Figure 1.--Here we see an American boy wearing a double-breasted tunic suit basically done in the Buster Brown style. Unfortunately we do not know what color the tunic suitwas. All we know about this portrait was that it was taken at the Klauber Studio in Louisville, Kentucky. We would estimate that it was taken about 1905-10.

We note younger boys wearing many different styles of tunics. There appear to have been three different basic styles of blouse tunic suits: sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown blouse suits. The sailor style was especially popular for these tunic types. The style of the tunic was set almost entirely by the tunic itself and not by the pants worn woth it which were mostly covered. This is a little more complicated. Some tunics, for example, were done in the double breasted style, but these might fall into different categories, like the Buster Brown style. Of course tunic styling varied over time. The styles listed here are primarily turn-of the-20th century styles. Tunics were worn throughout the 19th century, but we do not know enough about 19th century tunics yet to develop information on stylistic differences. Tunics were never as dominany a 19h century style as was the case at the turn of the 20h century.

19th Century Tunics

Tunics were worn throughout the 19th century, but we do not know enough about 19th century tunics yet to develop information on stylistic differences. Tunics were never as dominany a 19h century style as was the case at the turn of the 20h century. We do not yet note major stylistic types. A factor here is that tunics for most of the 19th century were made by indicudual seamstresses or mother and not mass produced for ready made syle. Our information here is very limited and we would welcome any insights readers may be able to offer here. We also notice dresses styled rather like tunics. A good example is an unidentified American boy, we think in the 1850s.

20th Century Tunics

We note younger boys wearing many different styles of tunics. This was an especially popular stule in the early 20th century. There appear to have been three different basic styles of blouse tunic suits: sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown blouse suits. The sailor style was especially popular for these tunic types. The style of the tunic was set almost entirely by the tunic itself and not by the pants worn woth it which were mostly covered. This is a little more complicated. Some tunics, for example, were done in the double breasted style, but these might fall into different categories, like the Buster Brown style. These suits at the time were referred to in different ways, futher complicating the task of organizing the different tunic suits into basic types. Of course tunic styling varied over time. The styles listed here are primarily turn-of the-20th century styles. We say this as a shorthand. We also note these tunics being worn in the very late 19th century, primarily the 1890s.

Created: 5:46 PM 10/16/2005
Last updated: 2:37 AM 3/23/2007