Figure 1.--These brothers were from Reading, Pennsylvania. Both boys wear tunic suits. The older boy has a sailor-styled tunic done in checks. We are not sure about the color, possibly red. The portrait is not dated, but we would guess was taken about 1905. The boys look to be about 2-5 years old.

Tunic suits is a term that we have applied to these outfits. It is not always the term we have seen used at the time. We have adopted "tunic" for a range of different outfits so we have a consitrent term we can use throughout HBC. We have no idea how these garments were described in the early- and mid-19th century. We note a reference to "dress" in the 1840s--a portrait of Thomas Smith in the 1840s. This was a note from a photographic studio and not by the mother or fashion industry person. We know much more about the terms used in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Tunic was not a term consistently used at the time to describe these outfits. There was no one term that was commonly used in catalogs and magazines. Rather a variety of different terms were used. We see a variety of different terms being used, such as sailor suit, Russian or Russian blouse suit, or Buster Brown suit. Even these terms were not used consistently. And some catalogs did not provide a specific term and used not descript terms like "suit" or "costume". Thus we have consistently used the term "tunic" for these outfits so that we can have one single term to use.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main American tunic page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 5:53 AM 8/4/2008
Last edited: 7:20 PM 12/25/2008