American Fauntleroy Blouses: The 1890s--Age

Figure 1.-- Here we see "Walter, Luida?, Minnie, and Wex?". Unfortunately we do not have their last name. They look to be very close in age, about 2-9 years old. The girls wear similar plaid dresses. Notice the older girl's puffed sleeves. That helps date the portrait to the 1890s. Although you have to look closely, both boys are wearing identical Fauntleroy blouses. (The older boy is wearing a heavy jacket over his blouse.) The boys look to be about 4-7 years old. The brown whicker furtniture and the 'Extra Finish' also helps date the portrait to the 1890s.

Fauntleroy blouses were worn by pre-school and school age boys throughout the 1890s. Little boys in the 1890s still wore dresses and other skirted garments. This practice was declining, but still persisted. The age of breeching varied from family to family, but breeching was commonly about 3-4 years of age. This was slightly younger than in previous years. We think the Fauntlerpoy Craze was part of the reason for this. Mother were so anxious to outfit their sons in Fauntleroy suits that they that they seem to have brrech them a little before than was common earler in the century. We begin to see boys wearing Funtleroy suits from a very early age. We see a few boys who look ti vbe about 2 years old but it is about age 3 years that we begin to see really large numbers. We note 7-year old Illinios boy Willie Schriner in 1896. The Pennsylvania boys on the previous page in 1897 are 8-10 years old and anotherr good example of age trends. The Iowa boys here are another good example (figure 1). We not only see the enormously elaboate blouses designed to be worn by younger boys with Fauntleroy suits, but we see fancy blouses for older boys that were worn without the classic cut-away Fauntleroy suit jacket. They tended to be somewhat less extremne than the blouses for younger boys made to be worn with the classic suits. We seen these bouses worn to the early teens, at least 13 year olds. The chronology of these two types were slighly different, but very similar.

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Created: 3:31 AM 5/13/2022
Last updated: 4:13 PM 5/13/2022