Figure 1.--This American boy was photographed about 1910. The name Archibald Ellsworth is on the back of this postcard portrait. The photographer was H.E. Ellsworth in Meadville, Pennsylvania who presumably photographed his son. Many American boys wore floppy bows with their Eton collars.. |
Eton collars were most prevalent in England, but worn in France and America as well as many other countries. The Eton collar was worn both with and without neckwear. Neckwear convention and the type of neckwear worn with the Eton collar varied in these different countries. Or preliminary assessment suggests that neckwear was very commonly worn with Eton collars in America, but less so in Englabnd. We have less information about oyher countries.
Australia was a British colony. Clothing styles in Australia were primarily British, with some allouance for climate. Eton collars appear to have been commonly worn in Austraia at the turn of the 20th century. We are not yet sure about neckwear.
Eton collars do not appear to have been commonly worn in Austria at the turn of the 20th century.
HBC does not have suffient images from England to yet assess national conventions. Some preliminary observations are that floppy bows were not commonly worn
with Eton collars. We note boys wearing Eton collars with various types of neckwear. Wearing the Eton collar without any neckwear was very common.
Eton collars were not as common in France as in England. We note French boys wearing Eton collars with neckwear, but we are unsure at this time just how common it was.
Many boys wore floppy bows with their first Eton collar. This appears to have been an especially American style. Neckwear seems to have been less common in England--especially floppy bows. Floppy nows were worn with both kilt suits and
proper suits like Norfolk suitys, at least by younger boys. Unfortunately, the floppy bows are often so large that it is not always possible to properly identify the Eton
collar. We note that the Eton collar was more commonly paired with floppy bows around the turn of the century, earlier other collar styles were usually used with
floppy bows. By the 1910s, however, ;arge floppy bows had become less common, even for younger boys.
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site: Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages: Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
Austria
England
France
Germany
Italy
United States
Other Countries
HBC
[Return to the Main Eton collar neckwear page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Photography]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[Essays]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
[The 1840s]
[The 1850s]
[The 1860s]
[The 1870s]
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[Long pants]
[Knickers]
[Short pants]
[Scottish kilts]
[School uniform]
[Sailor suits]
[Eton suits]
[Ring bearer/page costumes]
Created: March 17, 2004
Last updated: March 17, 2004