|
Pants and trousers as far as we know were never part of kilt suits. That certainly was the case in Britain. But in America we see see a few boys wearing pants with kilt suits. They look to us like mothers bought these pants independently of the actual kilt suit. We are not sure why a mother would do this. Few American mothers of course knew anything about kilts and how they were worn in Scotland. We are not sure just about the thought process of the mothers involved. Skirted garments for boys were generally for younger boys who mothers did not think were old enough for breaching. This of course explains boys wearing dresses and kilt suits. Interestingly at mid-century, for some reason kilts suits began replacing dresses for boys. The difference was that the dress was a female garment. The kilt was a skirted garment, but a male garment. So clearly mothers were beginning to change their outlook on gender conventions for younger boys. Younger boys continued to be dresses for half a century, but clearly it is something mothers began thinning about at mid century. Why we find this confusing is that mothers bothered with kilt suits if they were going to have boys wear pants under the kilt. We have never seen this discussed in the literature of the day. All we have to go on is the photographic record. Now wearing kilts with pants was not the most common option, neither was a rare choice for mothers. Given the age of the children involved, this was all a choice mothers made, we think largely on their own. We have no idea if it was discussed with fathers to any extent.
Pants or trousers were not a normal part of a kilt suit, but we do sometimes see them. Pants and trousers as far as we know were never part of kilt suits. The two elements in a kilt suit were the top (usually a jacket) and a kilt suit. Some of the suits had vests, but this wasan optional item. What these kilt suits did not have was pants. That certainly was the case in Britain.
Unlike Briain, in America we see see a few boys wearing pants with kilt suits. The boyy here is aood example (figure 1). They were not part of the suit, but were worm with the kilt suits. They look to us like mothers bought these pants independently of the actual kilt suit. This was not the case of other skirted garments like dresses and skirts, but pants were worn with tunic suits. We are also unsure about the age conventions associated with wearing knee pants with kilt suits. We do not have a lot of examples and do not know if some of the pants involved, knee pants as best we can tell, were not made to match the suit. This is why we do not consider them to be a standard suit element. The ones which we have found so far did not match. The pants we see are almost all knee pants. We do not see long pants or knickers to any extent.
We are not sure why a mother would do this. Few American mothers of course knew anything about kilts and how they were worn in Scotland. We are not sure just about the thought process of the mothers involved. Skirted garments for boys were generally for younger boys who mothers did not think were old enough for breaching. This of course explains boys wearing dresses and kilt suits. Interestingly at mid-century, for some reason kilts suits began replacing dresses for boys. The difference was that the dress was a female garment. The kilt was a skirted garment, but a male garment. So clearly mothers were beginning to change their outlook on gender conventions for younger boys. Younger boys continued to be dresses for half a century, but clearly it is something mothers began thinning about at mid century. Why we find this confusing is that mothers bothered with kilt suits if they were going to have boys wear pants under the kilt. We have never seen this discussed in the literature of the day. All we have to go on is the photographic record.
Now wearing kilts with pants was not the most common option, neither was a rare choice for mothers. Given the age of the children involved, this was all na choice mothers made. We have no idea if it was discussed with fathers to any extent. We are just beginning to work out how common this was or if there were any chronological patterns.
The length of the kilt-skirts for the kilt duits was geerally well below the knee, in some cases even to calf level. Petticoats were quite common with kilt suits, although it is difficult to know how common. There is no way of knowing that boys who do not seem to be wearing petticoats and pantalettes were simply wearing petticoats too short to show. In the early 19th century, boys and girls wore patalettes that were made to shows under the dress knee hem. Kilts suits were worn for several decades (1860s-early-1900s) and we are just beginning to develop chronological data to determine changes during this period, but this was after the fashiopn of long fany pantalettes had bassed. .This fashion had gone oot of style after mid-century. We sometimes see the hem of petticoats, but like knee pants they just peak out at the kilt-suit hem. Petticoats do not seem strange to wear with kilt suits, after all kilts were a skirted garment. Although petticoats were not worn with proper Highland kilts. It does, however, seem rather strange to wear petticoats with pants. We do not notice any other instance of this. Presumably the mothers involved just saw petticoats as the normal accompaniment to skirted garments. Unlike the petticoats, we do have a fairly good idea about the prevalence of knee pants with kilt suits. Knee pants were long enough that we can see them with most kilt suits. Some boys wore unusually long kilt-skirts with kilt suit, but most wore kilts-skirts short enough to see if knee pants were being worn with them.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main American kilt suit garment page]
[Return to the Main American kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main National kilt page]
[Kilt History]
[Kilt Usage]
[Kilt suits]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
