Figure 1.--This Danish boy is unidentified and the image is undated. We do know that it was taken at a studio in Kjobenhavn so we know he was Danish. He wears a skirt with a blouse or sweater and a lace collar. The skirt is a kind of plaid design, perhaps to make it look like a kilt. The boy looks to be about 6 years old. Click on the image for more details.

Younger Danish boys as in the rest of Europe wore a variety of skirted outfits. We have noted boys wearing both dresses and skirts. This appears to have been the case in both wealthy and modest income families. Breeching often occurered at about 5 years of age. We do not know of any destinctive dress styles worn by Danish boys, but our information is very limited. We do not know if they wore kilts, but we have noted plaid-like skirts. Smocks were not very common, but were worn--mostly by boys from affluent families.

Dresses

Danish boys like boys in other European countries wore dresses as smaller boys. This appears to have been the case in both wealthy and modest income families. Breeching often occurered at about 5 years of age. This varied, however, from family to family. It is likely that boys from poorer families may have been breeched earlier than boys from wealthy families. In also varied according to the vageries of individual mothers--who were given considerable disgression in thecdressing of younger boys. Some mothers believed in delaying breeching well past 5 years of age. I do not yet have details on the styles of dresses worn by boys before breeching. Dresses in the early part of the century probably followed the European pattern of being identical to those worn by girls. Special boys dresses, usually plainer, may have been available by the 1890s. One Danish reader reports that "My family lived "out on the country." He says that "It looks like baby-boys during the early 1920s still were dressed in dresses. They werem however, breeched very early--when they could walk I suppose."

Skirts

We note one undated image which looks to be from the 1880s of a boy wearing a skirt with a blouse or sweater with a lace collar. The skirt is a kind of plaid design, perhaps to make it look like a kilt. We wondered if having a Danish Princess as the English Princess of Wales may have stimulated some interest in British styles. We do not know how popular such skirts were for boys in Denmark.

Kilts

Smocks

Photographs of Prince Frederick IX show him playing croquet in a white dress and smock in 1904. This is an interesting image because European royalty was not often photographed in smocks. HBC is not sure whether this was because princes did not commonly wear smocks or because they were considered to informal a garment in which to be photographed. HBC is unsure to what extent other Dutch boys from more humble circumstances wore smocks. Danish boys during the 1920s wore smocks. We note boys from the prosperous Bohr family wearing smocks. We are not sure if they were for home or school.

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Created: August 11, 2002
Last updated: May 9, 2004