Figure 1.--Here we see an American boy wearing a tunic suit in the 1910s. The tunic has an open-collar look, but there are pointed collars. Notice the side buttons. His tunic has half sleeves, probably meaning that it was home sewn. Most tunics had long sleeves, even ones for summer wear. There is also a low belt done in the same material as the tunic. This boy looks to be about 5-6 years old. Usually boys wore their tunics suits with some kind of shirt-like garment. This boy does not seem to wear a short or blouse with his tinic suit. Perhaps it as during the summer.
The principal garment in a tunic suit was obviously the skirt-like tunic. Thre tunic have a variety of stylistic features. Tuics were worn for more than a century, unfortunately we have almost no information about features in the early-19th century. With the invention of photography we know much more about the fearures of tuics beginning with the mid-19th century. Most of the variations in the tunic were associated with the neck and sleeves. These could be done in various ways. The collar was in part a reflectin of the stle of tunic. Sailor tunics had sailor collars. These were the most destinctive. There were, however, many other tyoes of collars. The sleeves were mostly long sleeves. We also see half-sleeves. The half-sleeves were primarily home sewn. We do not see them offered in catalogs. There were, however, a variety of other variations. Many tunics were fairly standard basic garments. Others like the one here seem much more complicated. A major variation was the length of the tunic. We notice rather short tunics when we first see them in rarly photographs (mid-19th century). They were mostly knee length when they becane very popular in the early-20th century. Also there were variations in how the tunic closed which wwas done with buttons. We note both side and front buttoning tunics. We are not sure about back buttoning tunics. Front buttoning tunics generally buttoned vertically down the front, but in the 70 a diagonal buttoning sarrangement was popular. Most tunics had belts. We see belts of some kind throughout the 19th and early-20 century.
Principal Garment
The principal garment in a tunic suit was obviously the skirt-like tunic. Often it covered up the bottom or pants tht made up a tunic suit. And when not covered up they only peaked out below the tunic. This varied over time. Shirtened-length pants basically appeared in the nid-19yh century. Before that we see lon pants or pntalettes being worn with tunics. Once shortened length pants appeared then the tunic basiclly covered them up. The tunic has a variety of stylistic features.
Chronology
Tuics were worn for more than a century, unfortunately we have almost no information about features in the early-19th century. Many Ffmilies than could not aford painted portraits. Thus the prevalence in portraits may overstte the prevlence among the general public. With the invention of photography we know much more about the fearures of tunics beginning with the mid-19th century and are able to assess actual prevalence better. We note boys wearing rather short tunic-like garments at mid-century. We see them in thearly photographic formats likes Daguerreotypes and Ambro-types (1840s-50s). They look more like shirts that had not been tucked in at the waist. They were often worn with belts like tunics. There may have been social-class factors involved here. We suspect that these outfits were more common with working-class failies and actual tunics more common with middle-class familes.
The tunic is basically a rather simple garment with few elemets. The simplicity of the tunic made it popular with many mothers. Even so there were differnt elements and several features concerning those elements that made for stylistic differences among tunics. Most of the stylistic variations in the tunic were associated with the neck and to a lesser degree the sleeves. There were also variation in the opening/closure. These features could be done in various ways creating quite a substanbtial variation in styles. The belt was a virtually required element. We see very few tunics without belts of some kind. The belts also varied. The length of the tunic was also an important variant and varied chronologically..
Variation
Many tunics were fairly standard basic garments. Others like the one here seem a little more complicated (figure 1).
