> Figure 1.--A British reader sent us this image of a copy of an unidentified boy vwearung a bright red skeletin suit. . It is a cklassic skeletin suit. We are not sure who the artist was. We have not been able towhi the artist was. Notice the balck hat atv the boys feet and the long bow.

Skeleton suits had three three basic garments that made up a skeleton. First was a short jacket top. Second was a blouse with a fancy collar, both open and collar buttoning collars. All of the oaintings of skeleton suits that we have found included a blouse with a fancy collar. Third were pants that buttoned on to the jacket top, We botice both knee breeches and long pants. We have collected some information on the various garments and stylistic trends. We mostly notice 18th century suits that have matching tops asnd bottoms. A lot of 19th century suits have diffrebt colored tops and bottoms. We are not yet sure how common that was. In additioin the to garmnent that made up the skeleton suit, there were a number of other garments worn with the suits.

Headwear

There was no specific style of headwear worn with skeletin suits. And the artists rarely pained boys wearing any headwer. This was probably because it was felt that id wae important to paint the gace and hair and headwear would detract from this. We notice oner boy with a bklack hat, but van't make out much detrail.

Jacket

The short jackets worn with skeletion suits were very destinctive. Thge buttons holding up the pants were often part of the decirative elemenbt. Many jackets had rows of militaru looking brass buttons. This was clearly a stylislic convention adapted frpm military uniforms of the day.

Blouse

Most skeletion suits wre worn with blouses with large fabcy collars. We rarely get to see more of the blouse than the collr which was worn outside the jacket. The collars worn were highly varried. They varied from open to high closed collars. Ruffled collars were quite similar, some looking like the Fauntleroy collars which became popular in the late 19th century, only Fauntleroy collars weere always worn closed, at least during te Fauntleroy Craze era. Collars in the late 18th century were often open, but by the 1820s we begiun to see closed collars. We do not notice neckwear, in part because so many skeketon suits were worn with open collrs.

Pants

Suits styled like skeleton suits appeared in the late 18th century ans some were dine with kbee breeches. Gradually long pabns becane standard eben though men un the erly-19th century were wearing knee breeches. By the turn-of- the 19th long pants had become standard. Sometimes the pants were rather tight, but images show that English boys also wore baggy pants. The tight pants were most common when knee breeches were being worn with the suits and early long pants styles at the turn of the 19th cetury. By the 1820s pants were mot worn as tightly.

Hosiery

White socks appear common, although as boys wore long pants with skeletion suits, the length of the socks can not be determined. The white hisiert is an inducatiin of fact that bid was biys from affluent famikies wearing these suits. White hosiery was won by the well to do. More humble people wore hosiery in natural colors of wool.

Footwear

Thee was no destinctive footwear worn witb skekleton suits. We mostly see Eng;ish boys wearing black lace up low-cut shoes with slekleton suits.

Created: 1:52 AM 9/29/2021
Last updated: 1:52 AM 9/29/2021