Garments Worn with Lace Collars and Trim: Headwear



Figure 1.--This German boy wears a military style peaked cap with a not very military lace collar. It is not the kind of cap we normally associate with lace collars. We believe the portrai was taken about 1910. Note the boy's book bag and how the lace collar extends down the boy's back.

Headwear

Headwear was much more common in the period in which lace collars were normally worn by boys. Boys and men almost always wore caps and hats in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. The most common hat style worn with Little Lord Fauntleroy suits and lace collars was the wide-brimmed sailor hat. This was not, however, the only headwear. Just as lace collars were worn with many different garments, there was quite a range of headwear that boys wore with lace collars. Headwear included tams, flat caps, and many other styles. Some of these styles seem, to our modern eyes, rather incongrous to a lace collar. Popular style of headwear worn with lace collars varies over time and even more significantly among countries.

Image

Notive that the boy here has a lace collar that extends well down his back under the book bag strap (figure 1). It appears to be made in the shape of a sailor collar. HBC has not noted this as a common shape for lace collars, although we have noted many ruffled collars with the sailor-like back flap. We tend to think that this was an adoring mother's rather fanciful attempt at schoolwear rather than a common style in either Germany or elsewhere.






Christopher Wagner





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Created: February 27, 2002
Last updated: February 28, 2002