Figure 1.--This child wears a dress, but it is styled like a kilt suit. All we know for sure is that the portrait was taken in New York City. We are not sure about the date, but would guess the 1880s. The mount was green with gilded lettering. We think the child is a boy. If he was wearing a kilt suit we would be positive. There is some doubt, however, as both boys and girls wore kilt suit styled dresses.

Some dresses were made to look rather like a kilt suit. These were one piece garments rather than the two- or three- piece kilt suits. These were generally worn by younger boys, although there was some overlap. At times it is not always possible to destinguish kilt-suit drssses from actual kilt suits. Gender is also a factor here. Whikle girls did not normally wear kilt suits, they might wear kilt-suit dresses. We are not entirely sure why a mother would choose a dress that looked like a kilr suit rather than a kilt suit itself. I supose a one-piece garment is easier to put on, simplifying the dressing operaion in the morning. Presumably there are other reasons as well. One aspect of kilt suit dresses is that girls some times sore them while it was relatively rare to see girls wearing actual kilt suits.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main Kilt suit type page]
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[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance] [Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 5:12 AM 1/25/2008
Last updated: 5:12 AM 1/25/2008