the hats are more like the 1900s hats, thus we would guess the early-1910s. The white border print also suggests the 1910s. Click on the image to see another portrait of these childen.

If there were young enough boys and girls in a family during the 19th century, they could even be dressed alike. This in the 19th century often meant dressing the boys in dresses and other skirted garments. Girls did not begin wearing pants until well into the 20th century, so the common garments were almost always skirted garments. The portrait on the previous page of a bother and sister wearing the same dress is a good example, althouh the boy seems to be on the upper limits of the ages at whih boys wore dresses ans skirts. There were some other options. The principal one was the sailor suit. Nearly identical outfits were possible with the simple expedient of substituting skirts in the sme color and material for pants. This created a sailor outfit for the girls. The rest of the outfit could be identical. We see quite a few exanples of brothers and sisters wearing sailor outfits. The pair here is a good example. This was, however, a fairly recent innovation. We see quite a number of large families in the 19th century and early-20th centry. A factor here is that America was a largely rural country into the early-20th century. And farm families are commoly large. A dozen children were not all ghst uncommon. Cities families were almost alays smaller, but a half adozen children were fairly common. We notice quite a few family portraits with numbers of children. We see examples of the boy and girls being dresses in sparate indentical outfits, meaning skirted outfits for the girls and pants for the boys. Here therecould be age complications. This of course meant that that a much larger age range for dressing the children alike, meaninh very young children and tenagers could be included in the mix. We have not found a huge number of these group porttaits but we have fond some. This convention seems less common in America than in Europe. Most of the examples we have found come from the 19th and early 20th century when large families were the most common.

Separate Identical/Coordinated Brother-Sister Outfits

If there were young enough boys and girls in a family during the 19th century, they could even be dressed alike. This in the 19th century often meant dressing the boys in dresses and other skirted garments. Girls did not begin wearing pants until well into the 20th century, so the common garments were almost always skirted garments. The portrait on the previous page of a bother and sister wearing the same dress is a good example, althouh the boy seems to be on the upper limits of the ages at whih boys wore dresses ans skirts. There were some other options. The principal one was the sailor suit. Nearly identical, coordinated outfits were possible with the simple expedient of substituting skirts in the sme color and material for pants. This created a sailor outfit for the girls. The rest of the outfit could be identical. We see quite a few exanples of brothers and sisters wearing sailor outfits. The pair here is a good example Figure 1). This was, however, a fairly recent innovation. We do not see examples until the 1880s, although we see girls wearing sailor dresses in the 1870s. Except for the pants/skirts, they could be essentially identical, but in some cases they were styled differently. Coordinated the dress of differet gender siblings was less common than dressing the like-gender siblings in identical outfits, but e see quite a few examples. Usually this involved older sisters and youngr brothers.

Identical Separate Outfits for the Boys and Girls

We see quite a number of large families in the 19th century and early-20th centry. A factor here is that America was a largely rural country into the early-20th century. And farm families are commoly large. A dozen children were not all ghst uncommon. Cities families were almost alays smaller, but a half adozen children were fairly common. We notice quite a few family portraits with numbers of children. We see examples of the boy and girls being dresses in sparate indentical outfits, meaning skirted outfits for the girls and pants for the boys. Here therecould be age complications. This of course meant that that a much larger age range for dressing the children alike, meaninh very young children and tenagers could be included in the mix. We have not found a huge number of these group porttaits but we have fond some. This convention seems less common in America than in Europe. Most of the examples we have found come from the 19th and early 20th century when large families were the most common. `

Created: 7:35 PM 6/5/2016
Last updated: 5:01 AM 9/1/2021