Velvet Suits: Other Types

Figure 1.--Here we see Austen Hoppin Fox probably with his cousin Austen Fox Riggs. Austebn looks to be about 8 years old and his cousin who is about the same age, perhaps a year or so younger. We think the portrait was taken in 1887. The boys are wearing matching velvet suits. Usually it is brothers who were dressed alike. In this case it was cousins. The two families must have been very close. Even the ribbon bows were identical. The suits are double breasted with high set lapels. The jackets are done with piping. Even the flap pockets have piping. As with other outfits, mother selected a detachable white collar. In this case an Eton collar. She also used Peter Pan Pan Eton collar. The boys are holding matching Glengary bonnets which the mothers wanted included in the portrait, but not worn. (Notice that the boy in front is holding on to a chin strap. (We did not know Glengaries had chin straps.) The boys even have identical hair cuts done with front bangs (fringes). The studio was J. Ludovici in New York City.

Litlle Lord Fauntlero suits dominate the imahe of the velvet suit. We note, however, a variety of other velvet suits desides just Fauntleroy suits in the second half of the 19th century. This included suits for schoolm age boys. The Fauntleroy suit was primarily an outfit for pre-school or very young school-age boys. We see a range of suits being done for older school age boys. Velvet was a luxurious and expensive fabric. Fauntleroy suits for younger boys required very littkle favric. Older boys suits required much more fabric. This made them expensive. So the images we see of school age boys tend to be boys from well-to-do families. They are not very common, but we do see some in the enormous and growing photographic record. Of course a factor here was the extrodinary industrial expansion at the time in the United States, generating unprecedented wealth and the expansion of the middle class. There were of course ruch kids in Europe, but the expanfing anmerican middle class creating a huge body of well-helled cionsiners, pribably larger than all of Europe. We see the major suit types, both collar buttoning jackets and lapel jackets (single and double breasted jackets) being done in velvet. Several had piping to accentuate the velvet. Another type, but not very common, was a kind of tuxedo suit worn by an American boy, Roy Chapman Hodgson, in the 1890s.

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Created: 7:00 AM 9/29/2022
Last updated: 10:37 AM 9/29/2022