English Little Lord Fauntleroy Suits: Chronology--The 1890s

Difure 1.--Here we see two children, probably a brother and sister, outfitted in their best clothes, perhaps in front of their home. The girl has a hair bow, white dress, pantalettes, white socks and white shoes. Her brother is dressed in black, wearing a Fauntleroy suit with a huge real lace collar and plaid waistvsash to add a little color. They look to be about 5-7 years old. We are not sure bout the pose, perhaps a dance step. The portrait is undated, but we wold guss the 1890s, possibly the early-1900s. The cabinet portrait was taken by the J.A. Hamilton studio in Bristol. It does not look like a studio portrait. We think at the time studios sent out photographers to take portaits like this outside the studio.

The Fauntleroy suit which appeared in the mid-1880s continued to be a major style in England throughout the 1890s. We see English examples of the Fauntleroy suit in the photographic record from the late-1880s into the early-1900s. It was the peak of the Fauntleroy Craze. Not as common as in America, but more common than in the rest of Europe. The 1890s seems to have been the single most important decade in part because in only appeareed in the middle of the 1880s. The style burst on the fashion scene from America (1885). It took a few years to get estblished. In contrast it was all the rage in the 1890s throughout the whole decade. We note Fauntleroy collars being worn by the younger boys in primary schools. This is a little more difficult for us to follow in Britain because our photographic archive is more limited than our American archive. We tend to see more elaborate lace collars in England than is the case in America. The collar here is a case in point (figure 1). We seeanother example of this with Charles Bampfied in 1895. Note that the collar is a pin-on lace collar and not a part of a Fauntleoy blouse. American boys wore lace collars, but ruffled collars wre much more common. In England we see quit a number of elaborate real lace collars in all kinds of sizes and designs. Real lace is expensive. A large real lace collar is much more expensive than a large ruffled collar. This of course povides some informtion on social class and the families involved.

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Created: 8:11 PM 11/28/2017
Last updated: 3:46 AM 6/17/2019