Figure 1.--Victoria and Albert and their young family are pictured here is this famed Winterhalter work. The fashions selected by Victoria for their young brood had an enormous and enduring impact on children's fashions for generations. |
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English clothing styles have had a major impact in setting boys' fashions. France is generally regarded as a major fashion center, but this is primarily women's fashions. Until the 1960s when America fashions began to dominate worldwide, it was British fashions that were the most influential. Many of the major styles worn by boys in the 19th and early 20th century originated in Britain: sailor suits, kilts, Eton suits, Norfolk suits, and blazers and short pants suit originated in Britain. The Fauntleroy suit also has partial English origins as the author of the book was born and raised in England. France had a major impact on fashions, especially during the Reagency period, but it has been British styles that dominated boys' fashions until American casual "T" shirts and jeans began to replace the more formal British look.
England is of course just one part or country of the United Kingdom, albeit by far the largest, which includes Scotland, Ulster, and Wales and formerly Ireland. The historical relations bewtween these countries of the British Isles is quite complex and beyond the focus of our study here. The English to a large degree imposed their cultural on the neighboring countries which is reflected in perhaps the most powerful cultural element of all--language. English is now spoken throughout the British isles. We do mention the history of the different countries of the U.K. briefy to acquaint the reader with the fact that there remain substantial social and cultural differences between the different parts of the U.K. which to an extent have been reflected in clothing and fashion. As a result, there are some separate HBC pages. American and other non-British readers often confuse the term English and British. The term British is not synonamous with English, but of course the nationality term used for all the people of the United Kingdom.
Special boys fashions did not exist for most of the millenium. Little boys and girls were dressed alike in dresses until at about 5 or 6 they were dressed in small versions of adult clothing. It was
not until the mid-18th century that clothes especially fashioned for
children began to appear. The first such style was the sailor suit worn with the long bell bottom trousers of the British sailor. The fashion of children's clothes did not become firmly established until the later period of the 18th century with the popularity of French Regency fashion. British fashions for boys emerged in the mid-19th century. One of the major forces in setting the classic boys' styles was Queen Victoria and her children. The fashions chosen by the young Queen had an enormous impact on British styles. These fashions, however, soon spread throuought Europe and on to America. The great influence of Queen Victoria was magnified by the mairages of the Queen's children and grandchildren until by the turn of the century Victoria was in fact the grandmother of Europe. Courts throughout the continent were influenced by her tastes and the population in those countries by the fashions set by the various royal families. Few families have ever had such a great influence on children's clothing.
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Modern specialized boys styles in many way began in England during the late 18th century. European and American boys' styles were largely determined in England and to a lesser extent France during the 19th century. Major fashions such as sailor suits, kilts, Eton suits, Norfolk jackets, short pants, and others were all English creations. English styles continued to be important until after World War II (1939-45) when American fashions began the globilization of boys' fashions.
England has had a greater impact on boys' garments than any other country. Important boys' garments and styles developed in England. The prestige and importance of the English monarchy may well have played a major role here. An English monarch, Queen Victoria, popularized the Scottish kilt for boys. She also made the sailor suit into a boys' staple throughout Europe and North America. Other major boys' suit types like the Eton and Norfolk suit developed in England. English boys have worn kneepants, short pants, knickers, and long pants, although the chronology is somewhat different than in America. Some garments like short pants became almost associated with English boys--although they are not now commonly worn in England except during the summer and at a few schools. Boys coats around the world have been grearly influenced by English styles. Sweaters have been very popular in the often chilly English climate. Many important sweater types first appeared in England. Knee socks were commnly worn year round for school, play, leasure events, and formal wear. Sandals were more popular in England than any county and became a school staple.
Several major styles of clothes have been worn by British boys. These styles have varied over time, but some like sailor and Eton suits have endured for extended periods. The English contribution to children's fashions seem on the whole essentially durable and often informal. Although there have been period when British boys wore elaborate outfits, generally Englisg stykles have been unfussy. The tailoring widely admired for men's suits was eventually also adapted for boys' suits.
The origins of the boys' sailor suit or vague. Apparently it was in England during the first quarter of the 19th century when someone had the inspiration that boys should wear sailors' trousers. (Some sources
suggest an even earlier appearance of the sailor suit as
boys' atire, but as yet I cannot confirm that.) It is not known who first coceived of the idea. It is known with certainty, however, who popularized it. It was Queen Victoria who began to dress the young princes in sailor suits during the 1840s. The 5-year old
Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) was not the first English boy to wear a sailor suit. It was, however, when in 1846 the prince's portrait was painted onboard the royal yacht during the Queen's visit to Ireland that the sailor suit began to attract the interest of English mothers and eventually mothers around the world. The prince wore a scaled down version of a real Royal Navy uniform. The uniform was arefully chosen to be an enlisted man's sailor suit. This can not have been an acident. It was almost certainly a carefully chosen decision calculated to give a favorable
impression of the monarchy to the British people. Unfortunately HBC does not yet have details on precisely how the uniform was selected.
Fauntleroy suits were widely worn in England, but I believe the style was less popular for working-class families than was the case of America. In adiition, the convention of sending boys off to boarding prep schools at about 8 years of age was becoming established in the 1880s--the same time of the Fauntleroy craze. Few boys after they left for their prep schools would condescend to wear Fauntleroy suits when they came home. There also were some stylistic differences. Wide brimmed sailor hats were less common as were runglet curls. One major difference is that English boys less commonly wore the huge bow tied in ekegant classic bows. English suits often had knicker pants and the boys did not often wear the boot-like high button shoes. Rarher English boys more commonly wore patent leather shoes like pumps, strap shoes, and buckle shoes even before the turn of the century.
It was in England that the Eton suit was created in the late 19th century and it was in England that the Eton suit reached its greatest popularity. For two generations a well dressed English boy was expected to wear an Eton suit for formal occasions. Many boys also wore them as a school uniform. The characteristically short jackets have been worn with a variety of pants.
The tradition of school uniforms developed at Britain's elite private schools, in typical British fashion referred to as public schools. Children at the country's developing state school system generally did not wear uniforms during the late 19th and 20th century. Britain was late to provide a free public education to children. Some European countries, especially the Germans had a much more extensive public school system. Britain had a great variety of state and charity schools for those who could not afford a private education. Children at these schools wore a variety of clothes.
Baden Powell's Scout movement in the 1900s played an important role in popularizing short trousers with English boys. Shorts trousers in fact became a symbol of English and eventually world scouting. The entire topic of Scout uniforms is addressed in the HBC Historic Boys Uniform satellite site.
Children's clothing, especially boys clothing, was for much of the 20th century rather drab. Colored garments were not unknown in the early 20th century, especially for younger children. For the most part, however, we see rather drab colors being worn. The only colour at school was ties, sock tops - and blazer/cap badges - for posher schools blazers would be coloured. A British writer in the 1960s remembers mostly grey school clothes. He writes, "Most of my school clothes were grey, although I had a blue blazer. A friend attending a R.C. state primary had a fancy blue and gold blazer and they had trimming on the jumper too. His primary school and mine were considered the best R.C. and C. of E. respectively primaries in the district so there may have been a bit of religious rivalry about who had the best uniform. Mostly we wore grey items." Outside of school there was more colour - bright t-shirts and so on but even then our cords were always grey, blue,green and brown and never a bright shade and the cotton shorts that my brother preferred were similar colours. Socks were always grey or khaki. Even plastic macs were always grey. Colored garments seemed to come in later, the late 60s/early 70s.
Short hair cuts appear to have become standard for English boys by the turn of the 19th century. Younger boys might be kept by their mothers in curls. Boys educated at home might be kept in long hair, if their mothers thought that stylish. The ringlet curls American boys wore in the late 19th century were less common in Britain. Boys would have their hair cut short before being sent off to school. Short back and sides were a common hair cut at English private schools. Some styles such as the British short back and sides were worn in many countries, although we often do not know what it was called in different countries. Acailable infirmarion on numerous individual boys provide a good overview on British hair styles.
Here we will follow family fashions over time. HBC has decided to also gather information on entire families. One of the limitations of HBC is that too oftn we just view boys' clothing in contex with what the rest of the family was wearng. This will help to compare boys' clothing with that worn by mothers, fathers, and sisters. These images will help show show differences in both age and gender appropriate clothing. Much of the photographic evidence here is very stiff formal portraits. This provides important evidence as to the formal clothes worn by English families. The photographic technolgy of the 19th century limit the ability to take candid portrits of family life. The many chilftrn's books and periodical publications provide many wnderful images of family life, although almost always comfortable middle class families.
HBC has collected information on a variety of activities in which English boys have participated in over time. Many of these activiities involve specialized costumes. Often the children. however, just wore their ordinary clothes. The available images thus show trends in English boys' clothing over time. The activities include choir, choir, dance, games, religious observation, school, sport, and many others. Some of these images are interesting because they depict life-style information in addition to fashion.
The literature on English orphanages and work houses is legion. Of course most of our concept of English orphanges comes to us from the bleak descrioptions Charles Dickens provides in Oliver Twist. As bad as conditions were in 19th century English institutions, it should be remembered that these were some of the first attempts to deal with the problems of poverty. The Victorians viewd these efforts as Christian charity. Other strongly held Victorian values resulted in the creation of institutions that were in
fact as bleak as Dickens described. Many Victorians saw poverty as a lack of effort and a result of a flawed character. Others felt that it was more charitable not to intervene and that Government action would simply foster a debter class that would create even more indigents.
The regions of the country as a whole are covered under the United Kingdom. But England itself has several different regions such as Corwall, Devon, Kent, Lancaster, Norfolk, Surrey, Yorkshire, and other regions. We have just begun to collect information on these differet counties. The speaking of Corish died out in the 18th century, but there is some attempt to teach a little in the schools. Many Amerucans were introduced to Yorkshire by the marvelous James Herriot books and TV programs. One HBC reader has provided us some images from his Lancaster village.
English artists perhaps do not have the same stature as some of their cross channel rivals--the French. This is perhaps the French impressionists are today so imprtant a part of our artistic mind set. Certainly English painting was eclipsed by the explosion of impresionistic art in France during the 19th century. There is one areas, however, in which the English were unrivaled and that is portriture in the 18th and early 19th century. The work of Gainborough, Lawrence, Reynolds, and others provide us with some of the most magnificent portraits ever executed. Even landscapist master Constable contrubuted at least one marvelous portrait. The English are also noted for their watercolors, but
these tended to focus less on portriture. These masterful portraits of course provide an invaluable record of fashion trends.
England had an important film industry before being eclipsed by Hollywood. English films are generally better known to Americans than most other foreign films, priarilybof course
because they were made in English. Clothing styles, especially Eton Collars, at the turn of
the 20th century are shown in How Green is My Valley (1941), even though it is about Wales. Clothes during the 1930s are depicted in Lassie Come Home. English school boy clothes during the early 1940s can be seen in Hope and Glory (1985?). The short pants suits worn even in secondary schools during the 1960s can be seen in Kiperbang (1980?). HBC believes that English films were more carefully costumed, at least the children, than on the Continent. Ths is, however, only an initial assessmemt. The English have also produce some wonderful child actors, many of whom moved to America to make films in Hollywood. Thus some important films about England were made in America.
There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references are those in contemprary works. There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature. Of special interest to HBC is the large number of boy characters in British literature. Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating literature.
English mail order catalogs and periodical advertisements help to illustrate destinctive English clothing styles and changes over time in those styles. English mail order catalogs offer a great deal of information on specific clothing styles worn over time. As many of the catalogs are dated, they provide useful information on importan fashion trends. English mail order and other retail catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. I am not sure precisely when these catalogs first appeared in England. IOt appears to be after the United States as merchants and consumers were not separated by long distances as was the case in America. HBC is also collecting information on individual stores and retailers. We had originally conceived of separate sections for mailorder and regular stores. We have since reassess this decission and decided to combine this information. Tis allows us to use the information to better assess fashion trends over time. Our information on English stores is still very limited at this time. Some of the most important chain stores carrying boys clothing is Brithish Home Stores and Marks and Spencers. There have been other smaller chains. One HBC reader has porovided us a copy of the Colts catalog. Colts was a store operating in England and other European countries during the 1960s and 70. There are also local boys' and menswear reatilers. These stores often stock the uniforms for local stores. We do not yet have information on mailorder companies. We also would like to add information on manufacturers, but have very limited information at this time.
English researchers made some of the most important discoveries which led to modern photography. It was English scholar and resaearcher William Henry Fox Talbott that first fixed an image on paper (1834). He does not, however, seem to have told anyone. Talbot was a classical scholar and amateur scientist of independent means and saw no need or inclination to either publicize his achievement or develop a commercial application. He apparently did not even tell his mother untilmafter Daguerre began publicizing his accomplishments (1839). She was apparently furious with him. And after Tabot began showing his images, he called them calotypes, using the Greek word "kalos" meaning beautiful. This showed his roots as a clasical scholar and lack of interest in self promotion. The resut of course is Daguerre is generally seen in the public mind and only a few historians have ever heard of Talbot. Daguere's process using metal plates was in fact a commercial dead end although the Daguerreotype was a commercial success in the 1840s. . It would be Talbot's process which used a negative that would until the digital age be the basis for modern photography. Talbot worked to improved his process in the 1840s. Frederick Scott Archer (1813-57) in England invented the photographic collodion process which preceded the modern gelatin emulsion. The initial result ambrotype which used this process. This esentially ended the commercial potential of the calotype. Professional studios quickly adopted the collodion process. Interestingly, upperclass amateurs, often from thelanded gentry, continued to dable with caloptypes. Thus mny of these images are scenes of the countryside, but rarely of the rising industrial cities.
France
Some interesting details are available on specific families as well
as articles from fashion magazines. We have also added some historical accounts as well as published memoirs. English readers are encouraged to provide HBC information about their personal experiences or historical accounts with which they are familiar. These personal accounts add graetly to the other informnation HBC has garnered from fashion magazines, catalogs, and available images. Often the personal perspective is not avialable from these other sources. Thus these personal accounts are a very important part of HBC.
Some other interesting web sites have information on English boys
clothing:
British prep schools: Prep school uniforms in the 1980s
English boys clothing:The 1930s-90s
School Uniform Web Site: Informative review of British school uniforms with some excellent photographs
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