Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentified Maine brothers. They look to be about 3-6 years old. The younger boy wears a blouse kilt suit. His older brother wears a coolar-buttoning suit jacket with knee opabnts. Both biy have floppy bows, black long stockings, and high-top shoes. TThis helps set the parameters for breeching, probably about 5 years old. We suspect he portrait is not dated, but looks like the 1880s. The studio was Colpitts & Co. in Lewiston, Maine.

Kilt suits were a very popular style for younger boys, but for a realtively narrow age range. The age conventions seem fairly standard over the period these garments were popular. Kilt suits were typically made for pre-school boys from about 3 to 6 years of age. We think 3-5 were the most common ages, but we doi see some 6-year olds wering them. Of course a major problem we have is that the children's age is not noted on most old photographs. Thus we are left to estimate the children's ages. While we don't think we are generally off more than a year or so. This has to be noted. We encourage readers to let us know if you have a different asessment of the ages. One aid that we have is multiple subject images. This can help asess images because generally spoeaking that childrem are commonly spaced 2 or more years apart. Here biology is a factor. Reakly large families have children close together, smaller families rarely have children closer than 2 years. This helps us with age estimates, including the age of breeching.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main American kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main kilt page]
[Lace collar] [Floppy bows] [Cut-away jackets] [Kilt suits] [Stiped long stockings] [Shoes]
[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 6:03 PM 12/24/2023
Last updated: 6:04 PM 12/24/2023