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There were two basic types of kilt suits. This was based on the top not the actual kilt skirt. The first type was a jacketed style. This included a suit jacket/coat and optional vest. The vests were very common. An exception was the Fauntlleroy kilt suit which was worn with a fancy blouse rather than a vest. We suspect that during the summer that many boys just wore the jacket without the vest. Some may have even dispensed with the jacket as well. thThe jacket and vest were not destinctive to kilt suits and were the same style that could be worn with knee pants. We suspedct that wheen some boys were breeched tht mother just bought the knee pants ro relace the kilt skirt and not a whole new suit. The other type of kilt suit was a heavy blouse that was made in the same material as the kilt skirt. It looks like a shirt and was not worn with either a jacket over it or shirt-like garment under it. I do not know if there were terms in the 19th century for these two different kilt suit types. Both were popular styles. We believe that the jacketed suit was the most popular, but we can not yet conform this. These suits were done with both kilts and plain skirts. But we would call a suit made with a skirt rather than a kilt as a jacketed dress rather tham a kilt suit.
There were two basic types of kilt suits. This was based on the top not the actual kilt skirt. The kilt sjkirts varied, b\ut tghe top determined the type of suit. The first type was a jacketed style. This included a suit jacket/coat and optional vest. The suit jackets varied. The jacket and vest were not destinctive to kilt suits and were the same style that could be worn with knee pants. The vests were very common. An exception was the Fauntlleroy kilt suit which was worn with a fancy blouse rather than a vest. We suspect that during the summer that many boys just wore the jacket without the vest. Some may have even dispensed with the jacket as well. We suspedct that when some boys were breeched that mother just bought the knee pants ro relace the kilt skirt and not a whole new suit. The other type of kilt suit was a heavy blouse that was made in the same material as the kilt skirt. It looks like a shirt and was not worn with either a jacket over it or shirt-like garment under it. The top was not a lightweight shirt but madfe in suiting material, often the same material as the kilt skirt. We do not know if there were terms in the 19th century for these two different kilt suit types. Both were popular styles and we see countless portraits of both types. We believe that the jacketed suit was the most popular, but we can not yet confirm this. We are slowly expanding our archive to more fully developb details about both types.
There were also two types of suits based on the skirted garment. Kilt suits were done with both kilts and plain skirts. We notice quite a few of these outfits done with skirts that have no kilt styling at all. The most common type of kilt styling was a front pannel and buttons. Many of these skirts were not even pleated. They be done in a plaid or plaid-like pattern, but they have no kilt styling. The kilt styling is not necesarily the styling of a real kilt, but here we are talking about any effort to differentiate it from a plain skirt. Often the skirts do not match the jackets. This was common with Fautleroy kilt suits, but not as common with other kilt suits. We blelece that these skirt outfits should be called a suit made with a skirt rather than a kilt as a jacketed skirt or skirt suit rather tham a kilt suit. The kilt/skirts were highly variable, but they did not determine the type of kilt suit. Even so we plan to have a close look at the kilts and skirts to assess the variations.
Kilt and skirt suits pants were two piece outfits with the jackets. In some cases they were three piece suits with vests which were common. We see some outdits that look like kilt suits, but were actully dresses. It is a little difficult to tell, but we see outfirs that look like these suits, but were actually one-piece dresses. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that a popular dresses style for girls was jacketed dresses--dresses done with separate, but matching jackets. We can see kilt suit drsses that that look as if there is a jacket, vest, and skirt/kilt, but these were just stylistic features and not really actual kilt suit garments. We see these kilt suit dressess commonly in the 1870s and 80s. While dressess we think that tgat they were mostly worn by boys, we think some girls may have worn them, but not nearly as commonly as boys. This is something we re looking into. We are not sure about the age conventions. It may have been the same as for actual kilt suits, but we are not yet sure about this.
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