Figure 1.--Here we see brothers from Elmira, New York, we believe in the 1890s. The younger boy wears a dress and the older boy a kilt suit. They are coordinated by both being done in white. Put your cursor on the image to see a closeup.

Many of the trends associated with skirted garments were similar throughout Europe and North America. Much of our information is American because we have the greatest access to American sources and photographs. We have, however, begun to develop information on several other countries as well. We do note some variation among countries. While the same basic garments were worn throughout Europe and North America. The convention of dressing boys in skirted dresses varies in prevalence in different countries. The different skirted garments varied in popularity among countries as well as sytling variations. There were also differences in the tine line. We are just beginning to assess these country variations. We now have pages assessing national trends in several countries.

America

American boys like boys in other countries have worn a variety of skirted garments. The conventions involved was essentially brought to America by European immigrants. Thus fashion trends in Britain, Ireland, and Germany were especially important. There were substantial differences among families as to the conventions. Social class was an important influence. The styles and conventions involved have varied over time. It was very common for younger boys to werars dresses and other skirted garmens. The skirted garments have inclided dresses, skirts, kilts, and tunics as well as smocks and pinafores. For many years the styles worn by boys and girls were essentially identical, but in the late 19th century you begin to see boy-styled dresses. Boys still wore these garments in the late 19th century, but they rapidly went out of fashion after the turn of the 20th century and were no longer commonly seen after World War I. Dresses disappered first. Tunics were worn a lottlke longer. It is not entirely clear why a convention that persisted for so many years disappeared so quickly. The garment that persisted the longest was the tunic. Kilts are occassionally worn, but primarily at ethnic events like Scottish Highland gatterings, Irish feishes, and Greek celebrations.

Australia

Belgium

Belgian boys like other European boys have worn a wide range of skirted garments. We see the same kinds of skirted garments that we have noted in other countries. The convention of boys wearing dresses was a fashion that declined rapidly after the turn-of-the 20th century. Thus it was a convention primarily prevalent in the 19th centry and before. Our archive of 19th century Belgian images, however, is very limited. Thus we are just beginning to develop information on skirted garments in Belgium. The principal skirted garment was the dress. Younger Belgian boys, as in the rest of Europe, wore dresses well into the 20th century. HBC has noted two different types of dress outfits. One our full dresses indestinguishable from the dresses their sisters wore. In fact they may have worn hand-me-downs from an older sister or other relative. The styles generally followed those worn by women, but in reduced styles. We also see some boys wearing kilt-skitty garmenrs. We are unsure how common this was. Tunics were also worn. Tunics were a very popular style during the 19th century. We have little information as to when they appeared in Belgium, but believe it was early in the century. We are also not sure where they first appeared, but probably in England and France. We do know that by mid-century they were being widely worn, although we do not know to what extent working-class boys were wearing them. We also notice boys wearing smocks, but this seems to have been primarily a scgool garment. Girls wore pinafores. We are not sure, however, about boys.

Canada

Figure 2.--This CDV portrait show Michael Cahne Seymour. He had his portrait taken at the Hills & Saunders studio in Eton during 1871. He wears a simple white frock with ringlet curls.

England

English boys have worn a variety of shkirted garments. These garments have included dresses, kilts, pinafores, skirts, smocks, and tunics. These garments are generally associated with girls, but the situation in England is more complicated. They were, however, widely worn by boys, especially younger boys. Younger English boys for several centuries wore dresses. They were essentially the same garments as their sisters worn, although we do begin to see stylistic differences in the later half of the 19th century. We also see boys wearing smocks, although not as commonly as in France accross the Channel. Despite the association with girls, two skirted garments are strictly male garments. Tunics were for boy, but kilts were worn by males of all ages. Kilts were of course Scottish, but we see English boys dressed up in kilt outfits for special occassions. This ocuured mostly in the 19th and very early 20th century. A kilt knockoff was the kilt suit which appeared in the second half of the 19th century. This was essentially a skirted suit, but often called a kilt suit. It was worn by younger boys before breeching.

France

French boys like boys all over Europe wore a variety of skirted garments. The styles and conventions varies among countries, but the basic harments were the same. The most common was the dresses that younger boys wore throug the 19th century. This becamne less common in the lare-19th and early 20-th century. The custom virtually disappeared afer World War I. Tunics appeared in the early-19th century were popular throughout the century and the very early 20h century. during the 19th and early-20th century. Unlike dresses, tunics were a skirted garment only worn by French boys. We see a few boys weaing kiklts, but not as commoly as in Britain. Kilts were most common among the wealthy class that liked to adopt foreign styles. Kilt suits were also not very common, as best we can tell--our 19th century French archive is still relatively limited.One skirted garment strongly associated with France is the smock, especiall the school smock. We think younger boys wore pinafores, mostly in the 19th century.

Figure 3.--This unidentified German boy was photographed by L. Otto Webber in Meiningen about 1900. Je wears a wide-brimmed sailor hat with a sailor-styled dress.

Germany

We note German boys like boys in other European countries wore a variety of skirted garments. We do not notice a great deal of difference between Germany and the rest of Europe in the early 19th century, although there may have been variations among the different states that made up Germany at the time. We do notice some differences in the late 19th century. We seem to note fewer German boys wearing dresses than in other European countries. Kilts do not seem to have been commonly worn. We do note German boys wearing tunics at the turn of the 20th century. Our information is still limited. We have begun to collect information on the different kinds of skirted garments. We have also begun to adress breeching and other aspects of boys wearing wearing skirted garments. The reasons appear similar to other countries.

Italy

Netherlands

We see Dutch boys wear a variety of skirted garments. Younger Dutch boys like other European boys for several centuries commonly wore dresses for several years before they were breeched and began to wear trousers like their fathers. HBC at this time has little information about this parctice in the Netherlands. Available imagesm however, provide some information on the styles of dresses worn over time. As in the rest of Europe, this practice began to decline after the turn of the 20th century. HBC has little information about Dutch boys wearing smocks. We do not believe that they were as common as in some neighboring Belgium. Some images from the turn of the century do show Dutch boys wearing pinafore-like smocks. A Dutch source reports that boys did wear smocks, but not as a part of the school clothing like in France/Spain/Italy. Smocks are called "boerenkiel" (kiel=smock for boeren=peasants) and were common in rural areas until about the mid-1930s. Smocks declined in popularity in the 1940s and especially the 1950s. By the late 1950s they were only being worn by younger boys.

Poland

Russia

Spain

Created: 2:45 AM 10/22/2008
Last updated: 11:58 PM 7/12/2009