Figure 1.--This American blue kilt suit was probably worn in the 1880s. This suit did not have a vest. Many did. This looks like a light-weight material for summer wear. |
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As so much useful information can be gleaned from vintage clothing, we have included many vintage garments along with period photographs on our HBC pages. These are both valuable historical artifacts with a great deal of useful information. Often details about clothing such as material, color, pockets, contriction, ect. can not be readily observed in available historical photographs. Thus detailed images of vintage clothing can add greatly to our understanding of the wide range of garments accessed on HBC. We are slowly building a useful archive of a wide range of different garments. We began adding vintage clothing images to HBC before we created this vintage clothing page. Thus it will be some time before we have all the vintage clothing pages and images linked to this page.
Headwear used to be more important than is the case today. Vhildren commonly wore hats and caps in the 19th and early-20th centuries. We have archived a few vintage headwear items. Boys in the 19th century commonly wore rounded crown hats. Most boys wore plain unadorned hats. Younger boys not yet breeched might wear a decorated hat. An example is a natural straw boys rounded crown hat. It has ruched ivory ribbon and feather trim. It was worn by Charles P. Vogel (1894-1959) at the turn of the 20th century. Sailor-styled headwear was an especially important for children's fashions during the late-19th century and early-20th century. We have archived a saucer-type sailor cap. It is a French sailor cap with a Normandie tally. An important boy's cap style, especially in America was the flat cap in the early 20th century. We note a classic American flat cap from the 1920s.
Both girls and little boys wire dresses in the 19th century. Here we have archived a range of vintage dresses. The problem with dresses is that unless the name of the child that wore that is known, it is difficult to tell if it was for a boy or girl. This is a problem we continually face when assessing unidentified 19th century photographs. A Vintage clothing dealer tells us that a red Victorian child's dress (girl or boy) was found with other clothing that dates back to 1870- 1880. We also note a white dress worn by American boy James Cromwell in 1879. We also notice a sailor dress which a dealer is convinced was a 1890s boy dress, but we are not positice about this.
Kilts are today a type of ethnic clothing. They were in the late 19th century, however, a major suit style for younger boys. These kilt suits were very commonly worn un Britain and America. The jacket was styled like a regular suit jacket and often worn with vests. The boy, however, wore a kilted skirt rather than trousers. The kilt skirt was commonly longer than the traditgional Scottish kilt that the fashion was loosely based on. The material was both solid colors as well as muted plads. A good example is an American blue kilt suit probably worn in the 1880s (figure 1).
Tunic outfits were commonly worn by American and European boys during the 19th and early 20th century. We refer to them as tunic suits, but in America they wee also called bloomer suits. Most surviving tunics suits are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when tunic suits were common, especially for pre-school boys and boys just beginning school. There were many different styles. The most popular were sailor, Buster Brown, and Russian blouse. Many of the tunic suits were rather plain, play garments, but there were also dress suits, often with fancy trim.
We have information on both Fauntleroy blouses and suits. These actual garments provide information on material, color, construction, embroidery, manucturer, and a host of other details. Some readers have kindly provided us information about the garments in their collections. Some information is also available from internet and other auctions.
Blouses wee commonly worn by both boys and girls in the late 19th and early 20th century. We have begun to collect some samples. A reader has noted a Civil War era boy's white puffed-sleeve blouse. We also have found a turn of the 20th century child's stripped blouse. A dealer believes it may have been a boy's blouse, we suspect it was more likely for a girl.
Shirts are the major type of tops boys have worn with pants. Blouses were very common in the 19th cntury, but since the early 20th century, boys have mostly worn shirts. Boys have worn shirtwaists without collars, but in the 20th century shirts with collars have been the standard for boys. The primary variation in shirts has been the collars. We note a striped shirt from the 1890s with a large collar. Some have been quite large, although after World War I shirt collars have been of modest size. We also notice short-sleeve shirts or the first time after World War I.
Rompers were a very important garment for younger children beginning in the 1910s. The time line and conventions varied from country to country. Romperts in America were worn by both boys and girls in America, but were for many years an exclusively boy's garment in France. We have used rompers to mean the puffed pants outfits, but catalogs and advertisements used the term much more widely. The first rompers we noted in America were a play garment, but in France dressy romper outfits also appeared. We have noted quite a range of styles for the romper suits.
The saiolor suit was among the most popular outfits for boys. We have acquired images of several vintage sailor suts to HBC, but we are not precisely sure where all of them are archived at this time. We have noted a linnen sailor tunic worn at the turn of the 20th century by an American boy. We have found one middy blouse. We also have information on German sailor suits. We have very little chronological information on these suits, but have had tgo estimate how old they are. Many sailor suits were play or casual garments. They were, however, flexible styles in that they were also acceptable for dressier occassions. Other sailot suits were made expressedly for more formal occassions. We note, for example, velvet sailor suits.
We have noted the variety of school smocks worn in France during the 1950s.
We notice a wide range of play suits for younger boys. These seem to have been very popular during the inter-Wars period of the 1920s and 30s. Most were done with short pants. They seemed to have gradually replaced tunic suits. Gradually they evolved into shorts sets which became popular in the 1930s. A good example of a boy's play suit is a Tom Sawyer button-on play suit which probably dates to the 1920s.
Several vintage suits have been archived on HBC. We do not have many items from the 18th century. One exception is what looks like an 18th century suit jacket. We have much mote from the 19th century, mostly the late 19th century. We have found what looks like We have found more juvenile suits than youth suits. One exmple is a red velvet suit for a little boy. We note several kneespants suits. Some were styled like modern sack suits while others had a more dated look. We also notice some three-piece suits, now not very common for boys. The three-piece suit meant a suit with a vest. We have also archived some vests separately. We note one wool vest, but am not sure about the date.
A HBC French reader sent us an image of short pants he wore as a boy in 1951 showing the importance of creases at the time.
We note American preppy short pants in the 2000s.
We note some wool knickers worn by an American boy, probably in the 1920s.
We have a limited number of cold weather items archieved here. We note a Sears Uvanttear sailor-styled overcoat worn with a tunic suit. We also note a pair of leather leggings from Canada. We also have a Sears leather jacket from 1961.
We have not noted many offerings for school uniforms on E-bay where collectors contributing to HBC find many vintage clothing items. This is probably becase most items listed on E-bay are American and American students until recently have not normally worn uniforms. We have noted a number of British school items are school garments from related British Empire countries where British school styles were also worn. . We have archived a Soviet boy's school uniform from the 1980s. We have also archived a Soviet girl's school uniform. It came from the Ukraine, but the same uniform was worn throughout the Soviet Union. It is not dated, but probably was worn in the 1980s.
Military uniforms have been a major influence for both mens' and boys' clothes abnd have even influenced women's fashions. Of course the best example here is sailor headwear and suits, but there are many other examples. One particularly interesting uniform style is the 19th century French Zouave uniform.
We have one ethnic outfit. It is a Scottish Higland outfit, apparently made for an American boy, but made in London. It was amilitarily-styled velvet outfit, but curiously it has kneepants rather than a kilt.
The petticoat is a girl's undergarment worn under a skirt or dress. The term pettiskirt is also used, but not as commonly. I'm not sure of the derivation of the term. Iwould guess the petti means small and thus a small coat. The term first appeared in the English language in the late-14th century. The basic meaning is an underakirt, but is often used to mean one that is cull full using a decorative fabric and trimmed with lace and or ruffles. While essentially a girl's garment. They were worn by yopunger boys not yet nreeched. An examole is a decorative half petticoat slip, probably dating to the late 19th century.
Vintage undewear is often the rarest type of vintage clothes, especilly before the 20th century. This is probably they were more soiled than other garments and had lottle sentimental value. We note both underwear and support garments. We have only limited underwear items in our vintage clothing archive. Underwear were garments that were especially likely to be discarded. Underwear could be quite complicated in the late 19h and early 20th century. Images of actual vintage underwear adds to the informaton we have collected in the catalog section. We note what looks like an underwaist dating from the early 20th century. One readers has sent us an image of a nainsook suit which was worn by American children in the 1930s. We note short-leg long johns which look to date to the 1930s.
We have found more support garments than underwear. There were several different types of support garments. These garments became very common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were used to both hold up long stockings and pants. They were also advertised as having value for posture. They garments were especially common in America. We note what looks like an underwaist dating from the early 20th century. One readers has sent us an image of a nainsook suit which was worn by American children in the 1930s. We also note a German World War I paper-fabric Leibchen which was a kind of stocking supporter. We note a cloth Leibchen a few decades later in the 1940s or early 50s. Many of these stocking support garments are American. Long stoclings were widely worn in both America and Europe, but the Europeans were more likely to use make shift arrangements rather than store-bought stocking supporter garments.
We have only a few vintage hosiery items. Hosiery tended not to survive as well as many other types of clothing. Like other grments, the popularity f hosiery types have varied over time and from country to coutry. Here climate was a factor. One vintage hosiery item on HBC is an American pair of Buster Brown long stockings, probably from the 1930s. Busten Brown was a major shoe company and for a while an important hosiery company. We also have archived a Canadian pair of brown long stockings from the 1940s. Long stockings were especially common in Germany. We also have archived German long stockings which had a button attachment, probably from the 1940s. We also notice ribbed, brown long stockings sold in Germany during 1952. After the early 1950s, long stocings began to decline rapidly in popularity in Germany. They had already gome out of fashion in America.
Often in old photographs we can not make out the details of footwear the children are wearing. Thus vitage footwear helps us see the details of the footwear. This is especially important in assessing 19th century footwear as the photographs are all black and white and we do not have the detailed catalogs that we have in the 20th century. We have quite a few examples of vintage footwear archived on HBC. Many have been added before we made the vintage clothing page. Thus the links still need to be made. We note English school sandals. We also have an old high pair of American high-top two-tone shoes for a very young child. Another pair of American high-top shoes show how colors was used. This of course does not show in the vintage black and white photography. We believe these could have been worn by both boys and girls.
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